Those "OTHER" art jobs in the game industry

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Everyone wants to be the quarterback, the front man, the rockstar character designer at a game studio. But there are many art jobs that are more rewarding, pay better and are easier to apply for! Here's a breakdown of some of the "other" art jobs at a game studio.
Games I've worked on -
Fortnite (Environment concept art)
Overwatch (Environment concept art + Sprays artwork)
League of Legends (Character design + Environment concept art)
Diablo 3 (Character design + Environment concept art)
Hearthstone (Illustration)
Burning Crusade(Character design + Environment concept art)
Wrath of the Lich King (Character design + Environment concept art)
Indivisible (Environment concept art)
Final Fight Streetwise (Voice Acting + Character Design + World Design + Cutscene Direction + Co writer on script)
He Man GBA (Pixel Art)
Terminator 3 GBA (Art Direction + Pixel Art)
Terminator 3 (Art Direction + Pixel art)
CannonBallers (Character + World design)
Ikeda: The Scrap Hunter (Programming + Art + Design)
Goblins and Gnomes (Concept Art)
Books available-
Twilight Monk Secrets of Kung Fulio (2020) - Illustrated Novel
Escape from Giants Crown (2018) - Illustrated Novella
World Of Twilight Monk Vol 1 (2019) Art Book
The Man and the Moonken (2019) - Illustrated Novella
The Beast of Tuksa (2018) - Illustrated Novella
Twilight Monk (2012) - 2 Graphic Novels
Nova Colony (2009) - 1 Graphic Novel
CreeD (1993-2007) - Comic Book Series
Ghost Rider (2000) - Comic Book Series
The Fuzz (1997) - Comic Book

[@Quotablenotables]

Big ones on the other side in animation studios that they're constantly looking for is Lighting and Effects artists and Rigging artists. Have a friend working in studio who had no completed schooling but was brought in as a lighting artist. Some places are desperate for employees interested in these positions and they will train you. They will put the effort into you as long as you show the enthusiasm and desire to learn alongside a base skill set. Just put yourself out there. :D

[@Cacalotlraven]

Quotablenotables I imagine it must be difficult to specialize in those areas?

[@Quotablenotables]

@@Cacalotlraven Lighting probably requires the least knowledge, you use allot of reference and you're given the colour palettes you'll be working with so you don't even have to come up with those yourself you might just have to make adjustments to them based on the time of day, weather, bounce lightning, reflection/refraction, etc. Effects takes a little bit more work/experience but this could also depend on the studio itself, in some cases as far as the effects are concerned you may not even be drawing the linework yourself, it may already be done for you. Rigging requires the most experience but because you're working in studio there are opportunities to develop other skills and learn from other artists between projects and it's one of the more invaluable skills to develop if you want to insulate yourself so you aren't 'expendable' plus provides an avenue into other studios.

[@MintFritter]

How can i "put myself out there" if i live in a country where are no events and i can't meet any artists from studios in real life? Just asking for a tip or something, cuz i can't find a solution on how to introduce myself to right people

[@Quotablenotables]

@@MintFritter That I don't actually know, all of my interactions happened in person because of the way my country is laid out. In Canada for whatever reason the industries are sequined by city. Vancouver is massive for film, Toronto for television and theater, Ottawa for animation and Montreal for game development (obviously there are exceptions but these are where each industry are largest). I suppose your best bet would be following Trents advice in the video and getting your foot in the door in smaller online projects. Develop a portfolio tailored to some of these target able in demand positions.

[@MintFritter]

Thanks)

[@HoloTheDrunk]

"3D modelling is a very easy skill to learn" At least 95% of hobbyist 3D modellers: *pain*

[@SVI_graphics]

yeah xD AAA character artists are feeling the pain right now xD

[@rookstun]

Okay guys so if we want to make a character, press Shift, A to start, and then scroll your mouse wheel sideways at a 70% angle and summon C'thulu by citing the text 3 times exactly at 4AM on a Sunday, and congratulations you made a toe.

[@yhiu92]

easy to learn, but hard to do the real thing

[@JNArnold]

He means easy in the sense that its technical and you are generally not having to create something from nothing, you have a blueprint of what you need to make with concept art. Of course none these jobs for anyone that is coming at this with no experience would qualify as "easy".

[@shneancy220]

even following the tutorials is hard. Just finished making your very first doughnut? You can post it to a special subreddit; it feels like an achievement to make something most people wouldn't even look twice at. Damn it feels like black magic especially when you know what you're doing.

[@Izikmakesart]

This video is overwhelming, depressing , informative and inspiring at the same time.

[@TrentKaniuga]

Hah. I suppose that's how I feel every day. Yeah. That sounds about right.

[@Slouworker]

@@TrentKaniuga I've been doing art stuffs for years as an on-off hobby and every video like this just makes me more depressed

[@niladrisekharbiswas6762]

thats how life works bro...welcome to the reality

[@bjsteg79]

Low competition work = lifelong and regular employment. If you become known as the go-to person for your chosen niche, you can make a living others would kill for. Find satisfaction is doing something well and garnering prestige within that task. People keep telling me to do more commercial graphic work or more mainstream illustration. I've found a niche in technical illustration and have been very happy with the 20+ year career I've built. My rates are about 50% over people in commercial graphics, and my clients are more than happy to hire me because of the quality and professionalism associated with my name & brand.

[@PavusthePug]

That's pretty much the game industry in a nutshell.

