Environment Artist
Environment artists create 3D sets that build up a whole new ambience to the shot. Even though their work is mostly used for game design, it can also be used in visual effects movies when the surroundings are hard to be filmed in, either because it’s too expensive to rent the place or because it’s an unreal imagined world. The environment can be composed of landscapes, buildings, furniture, and other numerous objects and the work starts by modeling lots of objects that will be placed together afterwards. The scenes usually contain lots of objects that vary from nature elements to buildings or vehicles, in that way, it can have both organic and hard surface models; an artist working in this role should have both modeling skills.
When it comes to building the environment, a reference produced by a concept artist is provided, and the 3D model must be as faithful as possible to reference. Other references can be also used, such as pictures and drawings. It is important to decide whether you are creating an outdoor or indoor environment and grab references that apply for each situation.
Environment artists can be junior, mid level or senior, and the position in the industry will determine what kind of work they’ll be producing. Since modeling an environment varies from modeling a whole city or modeling minor objects, a junior artist will be dealing with creating smaller props, while a senior artist will be gathering all the props created and compositing the whole scene.
Software used in this role can be any one that enables modeling.
Look Dev Artist
A look dev artist (or look development artist) is someone that will define the look of 3D assets or characters. The artist will receive the textures that are going to be implemented and will add the shading for the CGI elements. They will also have to define the look that it will take in different conditions, such as when it gets wet, burned and others. Also, they’ll have to make sure the asset’s shading works in a variety of lightning situations and, for that, they will have to make tons of rendering tests using different lighting setups. In some cases, they will also be responsible for adding details to the texture.
Lookdev artists need to work with modeling and texturing artists since their work are linked together; the texturing artist will provide the textures for the lookdev artist to build the shader, and the modelling artist will hand in the model that will be textured. When it comes to becoming a look development artist one will need to have a keen eye for details, be good at organisation, and quickly learn and adapt to multiple software. Knowing the theory is more important than having knowledge in one specific software. All shaders use a node base system, so if you can apply the theory for Arnold/Maya you’ll just have to adapt to the way nodes connect in other software such as VRay/Max or Katana.
A lookdev role is not an entry level position, tho. One will usually have to be working in the industry for 2-3 years to become this kind of artist. Having to handle the whole look of a project such as a game or movie takes heavy responsibility
Lightning artist
Lightning artists create light for CGI environments and give the scene a final look. Depending on the set up of the lights used, the ambient can have different looks. The CG supervisors and art directors will decide what look they want the scene to have, then a concept art and brief is handed in to the lightning artist which is going to reproduce the mood of the scene. If it is going to be ominous, it will have dark light and soft light, if romantic, will have warm colors lightning like in the sunset, or any other. The lights dictate if the objects are going to have hard or soft shadows, and that can change the appearance of the texture applied. Usually a good lighting set up is composed of different types of lights that exist in the CG world. There are several types of digital lights, and the most commonly used are HDRI light, ambient light, spotlight, light dome, and sky light; usually a good lighting set up is composed of an addition of different types of lights. There is also the possibility of making an asset become a source of light.
The main skills to pursue a career in this role is to understand lighting in the physical world, to have a high level of attention to detail, to have a strong sense of light and shadow, and to have an artistic view of usage of colour. The lightning artist will be responsible for the final look in the scene, so having a keen eye to details is important.