Research into Job roles

I began to look at the careers pages of various game studios to see what they were expecting from future employees and began to compile a list of what each role contains and what the essential characteristics are.

Environment Artists:

• Understanding of real-world architecture and composition
• Creating and maintaining in-game environments
• Creating models, textures and in-game items from concepts
• Creating in-game lighting
• Consistent art style
• Ability to work in a team
• Advanced 3D and 2D skills
• Ability to learn software quickly
• Self-motivation

Prop Artists

• Model, texture and create collision on in-game assets
• Ensure art style is consistent
• Strong communication skills and team work
• Strong problem solving skills
• Advanced 3D and 2D skills
• Able to adapt to different software and techniques

I feel I am most suited to being a prop or object artist as there's a higher chance of working on many different things, whereas with an environment it means spending a long time working on one piece. However I enjoy placing assets around a scene and set-dressing. I feel that either of these job roles would be good for me. Maybe starting off as a prop artist to get to know the industry and moving on to environments. This would also give me time to work out if prop art is for me or if I want to work on larger scale projects.

EDIT: I found that there were a lot more jobs available for environment artists at this time and feel that having a portfolio designed for this will show off my prop work as well so will tailor my portfolio to environments.