Here's some notes I took on this excellent panel of industry professionals: Joy Lea (EA Dice), Helder Pinto (Blizzard Entertainment), Martin Teichmann (Naughty Dog)!
I highly recommend watching the full 2 hr 30 min VOD for yourself but feel free to use my notes if preferred.
JOY LEA (EA Dice) works in environment props- distinguishes between HERO PROPS which are unique props vs. normal "tileable" or recurring props. Hero Props contain higher quality and more geometry than surrounding environment props. They must have geometrical integrity like manifold geometry and correct number of facets.
WORKFLOW: Hi res + Low Res -> Bake, then UV the Low res, texture it. She uses MARVELOUS DESIGNER in a demo of headphone earpad modeling in lieu of sculpting out the details in Z-brush. She imports an object as a sort of "volume" with which to wrap the cloth geometry around. Marvelous Designer has a highly efficient cloth simulation feature making the detail generation painless and accurate.
Advice: Works in quads in modern games -- good for creating LODS to because its easier to work with than tris. Can attest from experience especially in select edge loops.
HELDER PINTO (Blizzard) is a professional Environment Artist.
For practice/warmups: building a game environment you can walk around is a great way to get grasp of how to make environments feel lifelike (and also looks very attractive to employers) -- more details on this later.
MODULAR PIECES vs HERO PIECES. Modular pieces are tileable and less unique with fewer variation to geometry. The rule is always less is more but tweaking your modular kit as you go is advised.
WORKFLOW:
To Begin: Create the boundaries of the environment (creating environments from scratch can be daunting- especially when in the dark on where to start).
Visualize the story of the environment first. Then drill down to the small details like environment cues that suggest the story (eg. bloodstain, damage on windows/doors, etc).
Create modular snappable objects with metrical congruity -- block out and eventually derive more pieces from these measurements to add to the environment as needed. These block out pieces can also be handed down to a level designer to begin their work since they are staple elements.
Identify additional the modular pieces and create them immediately for the block out-- work iteratively.
Address the Hero Assets: unique assets that are focus of the scene (I personally call them Points of Interests or Main Set Pieces)- keep them to a minimum as they are very costly in the labor process.
Materials and textures : Start simple, minimize variation, maximize reusability (ie, apply to multiple objects). In his example, his materials use simple normal maps and AO maps at this blocking out stage.
Check how well the visuals scale.
TIPS:
Always move on to working on new stuff instead of hammering down on the same spot. Work in broad strokes instead of at a specific spot.
Tiling on a Power of 2 - one layer along the texture map can be 128px, another could be 256px. Then UV map other environment objects to these textures. Helps reduce labor and the power of 2 specifically helps with keeping the tiling aspect neat and in alignment.
Color and lighting pass: Do quick paintover (or collab with a concept artist for this step), introduce new props as needed to help with spatial and scaling needs, play with lighting and color as needed. (He recommends Adobe Kuler for color palettes- pick one and stick with it for consistency).
Lighting and color should bring out the characters and gameplay and not overshadow it!
Distant world assets - not only provides spatial data but also transmits information on the player's location in the game world. Lower detail since they are set so far away from the camera.
Master Shaders -- all materials in his scene are based off a single shader instance (He uses UDK but the same can be replicated in UE4/UE5). This helps in cases where all textures need to be modified uniformly without the labor intensive tedium of modifying multiple materials. An example: Adding water droplets so that all surfaces are uniformly damp. Then using engine tools to mask out dry areas accordingly.
Effects pass: foliage, atmospheric volumes, particles, more lighting - use your environments backstory to help inform which FX to introduce.
Q&A:
Environment art consists of specialized artists in props and environment detailing. He recommends focusing on one or the other! However present your piece in the best light possible.
Highly reccomends that you don't simply throw it up in a simple render- take it the full way through the pipeline with attention to detail in lighting or even set up a game engine scene. Show that you "love" your work!
