Today I have gotten through half of the course on Becoming an Environment Artist in Unreal. Most of the topics covered so far I already know, but this is the first course that actually talked about what it meant to do or have a specific job. In the case of this course, it talked about the duties, responsibilities, and expectations of the Env Artist. Again it points out that most games will be developed by a team; another reminder that I am slightly crazy.
The course showed the common naming conventions, practices, file and folder structuring, and importing options from Maya and Photoshop. Unfortunately, I don’t have Maya or Photoshop, so I did my best to take notes of the crucial settings, such as setting the layers on a texture to different colors of the RGB. It is fascinating how much detail goes into a material. Even if I see how it works, the power of the technology and optimization still amazes me.
Games with larger teams will have people with more specific talents and duties. Some people will be designated to trees, and those trees will be amazing. In my case, I have to spread out my knowledge and keep things simple. Understanding all of this is very important, though. There are small things I am just learning, such as how to snap an object back to the grid in Unreal.
While I probably won’t be making any of my own custom textures any time soon, a lot of this may be useful in the future if I do feel the need to edit or create simple textures. Optimistically if I do end up working in on another game with a team of people, any knowledge I have can be helpful.
There is still more of the course to finish, then I will see what I can apply to the game.
GoldenGratus Games 