Naughty Dog Environment

Hello everyone,

I have been watching a video lately regarding environments and 3D art. Basically, the video is an interview with a senior environment artist currently working at Naughty Dog. His name is Jacob Norris and he is talking through his artwork, contribution and work mainly on the Uncharted 4. He also provides an overview about technical specifications, workflows, software, skills and techniques, and most importantly different scenarios in which he used them. He also talks about the importance of working both individually and within a team to achieve the best end result possible.

Jacob covers other aspects such as the problems he experienced and also the solutions he come up with. He is also answering very specific questions like texel resolution and budgets or limitations the projects or scenes have through the development process. Also he brings up the importance of feedback and how it is crucial that someone else has an opinion over the work that has been done so you know what and how you can improve it.

He is going over all the environments he worked on, particularly the one in which you could have assets created from generating splines and procedural details as foliage and rivers, which I thought was pretty interesting. Jacob said that re-usability of textures and models is something to take into account when it comes to optimisation, and also the fact that they have to hand place and model every asset in the game gives the artist a lot of freedom and satisfaction.

Another important aspect that he mentions is that whenever something needs to be changed or to be different, the whole scene needs to be rethought and re-done because of it. So you need to be aware of it, and good planning is key.

Near the end of the video, there is also a Q&A session where Jacob gives a lot of useful information as advice, tricks and tips to the audience that are bringing up a wide range of requests and questions. The first one is regarding students and capabilities required by the industry and he talks about the importance of being flexible and learning new software as well as having the passion and motivation to not give up and continue being the best you can be despite of all the other people out there. Another one is the importance of quality of the pieces in the portfolio and how you should always aim for the same type of art as the studio you are applying for.

I think I have learned a lot from this video, and for me it is a good reference when it comes to environment art and design. It will have a great contribution on how I should plan and appreciate my work and also how to solve issues that might occur during the development process.

References

YouTube. (2016). Creating Environments in Uncharted 4 with Jacob Norris.. [online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wDIZa4O3jP4 [Accessed 7 Dec. 2016].