[@gracietheamazingperson1200]

one of my first jobs as a concept artist was to draw plants. just plants. it was so incredibly fun to design a bunch of alien plants and so incredibly rewarding to see the pixel artists bring it to life.

[@TrentKaniuga]

I designed a lot of plants for Diablo and League. Had a lot of fun with it. Its therapeutic and creative.

[@Hankyuo]

If you want a recap of the jobs mentioned in the video: - 3D modeler - 2D mobile game artist (icons artist) - Pixel artist - Tech artist - 3D animator - Illustrator (marketing artist, splash artist, box cover artist) - Character skin concept artist - Environment concept artist, world building concept artist - Eyelash artist???

[@Balloonbot]

@lil trol Im a UI artist, and icons aren't stupid - great fun and much harder than it looks. Yes there's also UX flow, layout and visual design, motion graphics and implementation.

[@Pearlflower1]

UI artist is a hard job , detail and management , basicly a concep artist but for interface ,and i mean 2d artist is pretty much ui artist ,cause you have to dip it all anyway !

[@TheKZKAI]

hi

[@TheGrassyou]

3d modeler what a joke its more competitive then illustrations by a 1000% almost everyone in my 3d class wants to be modeler

[@Balloonbot]

@@TheGrassyou Nah, its much easier to get into 3D modelling. They'll take on graduates to do small assets, they always have to be done. There'll only be so many illustrations into a game, and those will be EVERYWHERE - in and out of game, they have to be high quality.

[@d1rus592]

Storyboard artist is very underestimated, Initally i got a lot of those jobs, and I hated it because it was mostly for advertising, and guess what, my drawing skills, anatomy, composition and layout improved so much that I felt bad for not being more positive at the start, now I own a little company in colombia almost fully dedicated to storyboard art. We also work a lot on concept art for animation and advertising, but yeah, never forget storyboard art, its great.

[@juliansanchez9106]

Nunca he escuchado de una compañía por ese estilo en Colombia :O

[@deliverus6856]

i tried to learn blender and i wanted to kick a hole in my pc

[@_sparrowhawk]

Thanks, same here. He mentioned Blender Zbrush Maya and something called 3D Coat.. which one should we learn first?

[@Googelo02]

@@_sparrowhawk depends on what u want to accomplish, but blender is free and easy to use, I use all of them for different purposes.

[@artgeometrix6346]

I had no idea how many different forms of art jobs there were. This is real good and consise content

[@TrentKaniuga]

This just scratches the surface of all of the jobs on a game development team.

[@botsurakuno5134]

20 year later, me: why don't they like my eyelashes portfolio? XD

[@GodActio]

*looks at your colossal income from Second Life* At least secondlife has amazing eyelashes now =3

[@bordeterre5234]

Eyelash designer is too competitive, you have to look into skin-eyelash designer and UI eyelash artist, or even item fake eyelashes artist. 3D eyelashes modeler is in prettyhigh demand right now

[@Hevendemo]

Idk in what context you are talking about but in the fine arts eyelashes are considered cheap

[@nobleani9177]

This taught me way more in 15 minutes than almost a year (the first of two) of college has about what jobs are around in the games industry, the difference between different types of game artwork, portfolio tips, all the stuff that should have been lesson one XD Also, positive reinforcement that it's not all about 3D these days! My tutor literally said I'm not gonna get a job in games if all I want to do is 2D art/designs, so it's nice to hear there's more options out there! Subscribed, thankyou so much!!

[@TrentKaniuga]

There are many jobs for 2d artists in games. Always will be.

[@34disorder84]

"3d modelling is easy" ...excuse me? i mean sure, making a pot or some bench might be considered easy, but not only making a character model is hard, making a *good* character model with nice texturing, proper rigging & weight painting etc. i would consider one of the hardest things in the entire game making workflow

[@TrentKaniuga]

But it's a technical skill. A person can go through 2 years of training to become proficient in modeling enough to be hired. But concept art and painting takes many more years.

[@34disorder84]

Trent Kaniuga imo modelling is as much a technical skill as it is artistic, just being giver reference isn't enough to make a character look good without knowledge of proportions, anatomy etc. also, being a ""decent"" 2D and 3D artist myself, i can say with certainty that being considered a "professional" in both of those fields takes roughly the same amount of time, if not actually *more* on the 3D side. i also don't buy the hiring argument since there are much more people trying to be concept artists than 3D artists, increasing the bar of entry for concept, therefore the two shouldn't be compared.

[@mercai]

Agreed, that was a very low shot at 3D artists at the start. Good 3D art jobs (both Environment or Character) these days require intense technical knowledge, plus ongoing mastery of many software packages (4-7 is totally regular). Modeling, texturing, technical setup of assets for the game - that is a ton of knowledge to acquire. And it has to be updated frequently. New generation of consoles, new software in the pipeline, new company? You always have to update that technical skillset. And then we have the 'ART' side of the job. It's easy, just model from the concept, right? WRONG. Very often, you won't really have quality concept art to work with. Concept Art Department will be focused on the priority things (hero characters and assets, key shots, establishing the mood). Everything else, chances are that you'll have to make do. Working with NO concepts, or a low-quality photobash crap, or quickly kitbashed 3d blockout. You will have to solve 80% of these designs, transform them into things that make sense, while also fitting a long list of technical AND art direction requirements. That is a ton of work, doing it well requires expertise, achieved through years of HARD work, and the learning never stops there. You keep learning new technical knowledge AND improving your Art/Design skillset. Easy, huh ;)

[@jinn2722]

I think what he meant is that 3D replication, and to a degree original creation can be taught but "good" painting/ digital art that is not a direct copy is one of those things you either have or you don't.

