Environment Art and Inspiration?

Showster · Jan 2008

Do you guys have any favourite level artists?

I'm really enjoying some of the latest Ubisoft 360 work, especially Assassins Creed and Naruto RON. Although I have no idea whos worked on those titles frowngif

.

Until the end of Creed I found myself quite immersed in it, the only other recent game I had the same experience was Bioshock.

Lastly do you guys actually take time to check out game environments anymore or do you find yourselves hammering on through a game trying to complete it as fast as you can.

danr · Jan 2008

i remember i went round the entire Jak 2 city, just looking at stuff. They clearly have fun at naughty dog

Eric Chadwick · Jan 2008

That's mostly what I do in games, check out the enviro and character art, not really play. Cheats are a great help.

IronHawk · Jan 2008

Now that I finished COD4 I'm going to run around that one. Yeah running around games is great or loading up the editor and cruising in spectator mode.

I also like browsing assets as well. Usually not till I finish the game though. Hate teh sp0ilz.

Nature sites are a good source of inspiration. I loooove this one. Wicked shots of mountains

tokidokizenzen · Jan 2008

Nice ref IronHawk, book marked it

Ghostscape · Jan 2008

I've tried to limit my "stop and stare" because it tends to detract from the gameplaying experience, but I still do it a lot, and did it a ton more while I was learning. I find that once I've cleared an area of enemies I'll start poking around.

Also it's a lot of fun to watch other people play games because I can fully devote myself to examining the art instead of playing the game.

Mark Dygert · Jan 2008

I rarely finish games now a days, mostly for two reasons, time and I crave new content. I lose interest fast in games that waste my time by constant back tracking just for the sake of extending the gameplay. Travel time shouldn't be factored into "gameplay". I mostly play to explore the content.

Since environments are put together by so many people its hard to have a hero. Very little of my inspiration comes from other games. There is so much real world reference that is much more interesting and inspiring.

I really like urban decay, ancient ruins, old bunkers, mothballed ships. When I can't do it on my own I gather ref from sites like...

http://www.opacity.us
http://www.forbidden-places.net
http://www.modern-ruins.com
http://www.ohiotrespassers.com/locations.html
http://www.undergroundkent.co.uk/maunsell_towers.htm
http://www.ghosttownexplorers.org

DanConroy · Jan 2008

Great links Vig, thanks for posting them up.

Michael Knubben · Jan 2008

For old architecture mixed with decay, dirt and technology, outside tube-stations (submerged, but still in open air) are great. I take the Circle Line daily here, and there are some really nice sights to see. Blackened brick walls with thick, multi-coloured (but faded) wires running alongside them, stuff like that. If I had a camera, I'd have taken a few snapshots already.

adam · Jan 2008

For me it depends. Lately I've watched a movie then wanted to model something from that movie. It switches to be honest.

Here's some more links:

http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/index.php
http://www.ontarioarchitecture.com/Terms.html
http://www.simoncornwell.com/urbex/frames.htm
http://www.angelfire.com/ny3/sunshyn178/abandoned/main.html
http://www.xs4all.nl/~kazil/
http://www.kto-to.de/en/gal.php?lang=en&pd=6
http://www.containershipping.nl/casualties.html
http://www.shieldsaroundtheworld.com/gallery.html

pliang · Jan 2008

I find panogames a nice site to see some panoramas of in game scenes....

Most of the time I try to clean up the levels in games and walk around in there like an architect and look at all the details and examine how its built and all...

Oneil · Jan 2008

Seriously thank you Vig and Adam for posting such awesome Reference sites for Environments. .

OBlastradiusO · Oct 2008

Very good abandoned building references.

www.darkpassage.com

Peris · Oct 2008

An environment artist who's often inspired me to take my own work to a better level, back in the halflife mapping days and still today: http://www.philipk.net/

And this guy made me realise you can make awesome looking stuff thats still ridiculously optimised: http://www.3d-mike.com/
not much recent work anymore by him though

(EDIT: Jesus it looks outdated now

)

A-Train · Oct 2008

Thanks to all, especially Vig and Adam. Great refs guys! OblastradiusO, darkpassage is awesome. I've checked that site out a long while back. Great you posted it, because I was missing my bookmark.

Cody · Oct 2008

My motivation:
http://www.tylerwanlass.com/index.cfm
http://www.envart.com/
http://www.pernroth.nu/
http://www.marc-antoine.ca/
http://www.mikeyspano.com/
http://stefan-morrell.cgsociety.org/gallery/316562/

SHEPEIRO · Oct 2008

my motivation/inspiration, comes from going to cool places, get out and see the world for yourself

PixelMasher · Oct 2008

I love watching documentaries on various cultures/places , movies and flipping through art books for inspiration. plus i usually use the ol' "im gonna study the art" defense to justify buying a new game every week or so.

Environment Art and Inspiration?

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