Job roles in the industry

Animator

As an animator you have many different jobs that need to be done other than just animating characters. things as such as rigging and skinning characters and objects and working with physics engines and scripting. although you still get to do fun jobs such as creating animations for characters and scene objects and making cut scenes. This job role generally involves you having more of an interest in how things move other than how they look.

Vehicle Artist

As a Vehicle Artist you have to work from concepts and reference in order to create vehicles interior and exterior to a high level of detail. you also have to rig them for physics and cameras and even to work in games engines. it may also require you setting up complex material base shaders to get a realistic look on the final model of a vehicle. This job is ideal if you like cars and is something your passionate about and are very much in it for every last detail.


Object Artist

As an object artist you have quite a general role of producing many different styles of objects for different or similar scenes. this can be seen as quite an entry level job position so can be ideal for people just looking to get into the games industry. this requires building objects from concepts and reference and can bring high level of detail to many games. This job is ideal for anyone that is looking for an entry level point to get into the games industry and is good if you like your work varied and get to create various different objects.


Character Artist

As a character artist you have to create characters in a variety of different shapes and styles from pieces of concept and reference. you have to rig and skin your characters so that they can be handed to the animators so they can animate your characters created. this often requires working with various "next Gen" techniques and is possibly one of the hardest areas to get a job in in the games industry. This job is ideal if you want to create detailed characters for use within games and have a good understanding of anatomy and excellent modelling and texturing skills to back you up.

Concept Artist

As a concept artist you create everything in 2D from loose sketches to box art, you take direction in your work from the creative lead/art lead of the projects you work on and your drawings go towards helping the artists produce games assets. This job is ideal if you have good traditional art skills, you can work fast and under pressure and you have the ability to interpret loose ideas in a brief.

Game User Interface Artist

As a Game user interface Artist you have to design and create menus and heads up displays, you also have to take direction from the creative lead/art lead like the concept artists and you work very closely with programmers. This is quite a specialized position and will have very limited jobs. This job is ideal if you have good traditional art skills but also require quite a bit of patience as you are at the back of the line from a technology standpoint so may be the last person to see your work working in game.

Environment Artist

As an Environment artist you have to create interactive game environments. you have to design levels around the briefs written by the creative lead and designers and work from concept art and reference you need to have knowledge of game systems, AI and scripted events and are generally subject to a lengthy process in creating work. This job is ideal if you have a lot of perseverance in creating one level and have many different design, technical and artist skills.

SFX Artist

As a SFX artist you get to create visual effects for in game and for cut scenes, you get to work alot with particles and post production effects and get to prototype new effects. you have to work closely with the art side and programming side of work and use bespoke tools. This job is ideal if you have alot of interest in cinematic techniques and like the fact you have a very technical role to fill, although you are usually a part of another art role

Technical Artist

As a technical artist you have to create solutions for art related problems and develop tools and art pipelines. you have to test new software and support art requests as well as code. This job is ideal if you like taking on a technical role, you have the ability to script and understand photometrics and have very good communication skills.