[@diadokhoi5722]

@@TrentKaniuga How is your job artistic. All concept artists ever do is steal from other artists and change it up slightly. Best example being valorant. Omen is soo soo soo clearly trying to be fortnites raven it's not even funny.

[@snowman429]

Trent, I would love to know where exactly you've heard that environment concept artists are sought after. I've been trying to tune my portfolio for env. concept art for years and I never ever seen an env. concept artist job posting, and whenever I asked someone about that position they didn't know what I was talking about.

[@hinamiravenroot7162]

commenting so he sees it

[@loana1861]

@@hinamiravenroot7162 commenting as well

[@cyan7776]

.

[@maYTeus]

Commenting

[@st.michaelthearchangel7774]

Thumbing up and commenting, so he sees it. :p

[@mintgreen5614]

im getting the feeling that i mey be the only artist out there that doesnt like character design. props landscapes and creature design are just more fun. dont crucify me please.

[@akizaizayoi4763]

Me, not that I don't like character design. Just that I find it easier to do 3D modeling especially 3D modeling furnitures, items, structures, etc. Also since there are a lot of really great character designers out there that it's quite hard to compete and my character designs would easily get negative criticisms.

[@sunnyfridayb3691]

I feel that landscapes are fun to make it's amazing how much information can be put into an image in a 2 hour period

[@JennJurassic]

I also like creature design, and it's sad it often goes overlooked (unless pokemon is in involved). Its two very different things between making a human vs making a dragon (and all possible variations besides just european). There is so much more freedom and also a MUCH wider pool for reference, literally NOTHING can't be used. You can make something unworldly by turning a rushing river into a giant water snake, or you could make something simple like a saber toothed pig, heck even just make something that exists and watch people say its imaginary (aka, the numbat or bilby. austriala has some of the best reference animals lol).

[@CptBlaueWolke]

Creatures are also characters

[@elizabethk8162]

I feel this so hard, environments are my favorite though i do props/creatures for fun

[@MosaicSplash]

People just gotta get over the fear and try with backgrounds. I used to only draw characters and was afraid of backgrounds but now I am finding them to be just as fun as the characters

[@Gleamiarts]

Same I feel that people hype up the fear so much that when I started doing backgrounds I was surprised that they were so easy

[@MosaicSplash]

Gleamiarts yeah that’s exactly how I felt. I mean yeah they still are a lot of work but it definitely feels easier sometimes drawing a room than trying to get a pose of a character right even though I’ve been drawing characters years longer than backgrounds

[@SM-xy6py]

"You could even grab em by the... no wait never mind..." 😂 Dyin man. Thanks for this video. Been tryin to figure out what job it is id actually want to do and this has been a real help. I've dabbled in a bit of most of these apart from the 3D and animating stuff so ideally it'd be awesome to drift about from one to the other over the next however many years. Cant wait till lockdowns over so I can finally get out of mobile and back onto laptop work.

[@swine13]

You did those icons? I feel like your work single handedly made me realise how much work went into icons and how important the art on them was. Really cool work! Its impressive to have 20 or so icons all in the same shade of blue, all with a "frost" theme (for example) and yet still identifiably different at a glance and representative of what the ability/item did/was. Nicely done 😁

[@michipeka9973]

As a CG artists for 20 years having worked in animation, vfx, ads and game cinematics... -"you just have to model what is given to you" hahaha We have to fix and enhance what was not carefully thought out or not even thought at all (face profile, back of character). A lot of designs are not functional at all. Typically mechanical stuffs, props, armors, even clothing or creature anatomy... As a senior artist and supervisor now, I have to explain designers to think about functionality (to the extent of the narrative effect) of designs first before just aiming for something they think is "cool" looking... -"your stuff is valued" hahaha again We iterate A LOT, because most of the time a design gets "approved" but... we have to actually complete and finish the design even altering it while modeling... Then finally, they see the character move and "they don't like it" and they ask for something else entirely, or an entire sequence is cut... About the "easy" part, modeling is just as "easy" or "hard" as sculpting and drawing depending on your level. It's easy to get into the tools just as easy it is to hold a pencil... difficulty comes later. Most thing I see from designers IS just as "technical", it's a skill... some may have a style but they will have to conform to the style of the project anyway and it's quite rare when I see someone come up with a really crazy inventive concept.

[@s.w.6977]

You've put it to words much better than I could have done it. The hard part isn't learning how to make basic shapes in a 3D software, the hard part is fixing everything wrong with the design and trying to make it work and have functionality. For anything other than very organic shapes (characters) I prefer moodboards to drawn concepts and maybe a few important elements that should be used to unify the look of the game world or characters. I too can take recognizeable shapes from references and put them together, but I can make them work at the same time.

[@andreas9182]

This is my experience as well in AAA game studio. Concepts that are approved often lacks in functionality and it's often hard to make it work in 3D, as well keep the feeling from the concept. Not talking about the quick photo bashing coming out as a pile of pixels and are impossible to read and get the explanation that its "tech stuff". Don't get me wrong, I see it as a part of my job to take the concepts and make it work in a functional way as well keep the ambition from the concept. But if people get the impression that you get everything laid out for you and just trace from a blueprint you are wrong.

