ENVIRONMENT DESIGN

II
ENVIRONMENT CONCEPT ART
Understanding the Basics

Game environments are significant elements of visual storytelling, providing a backdrop that supports the
narrative, evokes the player’s emotions, and establishes the setting for characters and actions. Environment
concept artists achieve this effect due to several aspects:

Purpose and Function Storytelling Mood and Atmosphere

Environment design concept Good environmental art will Color, lighting, and weather
art serves to visualize and always tell an interesting conditions play significant
communicate ideas for story. Environmental roles in setting the mood and
games’ settings, which helps elements create magic within atmosphere of the gaming
establish the mood, time, the scene and enhance the scene.
geography, and cultural overall narrative.
context.
ENVIRONMENT CONCEPT ART
Purpose and Function

Environment design concept art serves to visualize and communicate ideas for games’ settings, which helps
establish the mood, time, geography, and cultural context.
ENVIRONMENT CONCEPT ART
Storytelling

Good environmental art will always tell an interesting story. Environmental elements create magic within the
scene and enhance the overall narrative.
ENVIRONMENT CONCEPT ART
Mood and Atmosphere

Color, lighting, and weather conditions play significant roles in setting the mood and atmosphere of the gaming
scene.
ENVIRONMENT CONCEPT ART
Perspective drawing

Is the king of these aspects, a foundational instrument for creating realistic and believable environments. Its
key principles are the horizon line (represents the viewer’s eye level and is the anchor for the perspective
grid), vanishing points (one-point perspective, two-point perspective, and three-point perspective), and
overlapping (placing objects in front of each other to create a sense of space and depth).

As a result, these fundamentals form elements of composition

in environment art:
Rule of thirds
Leading lines
Balance
Framing
Contrast
Depth
ENVIRONMENT CONCEPT ART PROCESS
Values & Thumbnail Template

Remember, only use about 4-5 minutes each, and don’t

sweat any details. We’re all about the composition here.
Just use your hard round brush without opacity
pressure sensitivity setting, and keep color picking from
the down right corner to pick between the white, 33%
grey, 66% grey and the black. Try to make your
composition out of these colors only. Limitation is what
leads you to mastery.

Be fluid, try to think of random cool concepts in your

mind; a lone tree in a vast valley, spiky rocks with a
hero standing next to them, a lake with some mountains
in the background, just keep it simple in the beginning.
ENVIRONMENT CONCEPT ART PROCESS
Starting To Paint The Thumbnails
ENVIRONMENT CONCEPT ART PROCESS
The Process After Thumbnailing - Sketching
ENVIRONMENT CONCEPT ART PROCESS
The Process After Thumbnailing - Sketching (rough layouts)

Roughs are preliminary sketches that focus on the composition and structure of a piece. They are more
detailed than thumbnails but still quick and loose. Their main feature is to help environment concept artists
establish the basic framework of a composition, define the main focal points, and balance visual elements
within the composition.
ENVIRONMENT CONCEPT ART PROCESS
The Process After Thumbnailing - Color Roughs
ENVIRONMENT CONCEPT ART PROCESS
Texturing and Detailing
ENVIRONMENT FINALIZATION
Visual consistency — ensure the artwork matches with the
established art style and visual guidelines of the project.
Composition and layout — the composition should be balanced
and follow the principles we’ve described before.
Lighting and shadows — check that the lighting is consistent with
the established light sources and has a positive impact on the
mood and depth of the scene.
Detailing and textures — ensure that the level of detail is
consistent across the entire artwork, with no areas appearing
overly detailed or too simplistic in comparison.
Atmospheric effects — remember that atmospheric effects like
fog, mist, rain, or light rays should be well-integrated and
enhance the scene without overpowering it.
Scale and proportion — check that all elements within the scene
are proportionally accurate and consistent with each other.
Technical accuracy — the artwork files are well-organized, with
layers appropriately named and grouped for easy access and
future adjustments.
Narrative and storytelling — make sure that the environment
effectively conveys the intended narrative and aligns with the
story elements.
LEVEL DESIGN VS ENVIRONMENT ART
What is environment art?

Before the 2000s, level designers often made their

own environment art too. But today, a level
designer is usually supposed to make as little
visual art as possible, and the environment artist
is usually supposed to wait for a mature blockout
before beginning an art pass. However, when
working in a small team, level designers will likely
have to source or make their own environment art,
and vice versa.
Here we will focus on general environment art
principles and high level concerns, so that level
designers can better understand the art process
and collaborate with environment artists. This is
not an environment art book.
LEVEL DESIGN VS ENVIRONMENT ART
How to plan env art

Theme. What is the time of day, climate, and

location for the level?

