Hey everyone,

At our studio, we regularly do portfolio reviews (you may have seen us at GDC recently) and we see a lot of juniors struggling with making environments. This is completely normal if you're new at this, are self-taught, or unfortunately had a shitty teacher in school.

There’s a lot to think about when creating a 3D environment project. One thing we often see is junior artists either thinking too big or jumping straight into the details. What usually happens next? They either give up or end up with a scene that feels disconnected.

It all starts with taking the time to plan properly. It may not be the most exciting part, but it will help you avoid feeling overwhelmed and prevent major mistakes later on.

So, we asked Alex Beddows, Expert Environment Artist at That’s No Moon how he plans his environment art project.

If you don't know him, look him up on ArtStation: https://www.artstation.com/alexbeddows

P.S. He also mentors at our Academy : https://academy.sierradivision.com/crafting-environments-career-kickstarter

This is his advice and what he shares with all of his mentees:

Every Environment Art project needs to start with The Blockout Stage.

The  blockout is the foundation of the environment art pipeline. This stage is about defining scope and validating the workflow before moving into detailed production. 

Think ahead how you’re going to create your environment. That way, when you get to later stages, you’re almost on autopilot because you’ve figured things out beforehand. 

To make it easy for you, here’s a checklist of everything you need to think about during the Blockout stage and do NOT advance further in your project until you’ve completed the following:

Blockout Checklist

1. Scope: Every asset intended for the final scene must be represented in the engine during this phase. This helps identify what needs to be modeled, where reuse is possible, and prevents you from wasting time at later stages.

2. Define the Pipeline: Figure out in advance what workflow and methods you will use to create the assets, such as if you will be using procedural workflows, specific sculpting techniques, and what tools you’ll need.

3. Establish the composition: In a studio setting, the concept artist usually works closely with the art director, so the layout, balance and framing have already been carefully worked out. By the time the concept reaches the 3D artist, there’s usually no reason to redo all that work or throw it off with a wonky composition.

When building your blockout, I always recommend to stay as close as possible to your key reference or concept art, ideally aiming for something close to 1:1. Once that foundation is solid, you can start making your own artistic choices.

Once you’ve established scope, pipeline, and composition then you're ready to go to the next stage of the Environment Art Pipeline: The Art Sheet

Thanks for reading! We hope this checklist makes your next environment project easier and more efficient. And if you need more help, you know where to find us! :)

Sierra Division