3D Artist

3D art covers props, characters, vehicles and whole environments. The typical pipeline runs from blockout and high-poly sculpt through retopology and UVs to texturing and the final setup in the engine, and the craft is as much about the budget as the look: polygon counts, texture memory and draw calls decide whether an asset ships.

Tool knowledge is concrete. Blender, Maya and 3ds Max for modelling, Substance and similar packages for materials, ZBrush for sculpting, and Unreal or Unity for integration, lighting checks and shader work.

Many studios hire generalists who can take an asset from reference to engine on their own; larger teams split the work into character, environment and prop specialists. Next to a technical artist, who builds the pipelines and tools, the 3D artist is the one producing the assets that go through them.