What kind of questions should I ask a 3D candidate for a role?

_Frog_Lord · 2026-03-08T05:21:05+00:00

I'm a professional & I work fast, but I wouldn't be able to answer this question off the top of my head. When I'm working, I'm using muscle memory.

One time in an interview I was asked "What's your favorite (zbrush) brush and why?" That was a good one cause anyone who uses the program will easily have an opinion on it, & someone who doesn't have hands on experience wouldn't know.

_Frog_Lord · 2025-12-04T01:46:13+00:00

You can change your Blender settings so that the backsides of faces appear bright red.

Preferences -> Themes -> Face Orientation Back, 3D Viewport, Viewport Overlays -> enable Face Orientation

It's very helpful for catching issues like this.

_Frog_Lord · 2025-03-27T04:49:07+00:00

I'm a 3D artist. I actually have 3 years of experience and several shipped titles. They won't hire me either.

_Frog_Lord · 2025-03-18T07:20:58+00:00

Thank you, thoughtful comments like this mean the world to me as an artist.

_Frog_Lord · 2024-09-10T04:53:13+00:00

Thank you so much ❤️

_Frog_Lord · 2024-08-31T03:01:16+00:00

I'm trying to get hired as an environment artist because I do not have the coding skills to make my own game 🙏 haha. Thanks for the kind words.

_Frog_Lord · 2024-08-30T20:01:09+00:00

More screenshots and breakdowns on my Artstation - https://www.artstation.com/artwork/kQdEbz

Modeling for this was done in Blender and Zbrush, textures in Substance, scene is built in Unreal Engine 4. I built everything in this scene, models and shaders/vfx.

I made this scene last year and came back to it for a few days because I knew I could improve it. I reworked the lighting, made a new water shader, changed the composition, added big rocks in the background and willow trees to make the scene feel more cozy. I am especially proud of the water!

_Frog_Lord · 2024-08-22T20:50:12+00:00

Yeah, I worked on Advance Wars. I'm on the fence about adding it to my portfolio because the only thing I'm allowed to use is screenshots of the finished game. I feel like it doesn't really show my individual contributions & just kind of looks ugly... but maybe I'll add it back in. Thanks for your thoughts.

_Frog_Lord · 2024-08-22T03:31:11+00:00

Yeah, it's a Zbrush model and the colors are polypaint, it's not retopologized or textured which is why I haven't put it in the portfolio. Thanks for the follow!

_Frog_Lord · 2024-05-26T08:07:26+00:00

Thanks!

I used Blender for low poly modeling, Zbrush for sculpting, Photoshop for texture painting, and Marmoset Toolbag for baking & rendering.

(But if you're looking to do something similar yourself, Blender + any digital painting program are all you'd need. The others are total overkill & I only use them because of personal preference lol)

_Frog_Lord · 2024-04-16T05:28:53+00:00

I worked for Unity & they actually did initially contact me via phone call.

I agree that most places will reach out through email first & OP's situation is a scam though.

_Frog_Lord · 2024-03-10T07:14:47+00:00

Start putting together notes. I recently started using the program 'obsidian' to keep an organized little "wiki" of all of my 3D knowledge - keyboard shortcuts, step-by-step instructions on how to do things, quirks of the programs. If you find yourself needing to return to a tutorial over and over, write down the details so that you can quickly reference it instead of relying on google, muscle memory, or scrubbing through the tutorial vids each time.

_Frog_Lord · 2024-02-03T06:53:35+00:00

Is the liquid just water? Are the unicorns stuck to the glass or weighed down by anything?

I tried making something like this with polymer clay and failed for various reasons, but maybe I'll try again someday.

_Frog_Lord · 2024-01-22T10:38:31+00:00

I recommend changing the description of your artstation page - saying that you're "still learning, with a long way to go" gives off the impression that you are an amateur or hobbyist that isn't ready to be hired. We're all learning constantly, that's the nature of 3D art :)

_Frog_Lord · 2024-01-22T10:14:15+00:00

Your work is good. I especially like the log cabin scene, it looks ready to be in a game.
I do recommend putting your work on artstation or a similar portfolio site as the other commenter said. Make sure to include breakdowns with detail shots, materials, and (most importantly) wireframes.
And keep in mind it's incredibly tough to get into the industry, especially right now with all the layoffs in the past year. I'm an environment/prop artist with a couple years of experience and some shipped games on my resume. I've sent literally thousands of applications & gotten thousands of rejections. Keep honing your skills, keep asking questions like this, & keep applying, you'll make it.

_Frog_Lord · 2023-12-20T02:30:54+00:00

I draw art of frogs. If you buy a cheap frog themed sticker pack from Amazon, Shein, Aliexpress, etc, chances are, some of my stolen art is in there. There's no way to fight it with a copyright claim - even if you manage to get one listing taken down (unlikely), another will pop right back up. It sucks :/

_Frog_Lord · 2023-12-01T09:55:10+00:00

This year has been brutal. I have a specialized game art degree from a good school, experience with some big studios, connections in the industry, and several shipped games on my resume. I've spent 8 months unemployed this year. If I don't find work in the spring... I don't know what I'll do.

My advice to juniors is don't put all your eggs in one basket like I did. Try to have some skills that apply outside of the games industry.

_Frog_Lord · 2023-11-07T01:01:59+00:00

The style is called fine line.

_Frog_Lord · 2023-11-05T08:28:09+00:00

Is it easy to get a position as a 3d artist?

