Environment Artist
I find really satisfying to create scenes from scratch and step by step turn it into something that can be part of a real world or may look like it is a real place. Therefore, I think the role of Environment Artist would be a good option for me when trying to find a job in the VFX industry.
I consider that a video game company such as Frontier, it would be a good start point for this role as they look for realistic landscapes, but they do not require the grade of detail that the film industry usually demands. However, since I overall enjoy the most photorealistic models of environments following a steampunk, cyberpunk, art nouveau styles, or even futuristic sci-fi space or 80’s neon aesthetics, my main goal is to one day make it to a good VFX company that focuses on the filmmaking of movies with these styles.
Researching about the role’s characteristics, I found that the environment artists are required when the actual environment is too difficult or impossible to film in real life (e.g. post-apocalyptic cities, a space environment, a completely different world, etc). The brief starts with a 2D or 3D digital art made by concept artists to be taken as a reference material (it could also be photographs of similar places or sketches). Then the environment artist would create the ‘wireframe’ or mesh of the landscape to then sculpt the different characteristics of the scene to make it as accurate and realistic as possible to what is fitting. Once the model is done, in big companies where these roles are more specialised, this is passed on to the texturing artist to add texture and make the surfaces look realistic, but in smaller companies, environment artists can be doing both modelling and texturing or even lighting the scene.
What I like from modelling overall is the fact that it can be made from a studio as an internal employee, or as a freelancer. I think that to start in a studio as an internal employee would give me a bit more stability and security at the beginning of my career, as well as being an opportunity to see how more experienced people do the job and take some useful tips from them.
I also found two example videos in YouTube that shows examples of the role of an environment artist in a video game and in a film.
In the first example below, it shows how for video games the environments are modelled from scratched, textured, and layered later with the objects and characters of the scene. They also must set colliders on each object or component of the environment so the character that is being used by the player interacts with the scene. Despite with the years, the game industry has been becoming more realistic following the development of new and more powerful software, it still does not reach the photorealism of films. It the game design it is needed a balance between immersive design and fluid gameplay, so it is difficult to be perfectly photorealistic.
The second example below shows an environment reel made by MPC artists. It is visible that the environments are not 100% modelled and they are a mixture of green/blue screen, modelling, texturing, environment shots from other places (rotoscoped), and colour correction. It is a more difficult task in my opinion but it has a more satisfying result.
References
Framestore (2023). Blade Runner 2049: Art Department (online). Available at: https://www.framestore.com/work/blade-runner-2049-art-department?language=en [Accessed 10 February 2023]
InspirationTuts (2022). Video Game Environment Artist Job (online). Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Opn3mhFjDyI [Accessed 10 February 2023]
MPC (2021). MPC Film Environment Reel (online). Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=47GcYCoBHpw [Accessed 10 February 2023]
Thacker, J (2016). Behind the scenes: the concept art of The Expanse (online). Available at: https://magazine.artstation.com/2016/02/scenes-concept-art-expanse/ [Accessed 10 February 2023]