Category:Environment

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This page is distilled from the thread Environment Modeling FAQ & Resources.

Level Design

• Environment Artist: The Story Teller - by Adam Bromell aka adamBrome
• 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 De Jong aka hourences
• Ben's Small Bible of Realistic Multiplayer Level Design by Benjamin Bauer
• What Is Level Design? - by Sérgio Duarte
• Unreal Tournament 2003 video tutorials - from 3D Buzz

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

Environment Modeling - Planning & 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 De Jong aka hourences
• Environment workflow from an artist on Crysis - by Stefan Morrell
• Mod Facade Challenge - by Joe Wilson aka EarthQuake
• Explanation of an 'imperfection pass' (making things believable) - by Adam Bromell aka adamBrome
• Adam Bromell's sketchbook thread (work flow processes) - by Adam Bromell aka adamBrome
• Chris' sketchbook thread (work flow processes) - by Chris Holden aka cholden

Environment Modeling - Techniques

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

Environment Texturing

• Creating Perfectly Tiling Meshes in Zbrush for use in Videogame Environments - by Owen Shepherd aka SHEPEIRO
• Creating tiling textures in 3dsmax - by Chris Holden aka cholden
• Thirding - Utilizing your texture space for environment work - by Ben Mathis aka poopinmymouth
• 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 Vazquez aka StrangeFate
• UE3 Terrain Tutorial - by Sjoerd De Jong aka hourences
• Lighting in game environments - by Sjoerd De Jong aka hourences
• Painting with Light - by the cinematographer John Alton.

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

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
• The SkyscraperPage Forum
• Ontario Architecture - Building Terms - a large collection of example images
• Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts - Building Terms - images and terms for Eastern architecture
• Container shipping accidents
• Shields Around The World
• Urbex - urban decay
• Urban Adventure in Rotterdam - urban decay
• Opacity.us - urban decay
• Forbidden Places - urban decay
• Modern Ruins - urban decay
• Ohio Trespassers - urban decay
• Underground Kent - urban decay
• Ghost Town Explorers - urban decay

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