How to "hide" the inevitable repetition in modular kits? Clever level/map design, the additional props to break up the scene (For instance if you were working on a corridor, add some additional pathways or block off space with foliage or clutter). Try to "hide" the obvious tiling OR simple creating more variations in your modular kit.
Maya and 3DS Max workflow: Maya for snapping tools, Max for modifier stack. Their strengths depend on the application.
He recommends instancing texture variations (like cracked, damaged, worn versions of the same asset) within the same in the same material.
MARTIN TEICHMANN (Naughty Dog)
WORKFLOW:
Iterate through concept art (until its ready to be blocked out in a 3D environment).
Blockout (level designer's job) with "Block Mesh" or simple primitives.
Modeling (replacing the Block Mesh with more solid models).
Overpaint - concept art that paints over a screen capture of the scene in order to recolor/add details to the scene. This includes lighting and texturing.
Texturing Pass - fully bring the overpaint to life with texture work. Foliage (and anything with alphas comes in at this stage).
Each of the above stage is iterative.
Part of the overpainting at the early stages can be simply silhouetting.
TIPS:
Creating organic flow - straight parallel line of action following certain environment pieces against tilted lines that break it up the artificial rigidity.
Take gameplay into mind. In this demo from Uncharted 4, there is an enemy sniper position with a sightline that conflicts with the overpainted concept -Teichmann partially integrates some of these concepts in the midground so that they did not obstruct the sightline but helped created a "parallax" effect to outline space and scale - a win-win.
Readability - texture should outline level elevation well. Vertical features like walls and walkable horizontal areas should be differentiable from the player view. This can be achieved with color. In Uncharted, this goes doubly so for climbable ledges in tight engagements that need to be easily spotted and negotiated.
Contrast and color balance should be adjusted accordingly - make gameplay parts of the level readable without looking out of place.
Adding detailing: Working around the established level design, you can add details like furniture or vegetation where gameplay isn't hindered. Eg. overgrowth on non-negotiable ledges, furniture where sightlines and gameplay mechanics (like cover) aren't disrupted. The added bonus to this is that extra detailing helps tell the story!
Optimization Pass: The engine maintains framerate by culling the rendering on objects out of view. This means being mindful of using larger objects to physically block smaller objects behind it so they can be unloaded by the engine.
PANEL Q&A:
Finally, the panelists come together for one last Q&A. Here are the tips I gleaned:
Keep Gameplay area cleaner in general (free of clutter, readable). This means taking the perspective of player's pathways. De-noise the environment - too many conflicting colors and too many details take away from the visual integrity.
Invest in the path of least resistance and the most resource efficient method of design: less is more, modularity is key, improvements to big picture rather than microscopic details.
Texturing expectations: Consistent, no stretching, no daunting resolution contrast between props or blended color maps.
How each of the panelists got their first jobs/tips for prospective art professionals:
Joy Lea got her first job through a friend who had already employed in a studio that was hiring - she adapted one of her portfolio projects, spruced it up and turned it in for the "test" component of the interview and landed the job before she finished her education.
Helder Pinto recommends networking and various forums: Polycount, Artstation, Mapcore.
Recommends making yourself visible: Join a small team, publish games, set feasible goals, get projects done.
Martin Teichmann applied to an internship in the only studio locally, gained experience, worked his way up to a full time job.
Don't be afraid to ask for help as a junior. Senior artists' job are to help you grow and master workflows and they are generally very open to helping you.
If you're stuck or feeling burnt out, set the work down, work on something else, take your mind off by consuming media to inspire/reinvigorate, request paintovers from a concept artist to shed new light on ideas outside your blind spot and most importantly don't be afraid to rely on colleagues/collaborate to get the job done!
Portfolio expectations: Clean models, clean UVs, knowing where to put UVs, PBR workflow/material definition, modular prop creation.
Polycount limitations: Industry will ask for much lower polycounts than you'd expect, tris should be avoided unless they help with holding edges/silhouette.