Gameplay. Which parts need emphasis? What

should be simple, what should be detailed?

Style. Realistic or stylized? What type of

realism, what type of style?

Palette. What's the overall color palette, what's

the mood? What kinds of shapes?

Production. Which parts need to be done first,

and which should be last (or never)?
LEVEL DESIGN VS ENVIRONMENT ART
Concept art

Concept art is generally any visual art used for

planning the game, but not used in the game
itself.
Sometimes the goal of concept art is to convey
a desired theme or overall mood, while other
times it must communicate technical
specifications and details for art assets. Ask
yourself, is this concept art meant to inspire, or
is it trying to solve a specific visual design
problem?
Inspirational mood art is most useful during pre-
production (especially when pitching a
commercial project to a publisher) or early
production, but detailed technical art is more
useful later in production.
LEVEL DESIGN VS ENVIRONMENT ART
Paintovers

A paintover is a type of concept art that

starts with a 3D screenshot and then an
artist literally "paints over" the underlying
screenshot to visualize the next version.
It is very common to paintover a blockout
screenshot to plan an art pass. This workflow
saves a lot of time because the artist doesn't
have to manually draft the perspective
calculations for basic shapes. For this reason,
even 2D artists should have at least some
basic knowledge of 3D art tools, so they can
potentially build their own blockouts for
paintovers.
Sometimes the artist fully renders some
finished-looking concept art (see image
above)... but usually the paintover is about
providing direct feedback between artists:
suggested edits, corrections, and notes (see
image below).
LEVEL DESIGN VS ENVIRONMENT ART
Model sheets

A model sheet is a more specific type of concept art for

individual art assets that includes orthographic views
for production artists to work from, as well as
contextual mockups to show how that asset should be
used within the game.
In the concept art / model sheet pictured below, note
how we get a good sense of how this octagonal ice
crystal platform model will fit into the whole
environment theme. Furthermore, the orthographic top
and bottom views answer the prop artist's questions
about construction and color, and can be easily brought
into a 3D modeling tool as reference. The orthographics
emphasize the golden corner trim of each platform,
while the bottom-right illustration shows how the corner
trims tile together for an interlocking visual effect --
together, it helps the environment artist understand
which details are important to preserve and carry over
to the in-game asset.
LEVEL DESIGN VS ENVIRONMENT ART
Art assets

After some planning, artists produce art

assets -- visual objects to insert directly
into the level. Unlike concept art, this is
what the game engine must read and what
the player will see in-game.
When producing art assets, keep in mind:
The Brief. What is the task? What does
this asset need to do?
Approval. Who gives feedback on this
asset? How will we know if it works?
Scope. How much time to make this
asset? Small rare details deserve less
time.
Workflow. How many steps to make this
asset? In which tools?
Pipeline. How to export art into a format
that the engine can read?
LEVEL DESIGN VS ENVIRONMENT ART
Asset list

Before making environment art, you may

need to make an asset list, a list of all
the art assets needed for a particular
scene or level. Asset lists are usually in
some sort of spreadsheet format, listing
each asset's priority and estimated
production time.
LEVEL DESIGN VS ENVIRONMENT ART
Materials and textures

Textures are 2D images that cover the

3D surface of the map. Since the 2000s
we often combine multiple textures
together into materials, texture bundles
with additional data like roughness,
shininess, light emission, etc.

For environment art, texture design and

layout is very important. Unlike
character skins, we often reuse world
textures heavily throughout levels. The
ideal environment texture needs to be
able to work well in many different
situations: it should tile well across a
surface, but also easily divide into
reusable parts.
LEVEL DESIGN VS ENVIRONMENT ART
Modular kit

A modular kit is a 3D tileset made of

modules, environmental meshes
designed to snap together in a variety of
ways. Modules are most effective for
buildings and structures that make
regular use of repetition along a grid, but
they don't work as well for organic or
natural shapes.
There are many cases where modular
meshes will not connect cleanly,
especially if you build off-grid or at non-
90 degree angles. Nonetheless, you may
still want to preserve certain angles or
odd lengths, for metrics reasons or to
evoke a gritty dirty non-manufactured
natural feel. In these cases, just let the
modules freely intersect, and then cover
the messy intersection with another
object.
LEVEL DESIGN VS ENVIRONMENT ART
Hero props / landmarks

World Building

Readability
Color and value

Details (props, foliage, clutter, set dressing)