[@幽霊船-o4h]

Tbh just get good I hear a lot of whining. Its your job to translate thosedesigns into 3d. Suck it up boy because im already pretty good at sculpting ( almost artstation level)and I cant wait to apply for a job this year when im done with university

[@SRS_JAM]

You've explained exactly my train of thought while watching the video. Nothing against the video Trent. Its a gem and Its nice to get this info out to people who just don't know where to look, But I believe michepeka has a more realistic view of a 3D modelers job. 3D is art gets re modeled, added to, trashed and changed just as many times as 2D concept art. Unfortunately. Trent may have a point though. Its not going to be the same for every studio out there. Sometimes you will have a great pipeline and art direction that knows the cost redoing something and seriously reconsiders asking artists to re do a design, model, 2D art, ect. for superfluous reasons. Or just knows that the gain from redoing it will not matter that much in the grand scheme of things. Thanks for the post michipeka

[@SRS_JAM]

@@幽霊船-o4h Like your enthusiasm. ;) be ready to re-sculpt a few more times after its been approved twice.

[@magnus1383]

Character skin concept artist is a separate thing!? Holy crap. I love that. How the heck is your portfolio supposed to look for that? Also, I'm really glad I started to do some 3D and 3D animation. It's pretty fun.

[@TrentKaniuga]

It should have character skins for the company that you're applying to.

[@kmkitties3231]

I want to start 3D animation but it seems so daunting.

[@VbrSoro]

@@kmkitties3231 well,just thinking about it won't make it any easier.get your hands dirty

[@AriasuK]

@@TrentKaniuga wait, so like if I wanted to get into blizzard (yea dream on, I know xD) I should have in my portfolio skins of like overwatch characters?

[@emipello]

I love designing characters but I knew that is the one thing that everyone wanna do. Plus learning how to draw backgrounds and everything that makes up the world of a game dude that is what I wanna do. I just need to get better at drawing them... But I will get there! Always great to hear from someone with experience in the industry its really inspiring and it makes it easier to know what to focus on :)

[@howmuchbeforechamp]

I dont really remeber all characters from games , but the enviroment stays with me The witcher skellige ilses were great Jack and daxter , those fkn precusors And its great ,so yeah go for it man

[@avdima5000]

@@howmuchbeforechamp I get what you mean about hard surface modelling I love simulations and environments but character artists do not make the characteristics of the characters which 99 percent is the reason why we remember them as characters unless it's a lewd she

[@aerodylluk2543]

I wanted to be a 3D artist in video games, but after being made redundant 2 years into my first job I moved to print publishing. As you say the skill requirement is much much lower and the pay was much better. Less glamorous and I no longer get to wow people with my job title but it pays the bills. Especially as the time I was made redundant was a bad time in the UK industry, studios closing all over the place and for the remaining jobs the competition was worse than it is today as on top of students there were out of work pro's lining up to do everything for cheap. Graphic design has a bad reputation but it pays better than the games industry and is much easier to get into. I wouldn't call any role in video games 'easy' to get into as it is just a really competitive environment with poor stability, at least for the first few years.

[@martingo_]

Why does graphic design have a bad reputation? In what sense?

[@demmybane]

Hey man everyone has to pay the bills - at least you are still in the games industry like you wanted to be, some people never even make it that far.

[@jasmineb3421]

I'm kinda curious about that eyelash job now

[@yespants284]

Oh man I didn't know tech artist was a specific category, that's the exact thing I want to do. I didn't know it was called anything I thought it just fell into the general mechanic coding categories. Thank you so much!

[@azza_weak]

Coming back to this video now that I've left high school, this helped me a lot! Now building my portfolio, but taking smaller commissions here and there to try out things. I got to help on an indie game by drawing some scenarios and took the chance for some icon designs and revisions they needed, and it's extremely rewarding to see the little decorations and buttons there. Compared to the sessions of revisions in the backgrounds, the item concepts were approved super fast, they even kept more than one of the versions sometimes. Now I'm hoping to get some jobs on U.I. in the future

[@notquitegregorynot_quite_g3320]

"I d-dont wanna paint eyelashes.. aha" I have no clue why but that's the funniest thing I've heard in a while

[@petarpehchevski3d338]

I just like to include that 3D modelling is rarely a job in in of itself. As a 3D character artist you're most likely gonna be responsible for sculpting,retopo,texture, and rigging, and be good at them, especially at the start when you're not likely to get a specialized position, unless you're going for rigging or animation or like ui design or something very much in demand.

[@TrentKaniuga]

Very good point that I wish I'd mentioned in the video.

[@exhileris4k857]

Aside from undertale and fnaf 1-2, i have never really played any video games, specifically the type that u designed for. And the only reason why i wanted to be in the game industry in the first place is because they are open to new ideas, stories, and other IPs, and i am more drawn them because of that, but wasnt very sure if i can make it. But after seeing this video it really opened my eyes to what else i can do. Because i am in graphic design progam and i was able to do some drawing but not a lot. during this quarintine i have been trying practice my art skills, but after seeing this video, the many other options really encourages me to check out and try them out. So, thx man.

[@tgty5519]

Is it really you behind all those League of Legends icons shown in the video ?! Man... I see them every day, what a success !

[@Bruuundon]

This is great! I've been learning 3d modeling the past 3 years and knowing that people need more 3d modelers than concept artist is extremely reassuring! Thank you!

