Texture Artist Industry spec?

[leigh]

Speaking from a VFX industry experience (Since that's the industry I've worked in for the last five years)...

Yeah, there is plenty of room for specialised texture painters in this field. 3D experience I would think is probably preferable but not always necessary, depending on the studio. Definitely preferable though - I wouldn't envy a texture painter who wasn't familiar with working in 3D. If you're capable of creating good UV maps as well, even better.

In my own case, I have two years of fulltime traditional art training, which included painting. Painting was definitely a good grounding for texturing, even though the actual process of painting textures is quite different to painting on canvas. The essential shared skills between the two are more to do with working with brushes, mixing colour, etc. A lot of texturing involves photographic elements, wich often require touching up and such, and having good brush skills is important for this too.

Regarding what software to use... this really depends. If you end up working in a studio, you can't expect them to go buying licenses of some weird niche package that you may happen to like, so it's advisable to know Maya, or Max, since those are the two most commonly used packages in this industry. Maya has an excellent UV toolset that is definitely going to give you fewer headaches than other packages so it's worth learning anyway. If you're simply working from home, studios may not always be too fussy about it, although there are sometimes issues moving UV'd models from package to package (for example, UV mapped models exported from XSI to Maya give some issues).

[softdistortion]

Thanks Leigh. Totally sold on Maya's UV tools, as you say they are fantastic. :thumbsup:

[TinyCerebellum]

I work as a 3D team lead for a company involved in the game industry, and I'm always on the lookout for texture artists. I find that good texture artists can be an invaluable addition to a 3D team, but also one of the most difficult people to find. I believe it's because of the artistic skills involved, but also because a lot of artists aren't aware of the career possibilities in 3D. The company that I currently work for also employs a number of illustrators and designers, and I've often had to rely on some of these guys for texture work that my 3D artists couldn't pull off properly. Once provided with UV unwraps nicely laid out in Photoshop files, and properly set up files in Maya or MAX, any artist can fire up the 3D package and preview his or her work. In the process, some of them will inevitably find out that working with 3D isn't as daunting as it may have seemed. Either way, I find that such artists will get used to the process very quickly.

I don't know too much about the film or the VFX industry, but as far as games go, there will always be a huge demand for texture artists, and specializing in this direction is definitely a good option. As far as requirements go, I think the most important skills are a good eye for detail, colour, and composition. I love seeing these people going out with their cameras, taking photos of various materials, and setting up their personal libraries for whatever project they need. I also believe that a background in art is a must, because such artists are likely to be required to work in different styles depending on the project.

I hope this helps... :)

[softdistortion]

Thanks TC that does help. I wasn't very sure about specializing partly because there are so few texture artist posts in the hiring section here at CGT. Maybe it's more a thing like you say...the people hiring are on the lookout and snap up the specialists they find here and there?

[toastmonster]

This thread is giving me hope for the great move out to wherever a texture nut like me needs to go. Thanks guys.

A new question! What makes a good texture artist demo reel? or do you even need a demo reel?

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