Some people may ask what a games artist is and what do they do, well I will discuss what a games artist is with a description of each major job role. What they do depends on the job role that they are working on in the industry.
The Animator
The Animator is one of the major job roles in the games industry because without the Animator the game would be still with no movements which basically means there would be no game. The salary for working as an animator depends on how experienced you are working on this job role. It starts from 12,000 to 25,000 which is aimed at Animators with about 10 years experience animating. Most games if not all need an Animator and some may need more than one depending on the game they are making, for example for a game with multiple characters I would imagine needs more than one unless the characters are not moving etc. This is the reason the salary for the Animator is quite high.
The Animator is the one who creates the key frames for the character/object to make the character/object animate in the scene. Animators don't just work on games either, they work on films and television as well as games. Usually if the Animator is working on a big animation, then they need several other Animators to help them work on it. Animators also work on cut scenes and F.M.V ( full motion video) in both games and films. Cut scenes are things within a game which the player has no control or limited control within the game, its basically a mini clip of part of the story which you have to watch. The good thing about cut scenes is it splits the game play up and advances the plot for the story of the game so you can get a good idea on where the story is going. F.M.V is a technique that uses pre-recorded video files to display actions within a game. Most of the time this is used during cut scenes to present certain information.
Animators also work on rigging the character/object for the game. This is basically like adding bones to the character/object by skinning the rig to the character making sure its done correctly so that it is able to move smoothly for it to be animated and then put into the game. Motion capture is also the Animators job if the company uses motion capture then the Animator has to use it for animation within the game they are producing. It records the movement of a person or an object and takes the actions recorded, placing the human actors onto digital models making them animate to how the real life figure has moved.
Here is a link to show motion capture in Avatar:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1wK1Ixr-UmM
If you are the sort of person who doesn't really like modelling things or think that you may not be that good then the Animator job role is a good one to aim for.
Vehicle artist
As you can tell from the job role title, a vehicle artist is a good job role for people who love vehicles and love modelling because nowadays vehicles in games have tons of detail due to the model and the textures applied to it. It takes a lot of skill and time in order to model a good and game ready vehicle, obviously this depends on the game you are working for. This is due to massive experience in modelling and a lot of practice to get it perfect and game ready. Also have to have experience modelling vehicles already as it takes a long time to get good at it. Many games are like this, mostly racing games like Need for Speed, Forza Motorsport and Grand Theft Auto etc. The vehicle artist works on all parts of the vehicle including interior, exterior and LOD's (level of detail) with all the little details to make it look much more realistic. The interior is the inside of the vehicle and the exterior is the outside of the vehicle etc. Sometimes a vehicle artist would have to rig a vehicle as well to get the right physics for the vehicle to move correctly and to get the camera at the right angle.
A good thing about being a vehicle artist is that you can set up complex shaders for the vehicle in order for it to get the nice shiny effect and add in all the detail needed for the game. Nowadays you need to know how to add complex shaders to vehicles in order for them to fit well with the game especially racing games. The salary income depends on how much the company pays for that job role because all companies pay differently. Vehicles can also be part of a prop artists job as well but mainly when not many vehicles are not needed for the game.
Object/Prop artist
A object/prop job role is good for people who are not very good at modelling or have little to none on working with 3D modelling software like Maya, Zbrush etc. Although this may not sound like a fun job role to work on, it really is because doing this job role you will have to model loads of different objects and props which helps give you chance to work on different artistic styles when working on games. The number of props you may have to make would depend on how big the game is and how much detail is needed for it. For example Call of Duty would need a lot of props making etc. When making objects/props you need to make sure you work on LOD's (level of detail) on each model to make them look more realistic if needed. When you say props you think of little things like table, chairs, street lamp, plant, fence, wall etc. Basically anything that can be implemented into the environment built by the environment artist. Sometimes the prop artist will have to work on big objects such as vehicles, fountain, statue etc. A good thing to do when working as a object/prop artist is to use a lot of reference on what you are building or plan to build just so you can get a better idea of what you need to add or build for your model. Also concept is good for building a object/prop because it shows what you want to build. If you have a short attention spam then this job role is ideal for you and is easy to get into. Also it contains a lot of varied work so you will not always be working on the same thing which may make it less boring for some people. The salary for this role depends on who you work for.
Character artist
You can kind of tell from the title what this is all about. It is one of those job roles which needs quality work and loads of experience in order for you to get a good model of a character at the end of it. A character will take a long time to build but sometimes it may not depending on what game you are producing it for. It is a good role for people who have a good understanding in anatomy and know the form of a human body with all the names of the major bones in order for them to build the character model correctly. need excellent modelling skills in order to produce a good model and texturing skills to make it look realistic and fit well for the game. If not very good at modelling or haven't had a lot of practice then it is probably better to skip this job role, unless you feel you want to learn how to make characters. The character artists salary is quite high due to how much skill and time it takes to model a character correctly and make it look perfect.The salary for this job role depends on the company you work for.
Concept artist
This is kind of easy to understand what this role is. This is basically a good job role for people with really good experience in drawing skills. Its mainly focused on 2D drawings of sketches through to the finished concept which will then be used for the 3D artist to build there model from. It helps give the 3D artist a general idea on what it is they have to build and much clearer instructions on what to do for the asset they are building. You need to work under a time limit doing this job role because many artist are also under a time limit to build something which they can only start building from a piece of concept most of the time. This sort of job role is one of the first job roles in the game developing process. The salary is different for this job role from all companies as they may pay less or more depending on the amount of work you do.
The GUI (Game User Interface) artist
The objective of this job role is to design and create the menus for the game and the HUD (Heads Up Display). With this job role you will be working really closely with the programmers because the programmers are the ones who program the menus/HUD into the game to get them working and so that the options you click on, take you to the correct thing. This role is quite specialized, you need to be good at creating menus and have some experience of working with this before attempting to go for this job role in the Industry. You need a lot of patience and have some good art skills to produce a good and quality menu/HUD in order for them to be ready for the game.
Environment Artist
Now this job role is exactly what it says in the title. The job role consists of a artist to focus on 1 environment for a long period of time and work on all the scenery and big objects that are in the environment. This is one of the largest job roles that is in the industry compared to other job roles. It takes up a lot of your time especially when working in a company and even in your own time if you really want to be the best at it. Takes a lot of practice to get everything perfect in the environment and some things like foliage are hard to get right. Sometimes you may have to work on an environment using a written brief with no images to work from but most of the time you will have concept work to work from this includes sketches of environments and environmental objects and concept art based on the game you are working for. You must have a lot of experience and have worked a lot on environments for this job role and be a really good 3D modeller in order to make a good environment. Not just artistic skills but technical and design skills too.
The SFX ( Special Effects) Artist
This job role is quite interesting compared to the others as it rarely focuses on building any 3D models. The main job for this is to create visual styles and use particle effects in game and cut scenes throughout the game. This is also used in films as well to have people flying or running up walls etc. Matrix uses visual effects. It helps give desired effects to the game/film to make it more interesting and add detail to the game. This is how 3D models are added into films. Particle effects are things like fire and smoke etc. They are used a lot in games nowadays and have nearly always been used ever since games were first produced.
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