[@AndrewDowell]

Great vid, thanks! Concept art and illustration confusion was the bane of the my life.

[@ThunderDraws]

yep, aseprite is the program to use if you do pixel art! funnily enough, for the game I'm working on right now - while being pixel art - the UI is not, so most the stuff I'm painting currently is for UI stuff, like weapons, upgrade icons, character illustrations, UI elements and stuff

[@doukzu]

oh, might I ask, do you have to actually implement any of the UI stuff you make into the game? UI sounds really fun and interesting but I'm not completely sure about where your part of the job ends and another person finishes the rest.

[@TheScaith]

@@doukzu UI programmer and designer are separate jobs, if there's no dedicated UI programmer that job would logically be done by someone who is involved in the coding

[@earthdragonart9242]

It may be a bit old. But not all concept artist aspiring want to be character designers. What about props? Mechas? Creatures? Weapons? Vehicles ? Spaceships? Etc. Not everything is about characters. As you well said, environments have all the narrative if you sort out all of the elements in appropriate harmony. Thanks for all of this Trent. You're awesome!

[@TrentKaniuga]

95% of the portfolios I see are character illustration portfolios. So that's what I'm going off of. Personally, I love doing environments just as much, and there is more work doing that.

[@earthdragonart9242]

@@TrentKaniuga Thanks a bunch for the reply. Keep inspiring us with these bits of reality, fantasy, color and technique. I'm definitely getting my copy of the Twilight Monk! Thanks for all of this!

[@nrares21]

Holy jesus this video has been one of the most informative, concise, clear and most well organized video i've seen in a while. Thank you sir !

[@gabriellan.2142]

I always get confused if i should be a UI artist or illustration artist. but it looks like the UI position in the game industry also involves a lot of drawing. Looks like I found my dream job

[@glass7923]

Holy shit, this is like the first art-related video I've seen which isn't depressing. You have insane amount of energy and amazing voice lol

[@michailtarkov1512]

This video is a freaking emotional rollecoaster. It’s so direct, so precise yet somehow I found myself Lost in my thoghts. It’s like I’ve seen a god or sth. How the hell can Something be so overwhelming but at the same time so addictive. Wtf. This is the INSANE. LOVED IT. 10/10 WOULD RECOMMEND TO EVERYBODY

[@axserwz5022]

Just wanna say I love your Twilight Monk drawings it looks absolutely amazing

[@amaroq13]

All I have ever wanted was to be an artist for games. This video gave me a lot of inspiration and hopefully hope (lol) for the future. I appreciate your thorough dive into each role. It has given me a better direction

[@GothicGreen]

Trent, you are awesome. Thank you for your insight.

[@sketchsawyer]

So many great ideas! This is the SINGLE GREATEST ADVICE I've heard in the last 5+ years. Absolutely brilliant.

[@enoshade]

Lucky me then, I hate doing character art but environments are my jam.

[@kenhonodreemurr4297]

Excelent video, man! I'm currently studying the videogame industry as a whole and it's always super cool to see the many different possibilites besides character design! Keep up the good work!

[@paulojuniorlourenco4501]

"Splash artist, probably the most glamorous job, this is the job that almost everybody thinks that they want to do but they dont "quite" have the skill to be able to do it." now i dont know what to do with my life, seeing that my dream is just for the BEST of the best and my parents are really pushing me to get income from my drawings so i grow up and help with the house bills.

[@TrentKaniuga]

Maybe you can do illustrations for mobile games? They are less demanding than the big mega successful companies like Riot and Blizzard.

[@paulojuniorlourenco4501]

@@TrentKaniuga gonna give it a try, and if this doesnt work i was planning on doing T-Shirts prints, i already have some designs.

[@johnninocovers]

I now work as a concept artist but for theme park props and set designs! Think Disneyland or Universal studios themed area designs. There are concept art jobs outside of Gaming, too. :)

[@yerezaheian6940]

I love your excitement over all these fields so much. Thank you for educating us! :D

[@TheLostEggroll]

As a transfer digital art student, this really gets me pumped up.

[@grandalfdengronne]

Thank you for this incredible video!

[@Mazzariel814]

Blessed be your content ! I'm about to quit a game art school (for financial issues) and start to learn by myself as autodidact. I was a little bit lost, i didn't know what i want practice and what specialization could suit me but now i have a pretty good idea of what i should try to studie, and how i could do it. Thanks a lot.

[@Omer-or8pg]

I'm really happy to hear all the good things you said about UI, because that's something I definitely would like to get into lol

[@helicoptersrkool]

Knowledge is power. Thanks for sharing this stuff!!

[@anniebannanniee]

This is the most important video to me I’ve ever come across. Thank you SO much

[@paulashinn]

Damn! Great video Trent!

[@thombrosis]

What a great concise resource.

[@manankanunez1222]

this video might have just changed my life... thank you, Trent!

[@TheSquirrely]

Thanks to this I'm learning to make 3d models and assets in blender! Keep up the truth and inspirational vids Trent!