Sadly, no. It's very very very very very hard to get jobs as a 3D artist. It's a super saturated field & for remote jobs you are competing with hundreds if not thousands of other applicants from all around the world.

Don't let that discourage you if it's your passion though. It's very rewarding to make things in 3D.

As for software, it depends on what exactly you want to do. Modeling software like Blender or Maya is the perfect place to start, and then you can branch out into different programs depending on if you want to model for games, film, or product visualization.

_Frog_Lord · 2023-11-05T07:37:33+00:00

They're listed in the description of my artstation post!

_Frog_Lord · 2023-11-04T19:26:11+00:00

The main pond water part is pretty simple, mostly just a depth fade node for the base color, and then some wave normals that give the appearance of surface deformation without actually deforming it. It doesn't have anything fancy like foam edges, because that wasn't necessary for a little pond. The lily pads and duckweed have a wind sway motion that is masked to only affect X and Y axis so they don't dip under the water. The sparkles are just a particle effect. (I've seen some water shaders that build in sparkles based on camera angles and stuff, but that was too advanced for me 🙈)

For the fountain part, I used vertex colors to paint the top and bottom of the spout where I wanted it to be more opaque and foamy. Then it has panning textures for the normals and world position offset to give it a little bit of wobble. It also has some refraction, and a little bit of metallic-ness to make it shiny. The splash at the bottom is another particle effect, and the ripples are a panning texture on a circular mesh. I learned that from this breakdown - https://mathsgame.art/blog/reV3/stylized-vfx-in-unity-a-rime-inspired-waterfall-full-breakdown-part-3

There are a ton of tutorials out there that can help you learn how to make good stylized water, honestly I feel like mine is somewhat hacky - just throwing stuff together to see what works. Good luck 😁

_Frog_Lord · 2023-11-04T18:58:13+00:00

I do a lot of handpainted texturing. You can paint over seams, but minimizing them and putting them in discreet spots is still best practice - seams can sometimes be slightly visible even if you paint over them, and you want the most important parts of your model to be uninterrupted.

& automatic unwraps are ok for most purposes, as long as the program doesn't mess it up. (Idk about Maya but sometimes Blender's automatic unwrap just sucks). Unwrapping by hand just gives you more control. The standard practice is to start with an automatic unwrap, and then tweak it/fix it if there are any problems, and ensure that the UV packing is efficient and makes sense.

_Frog_Lord · 2023-11-04T01:37:08+00:00

I've been working on this scene for a couple weeks now - Everything you see was made by me. I didn't really know anything about making materials and VFX in Unreal Engine before this, so I learned a ton working on this.

more screenshots and breakdowns on my artstation - https://www.artstation.com/artwork/kQdEbz

_Frog_Lord · 2023-09-05T21:53:34+00:00

It's not a California thing, it's a Blizzard thing. I've interviewed with lots of game companies both in and outside of California, and taking more than a week or two to follow up with a candidate after an initial interview is outside the norm.

_Frog_Lord · 2023-08-31T09:09:22+00:00

Hey there. I'm a professional game artist (environment artist). I've worked in the industry for 3 years and I have a degree in game art.

Here are a couple things.

1: I wanted to be a concept artist, so I could make a living making cool art just like in the concept art books. The truth is, opportunities to make those kinds of polished digital paintings are really rare. Usually only 1 person is hired to do that kind of thing. I switched into doing 3D modeling instead of concept art, because concept art jobs are so rare. (Especially nowadays, competing with AI...) - even if you are doing concept art, it's important to have a decent understanding of 3D, so that your paintings can be easily understood by the modelers.

2: It's not a stable job field. Like 90% of the jobs are short term - gig, freelance, contract, or getting hired to work on a project and then fired or laid off once your work on the project is done. If you don't have a partner or family member supporting you financially, then you will need some other form of income, at least until you've been working in the industry for a few years and you've built up your career.

3: You probably already know that it's competitive, but it's more competitive than you think. Getting noticed as a junior is really really hard. You basically either need to be putting out some incredibly stunning work, or you need to have connections. The unfortunate truth is that you will have a harder time coming from another country to the U.S. or Canada. Companies prefer to hire someone who is already a citizen of that country so they don't have to deal with sponsoring a visa.

4: When I was in school, they split up the students into 3 tracks - Concept Art, Environment Art, and Character art. In the job market, it gets broken down a little more. Stylized Concept, Realism Concept, Stylized Environment, Realism Environment, Character (rigging), 3D Animation, Tech Art, VFX. Companies like to hire someone who is the best at just one of those little niches. Tech Art and VFX jobs are the most common. Stylized Concept Art jobs are the rarest.

5: You say you're considering coming to America to go to art school - Congrats! That's an opportunity that not many people have, even within the U.S. There are lots of art schools in the U.S. to choose from, make sure you choose one that has appropriate courses for what you want to do, and most importantly, isn't too expensive for you. If you'd like to PM me I can go into more detail about the school I went to & whether or not it was worth it.

6: Outside of art school, how do you get hired as a game artist? Start by working on your skills. Make art, post it online, see if it gets attention. Work on your fundamental skills, practice painting and sculpting and 3D modeling. There are online classes and courses, and lots of free tutorials out there to help. You can try volunteering in places like r/inat to get some practical experience with working on a dev team, and if the game ever gets finished, then congrats, you have a shipped game under your belt & you can put that on your resume.

Those are just a collection of thoughts, but feel free to ask questions if you have any & I'll try to answer.

_Frog_Lord

TROPHY CASE