Category:Environment


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= Category: Environment = Links dedicated to the design and creation of levels and environment artwork in games.

TableOfContents

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Level Design

 * Level Design Help Files, a collection of help sites for level design themed files - from the MapCore forums
 * Level Design: Concept, Theory, and Practice - by Rudolf Kremers
 * Environment Artist: The Story Teller - by Adam "adamBrome" Bromell
 * How To Develop A Map That Works - from The Valve Developer Community
 * Map Planning - from the Unreal Wiki
 * The Hows and Whys of Level Design - by Sjoerd "hourences" De Jong
 * Ben's Small Bible of Realistic Multiplayer Level Design by Benjamin Bauer
 * What Is Level Design? - by Sérgio Duarte
 * The 400 Project - by Hal Barwood & Noah Falstein
 * Design Techniques and Ideals from The Art of Computer Game Design - by Chris Crawford

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Level Design Blogs

 * Life of a Design Monkey - a blog by Mark Davies, game designer at Ninja Theory
 * Random Encounters in Imaginary Realms - a blog by Random Encounters, game designer
 * Lost Garden - a blog by Danc, game designer
 * CliffyB.com - a blog by Cliff Bleszinski, game designer at Epic Games
 * Level Design - a blog by David Alexander Johnston, freelance game designer

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Environment Workflow

 * Workflow techniques and modularity with Unreal game technology - by Epic Games
 * Environment workflow @ EpicGames - by Kevin Johnstone
 * Unreal Engine 3 tutorials, game industry articles, level design/art/technical tutorials - by Sjoerd "hourences" De Jong
 * Environment workflow from an artist on Crysis - by Stefan Morrell
 * Mod Facade Challenge - by Joe "EarthQuake" Wilson
 * Explanation of an 'imperfection pass' (making things believable) - by Adam "adamBrome" Bromell
 * Adam Bromell's sketchbook thread (work flow processes) - by Adam "adamBrome" Bromell
 * Chris' sketchbook thread (work flow processes) - by Chris "cholden" Holden
 * Visual Semiotics - from Wikipedia
 * What is a visual metaphor? - from Answers.com
 * Level Design Video Tutorials - from 3DBuzz

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Environment Modeling

 * Gears2 Environment Art - by Kevin Johnstone
 * UT3 & Gears Environment Art - by Kevin Johnstone
 * [attachment:rorshach_scifi_supportbeam.pdf SciFi Support Beam PDF] - by Kevin Johnstone
 * Environment tutorials - by Chris "cholden" Holden
 * Environment modeling basics - from the Polycount boards
 * Modeling Bathroom Tiles - by okkun
 * Subdivision Surface Modeling section of the Polycount wiki has more modeling links.

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Environment Sculpting

 * Sculpting for environment stuff - video tutorials - by Sascha Henrichs Sculpting a wooden plank, a sandstone rock, and a tiled cliff.
 * 3dsmax Environment Modeling #1 Procedural Stone - by Sascha Henrichs Using 3ds max procedural modifiers and maps to sculpt a sandstone rock, and easily create multiple variations.
 * Generic wall tutorial - by Bram "Peris" Eulaers Using 3ds Max and Mudbox to sculpt tilable modular sections for a stone wall.
 * Optimisation workflow tutorial - by Bram "Peris" Eulaers Using Meshlab to optimize a Mudbox sculpt for import into 3ds Max.
 * Rock modeling approaches - from the Polycount boards A variety of approaches for sculpting individual rocks and tilable cliffs.
 * Stone Tutorial - by Pedro "bitmap" Amorim Sculpting a rock using Modo, ZBrush, Meshlab, and Photoshop.
 * Creating Perfectly Tiling Meshes in Zbrush for use in Videogame Environments - by Owen "SHEPEIRO" Shepherd Using ZBrush's 2.5D canvas to tile stamped meshes, then using Maya to model tilable geometry.
 * Creating Tiled Textures and Displacement in Mudbox 2009 - by Wayne Robson Painting in Mudbox on the middle of a 3x3 grid where each quad has the same overlapped UVs. (video is about halfway down the page)
 * Tileable Stone in Mudbox - by Sascha Henrichs Sculpting in Mudbox, loading the displacement map in Photoshop for the offset filter, then fixing the seams with more sculpting in Mudbox.
 * Tiling Rock Tutorial in Zbrush - by Stephen Jameson Sculpting in Zbrush, loading the normal map in Photoshop for the offset filter, then fixing the seams in Photoshop.

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Environment Skies

 * Skymap workflow by divi for converting a sky panorama into a square texture, the way Epic does. [attachment:Skymap_workflow.pdf PDF here]
 * How to: Convert a Skybox to a Skydome by Outpt for use in Unreal.
 * Cube Map wiki section describes how to create and use cubemaps.

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Environment Texturing

 * Texture Workflow videos - by Hiten "Mistry10" Mistry, from the Polycount thread Mistry's Texture Workflow w/Video
 * Creating tiling textures in 3dsmax - by Chris "cholden" Holden
 * Thirding - Utilizing your texture space for environment work - by Ben "poopinmymouth" Mathis
 * Hard Surface Texture Painting - by Stefan Morrell
 * Tutorial: Brick Arch (Baking Multiple Maps in 3dsmax) - by mikebart
 * UDN UnrealEngine2 Vertex Blending Tutorial - by Epic Games
 * Using vertex blending to grunge a level and add variety - by Mario "StrangeFate" Vazquez
 * UE3 Terrain Tutorial - by Sjoerd "hourences" De Jong
 * Lighting in game environments - by Sjoerd "hourences" De Jong
 * Painting with Light - by the cinematographer John Alton.

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Industry Information

 * Percentage of environment artists .vs. character artists at most studios - from the Polycount boards
 * What's the difference between a level designer and environment artist? - from the Polycount boards

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Inspiration & Reference

 * Flickr Image Search
 * Google Image Search
 * Yahoo Image Search
 * BBC Motion Gallery - video reference
 * Corbis Motion - video reference
 * Getty Images Footage - video reference
 * The Reference Thread - from the Polycount boards
 * Environment Modeling FAQ & Resources - this page started from this thread on the Polycount boards


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