[@MugenArt-pn1mv]

What a great video Trent. Before I always saw myself as an illustrator on a the videogame industry due to I liked to make Fan Art of video game characters or anime. But recently, I've been really into character skin concept art and I must say it is really nice, fun, and I've enjoyed working on every single one, even more than when I used to do mainly fan art illustrations. And now that I know that this job is somewhat more useful and less competitive than Splash Art, that motivates me to keep bringing new concept art skins! Environment Concept art, I know for fact that I am not ready for this one but it definitely want to learn how to properly do so and be useful for the videogame industry. Because I find it super interesting to be able to create worlds or specific locations, and when I see your videos you make it seem like its nothing, and I can't even think on how to start hahah. This is definitely too Advanced for me as of now but that doesn't scare me at all, it makes me want to learn more about it. And lastly, another one that I never thought about is Icon artist (UI artist), seeing your take on this one really made me want to try it out and see what I can do. Specially when you said it helped you get more experience when it comes to texturing objects and stuff.

[@bamcki991]

I'm going to be honest, I was almost about to quit studying game graphics and change to a different school because I didn't like what I was doing, but this really changed my mind on things. I've had trouble making final artworks for years and didn't like doing it, felt like I wasn't good enough and I should put my creativity somewhere else even if I am knowledgeable of the industry. But now I've realized "fuck those illustrations, I didn't like doing them either way. I wanna do concept and designs". I'm not as skilled with a pen, but I am skilled with the head. I can come up with amazing designs for characters and environments in minutes, but I can't draw and show it. I may not get the glamour directly, but all of it will come to me, which I like.

[@tfig9777]

This gives me hope to know there are other things in games to work on. Thank you!

[@jhoannefrancisco490]

Im a character concept artist too but when I got my freelance back then I actually enjoyed doing those icons and in-game items theyre simple enough yet also sets the tone of the game together with the ui

[@LolixBelle]

gotta be honest,I just join a volunteer on a project and was hire to just be a 2D artist, since we are in the early stages, I didn't have much to do, so the team leader made me do some building concept art, every 2d artist in my team we are en charge with one aspect of one thing, for example I am not en charge of the whole town,just the town hall and another artist is en-charge of props, we summit our sketches and discuss what to change, I have been working on my building for a month because even tho is one building, it has 3 tiers and I need to have every one on board with it, I am actually so happy, because I got to work on this due to trent's advice on applying or grouping up with programmers,etc, I am so thankful for trent's lessons and is helping me so much, I am also bless to have a very nice team leader, who helps us even tho we aren't as experience or have difficulties, so piece of advice, how you go in the game industry? keep applying to indie games, partner up with programmers or 3d artist,etc, there's a lot on polycount, if you get rejected, keep applying, one team will eventually let you join.

[@DTLamia]

Honestly thank you This video might have helped me find a profession I really liked graphic design but I also know the market is overflown with character designers and web designers and you either have to be realllyyy good or get underpaid

[@Brian-dd2df]

I'm glad to hear that environmental design is in demand. I've been learning to build low poly landscapes for a while and will eventually dip into digital art after learning to draw a bit better on paper.

[@bhartleby5033]

This is such useful information. I am so thankful I can't put it in words!

[@extendedlimits]

What a great video!! I also love how other professionals are chiming in, in the comments as well, such a wealth of information! The next time one of my friends say they want to be a concept artist, I'll send this to them!

[@jdm6784]

This entire video is a so helpful. Thank you =)

[@crudaka4551]

yoo its great to hear what there actually exists. :0 i havent heard of like half the jobs you mentioned. and honestly its uplifting to hear that there are indeed other artjobs besides character design and environment design. perhaps i'll try to design some fake icons or so sounds fun for sure

[@leer7969]

Ive known for a while that I wanted to work on character design for video games, but was never really dedicated to the idea. I just know I wanna do stuff for video games. This totally helps with getting an idea on what I wanna do now! I haven't narrowed it down, but I'll get there some day! 😊🤗

[@raghavrao905]

Please do more informative videos like these they are very helpful insights on the industry. Thank you from the bottom of my heart!!!!

[@Artdeepmind]

I remember thinking I wanna be a concept artist, but I just did not know that I really wanna be an illustrator. Channels like this one helped me to realized that.

[@RamzaBeoulves]

Nothing beats a functional, practical, slick UI design I've seen menus that made me uninstall games and terrible mobile UI which is weird because you can just follow the industry standard of copying and not bringin anything new to the table

[@XonixDerps]

Im doing a mix of 2d and 3d in a game im workin on and you indirectly helped me out with the idea of just painting the textures to get a cartoony or painterly feel! As I was watching haha. Thank you always man

[@Horsaz]

This is exactly the kind of informative video I needed to know what I should put into my portfolio. Thank you so much Trent!!

[@robertbest6858]

This is a great video. Ive been looking for this kind of information to really see what opportunities are out there This shows how hugley diverse everything is. Really inspiring

[@wilhelm992]

3D modeling is life

[@emanuel81111]

i start learning it 1 month ago and i feeling it. 3D modeling is pretty neat

[@netzarim]

Hey Trent just wanna say you're one real cool dude, seriously over the years you've only been kind, helpful and caring. Hell you've helped so many aspiring artists it's crazy. God bless man!

[@clapi306]

Being a Splash-artist is my dream job, but i'm starting to considerer training on UI and environnement.

[@jakkejakaali849]

Good going, dude! This was excellently compressed!

[@liljatupsu]

I'm kinda interested in working with games when I grow up and this gave me hope. A lot of these sound interesting!

[@gregarchuleta853]

I love all the advice you give! I'm still working on getting a job in the game industry but I feel I have a lot more direction following your videos, thanks!

[@samiier3324]

I love drawing everything. Not only characters. In fact i draw more animals and environments than actually characters. And I see getting a job as character design like getting the protagonist role in a movie . That hard is to get this role in a studio.But dont worry . You can also learn how to WRITE (I think that with all of these abilities descriptions and characters stories they are in demand for this). Another think useful is voice acting and creating AMBIENT SOUNDS, skill effects sounds (sound design in general) . With all of these jobs would you still continue to dream about getting a character design job?

[@vananana1086]

Thank you for this video. I am actually considering a career in video games becuz i love drawing and games ! Keep up the good work !

[@markilleen4027]

i love environment art

[@ladyseshiiria]

When you say 80 to 90% if stuff is disposable art. The first few times I've watched this video I would cringe. But I've been recently going through my art and have had a mental shift. The I can do better. Something I made a year ago while I'm proud and post it to DA I'm probably not going to allow it to make the cut in my art book. I'm at a point in wanting to provide quality and I'm realizing I'm not there yet and this is practice but keep making those concepts and environment and objects etc expand grow practice because it's not in vain nor a waste of my time. Plus the added benefits of having a set idea done that can be reused later and improved upon is nice. 🥰

[@olimueller]

Very helpful reminder of the many ways into the industry

[@eyjayy]

very helpful and clear rundown

[@JonBaldock]

I like those black and white sketches you did. You use a Cintiq.

[@TrentKaniuga]

Naw. Intuos pro .

[@albuquerqueThomas]

What a Great video! One of the best videos of the industry. Thank you. /salute.

[@oscarchavezart]

The user interface artist is the one that is most appealing to me. Because every icon is different, and each on is a little painting of it's own. I like work like that, even though I do illustration, I found my limit on a painting is 3 days, after that my excitement goes down because it starts to feel like school work. All I am doing is going where the action is, the game industry became bigger than movies and sports combined because of the pandemic, the console games brought in allot of money, but the mobile games brought in the biggest chunk, about 24%, that was in the 70 Billions from the blog I read, and in the next 2 years regions like Latin America, Africa and parts of India will have more mobile users as the technology becomes more accessible. I already have a good foundation on art, and it's all so I can finally make great art full time and enjoy making art all day, even if it's not my ideas. Doing odd and dead-end jobs that take the creativity out is frustrating. If the UI art may be grunt work because it is not glamorous, that is fine, the grunt work tends to have great rewards and sometimes better rewards. It can also build character. And since you mentioned it is easier to get into it than the character design, hey, hey, lets go and get into the fun. =)

[@iyataitt2684]

Thank you so much! Had no idea the industry was this diverse. There just maybe something for me :)

[@SuWoopSparrow]

"Everyone wants to do character concepts and its highly competitive" and yet video games have such incredibly topical and crappy character design.

[@darylbiegtrucke4456]

Its not just video games, just look at movie sonic, even the redesign is mediocre at best. Its just the original design is so BAD that it makes the redesign somehow look passable. Random people on the internet did a better job of redesigning it. Imagine being a character designer on something like Big Mouth on Netflix? Artist just let themselves be taken advantage of too easily, so theyre stuck drawing and designing complete garbage. They're too worried about losing their job, so they phone it in, collect their paycheck, and go home. Similar to a prostitute. Theres no way any artist with any self respect would draw some of these terrible designs without being forced to due to money problems. Triple AAA games have so much photoscanning and motion capture now. There is no artistic touch to these games anymore, they may as well just film them as movies like they did for Command and Conquer. The new "Baldur's Gate" just looks like its filled with cosplayers instead of fantastical races. Probably photoscan their employees to save money and throw them in the game.

[@SuWoopSparrow]

@@darylbiegtrucke4456 I agree that youll find garbage in any medium. My point is just that the best costume designers in film are many levels above the best character concepts in games. The attention to detail, skill, and inspiration/passion is just on another level. I also agree with the scanning. Its a huge shame and a throwaway of creative potential. Its ironic because filmmakers wish they could use different characters for each movie, while in games so many people want to bring in actors. While artists are generally taken advantage of and underpaid, I think a lot of them are not that good in the games industry. They don't have any self respect /sophistication for themselves even in their own free time. So many just create shallow characters for sex appeal or just arbitrarily "cool" characters that don't have any purpose or intent behind their design decisions. I don't know if youre in the industry or not, but the way I hear most artists speak in regards to why they make the decisions they make is just a joke when you compare it to the thoughtfulness of top creators film/animation.

[@JennJurassic]

@@SuWoopSparrow i think that thoughtfulness in design may also have to do with the difference between film and games in general. Film has a much higher production value so everything can be pushed to the utter extreme (easy example would be the eyeball scene in how to train your dragon. also really no polygon/texture limits to my knowledge. lucky) and is much older and has matured as such. games require a lot less production value visuals-wise (polygon/texture limits you can only go so far) so it's easier to throw in something without as much thought. also games are following about the same footsteps as film and are still maturing so it's still got that "anyone can do it" vibe (which is true for film, but people expect more). exceptions do exist (heck, monster hunter world looks amazing), but because the minimum production value expected is so much lower than film, so its just easier to sell designs in game form. (even games at their best, might tie with well made animated film's visual's wise. mario odyssey/monster hunter world vs tangled)

[@DeadKraken]

@@SuWoopSparrow Usually who chooses which character design will be used are Design\Visual\Art directors, they are the ones to blame to be honest. If you open any artbook from a game's production, you'll find that 99.9% of the times the abandoned designs are much , much better than the final ones. It's like people don't want to dare anymore in the game industry, especially the AA or AAA companies, they want cheap designs easy on the eyes but with very bland shapes and colors, easy to digest for the casual crowd so to speak. I think most games also have just a bland feeling overall, no style that separate them from others because well...they look exactly like others. There are still veeery few games that look like Warframe, Dark Souls or Bloodborne, but there are a ton that look like Blizzard productions, are stylized exactly like Fortnite or are just plain ultra-realistic with no flare.

[@wsphh2692]

not all video games but yes, a lot imo. the designs that usually stick w me are the anime styled games like onmyoji, fgo, etc lol

[@gergovoros6120]

I got so inspired from your video Trent!! Thank you for sharing your wisdom, it helped me a LOT choosing my career! Im still in the process, but I see clearer thanks to you!

[@theperson3739]

When I started doing art I was really inspired by the environment design and epic creatures and stuff, and that's what I really wanted to do. But as I was looking for tutorials I found an overwhelmingly larger amount of tutorials for more character and mainstream stuff, like the instagram artists. I think I got kinda caught in it because I keep falling back on character art whenever I try and do something new, or I get bored or intimidated by the scale of drawing an environment vs just a face. I really wanna learn how to do stuff like that again, but I'm not sure where to start. I should probably dive into your channel tbh, and Your gumroad series sounds great but I'm young and have to beg my mom for everything if I want it so I'm stuck with free resources. Do you or anyone else in this comment section have and ideas on a good place to start breaking into environments and get away from drawing the same thing all the time? I'm so bored of faces lol, but I have no idea where to even start with worldbuilding and environment concepts. Sorry this was so long haha, any feedback is super appreciated.

[@reboa.i563]

My god! I finally found someone who has the same problem as me hehe. So a few years ago when I started high school I was really into character art ( I wanted to draw those awesome characters with over the top armor and you know... skimpy characters ). As time past by I lost interest in characters as there was ( and still definitely ) a fierce competition between character artists on all social- and art platforms. Now I make interior designs such as sci-fi / realistic and hard surface environments. And let me tell you: I am thoroughly enjoying it even if it gets a few likes only :) I'm also reliant on free resources because I'm still a student hehe but I managed to sell a few drawings ( just blueprints ) to buy a moderate laptop for my work. -. Okay, for a free 3D program, go for Blender ( I personally use this ) -. If you're more into painting and drawing, then Krita, Gimp or Medibang ( I use Gimp ) -. If you want seamless 2K, 4K, 3K upto 8K PBR textures such as grass, rock, wood metal and many more, then definitely visit CGBookcase, Textures.com and Texture Haven ( I use all of these websites for free premium textures ) -. If you need 4K upto 16K! HDRI's go to HDRI Haven All of the above resources are absolutely free and I've created some nice environments ( interior ) with them. If you want, you could have a look on my IG ( I'm no pro so they might not look breathtaking haha ) instagram.com/rebo_ai Have a nice day :) and sorry for the long reply.

[@steve00alt70]

just do some low poly game asset prop designs its not as saturated as character designs

[@maahuz]

I relate so much to your comment It's been two years, did you got into environment art?

[@theperson3739]

@@maahuz omg i forgot about this comment! kinda yeah! I still do a lot of faces just bc that's where my muscle memory is, but I've gotten way more comfortable doing backgrounds and environments! composition and perspective and stuff are like my favorite things to do. basically like my mindless doodles are mostly characters but whenever I plan out a big drawing it's nearly always a full scene. Not perfect yet but I'm way closer to my inspiration art goals than i was at the time of writing :]

[@maahuz]

@@theperson3739 congrats!! I wanna learn to draw environments and your comment inspired me to finally start it lol

[@st.michaelthearchangel7774]

This is very informative. Thank you!

[@TalentHouseAd]

Thanks for the video Trent! I hope environment art isn't too competitive, because that's what I decided I want to pursue this year to hear up for some conventions this fall! I have always liked 3d modelling though, So i think Im going to start hitting that a bit harder. Thanks for the video man, keep up the awesome work!

[@jim-df7sx]

I'm always coming back to this video simply because I still don't know what to do :(

[@HalVerArt]

This was SO informative! I'm going to do game design next year to try and become a character artist (original plan) but seeing this, perhaps I'll try and get into the character skin concepts a bit more, as well as I will probably learn some good 3D stuff at that college (or at least I hope so)

[@Zoqsu]

wow, i didnt even know there are other ways you could be an artist. Thank you, for this video

[@matthewprisco1515]

And dont forget to the people who want an art job but want their own voice. That even if you become a U.I artist or a icon artist you can still do your own stuff on the side, and if you do things right you could possibly move to other roles in the game development.

[@axserwz5022]

I actually really want to do Environment and Prop Concept Art, it's really cool to me to create whole worlds and stuff, so interesting, but honestly I wanna learn so of everything the industry has to offer cause I wanna get into indie game developing at some point

[@katyai.2369]

Thanks so much for the video.... like really why nobody is talking about this!? It’s either one thing or the other you hear about of the game industry but not this. 👏🏻

[@BringOnTheRainxx3]

Dude at my current job (im a graphic designer) im the one people go to when they want to do something weird in one of the programs. Exploring the limits of what is possible in any program is my FAVORITE. Maybe ill do some research on being a tech artist because that sounds FUN