VINCENT DEROZIER - LEAD MATERIAL ARTIST Q&A

Vincent has worked on some of the largest titles in the industry, from Assassin’s Creed Black Flag to Assassin’s Creed Odyssey and now Gods & Monsters. In this Q&A we discuss what it’s like working on such large projects, the role of Material Artists in a team, his responsibilities as Lead Material Artist, common mistakes he sees in Junior Artists as well as advice on how to better improve your portfolio.

Introduction

Hi, my name is Vincent Dérozier, I’m Lead Material Artist on Gods and Monsters at Ubisoft Québec, Canada. I’m from France and have a traditional drawing background. I got into the 3D world because I love games, environments and storytelling. The first video game I played was Mario Bros 1 on NES but the ones that made me think about working in the games industry were all of the Rare games on N64.

AAA Industry and Teamwork

Can you describe what an average day as a Material Artist is like? What is your average day as a Lead Material Artist?

An average day of a Material Artist is spent creating material content for a family of assets. Every Artist is in charge of a different kit of materials using different software (ZBrush, Photoshop, 3ds Max, Blender, Substance Designer, Substance Painter etc.). They are in charge of the coherence between their own materials as much as being sure modellers needs are fulfilled with it.

As Lead Material Artist, I spend my days making sure everyone follows the Material Art direction I identify at the beginning of the project and has no issues applying it. I also dispatch the work and make sure everyone can work in good conditions without any blockers. Finally, I produce materials myself for specific kits and benchmarks.

Where do Material Artists fall in the pipeline? What are things Modellers and Level Designers can do to help the material pipeline? 

On Assassin’s Creed Odyssey we had modellers that created the 3D assets, Level Artists that placed them to build the world and Materials Artists that created materials for those assets. Most of the materials were proposed by the Material Artists to create an optimal kit of materials. Modellers and Level Artists also requested specific materials if needed.

What is the workflow of a Material Artist like compared to an Environment Artist? What is the iteration process like?

Material Artists are often Environment Artists specialised in texture. They are mainly focusing on material creation and don’t build entire environments on their own. Instead, they create the materials for it and if needed, specific assets to show how a recipe works. Applying those recipes in the entire level is the work of the full-time Environment Artists.

When communicating and working with Level Designers and Environment Artists, what are some common errors or frustrations that happen? How can these be avoided or improved by either side?

Working in a group is a powerful thing but can have some limitations depending on your level of communication. Most of the mishaps happen when everyone does not have the same references, vocabulary or vision. Everyone can do a good job, but once reunited it becomes clear it’s not working together.

To avoid that, building a common vocabulary and knowing the same artistic concepts is as essential as sharing work in progress with everyone. 

What is the hardest part about being a Lead Material Artist?

Maybe being able to instantly blend in the work of other people. It requires a lot of attention and being up to date on many subjects. It drains a lot of energy but is also really rewarding. It really is a great feeling to help the team and the project.

What are the best ways you’ve found for providing feedback to your artists? Have you found ineffective ways of giving feedback? 

Something really important in the long run is to build a healthy critique atmosphere where everyone can help and challenge each other without being toxic. I always try to give feedback in context, meaning I adapt what I say depending on the period of the production, the level of completion of the material and the level of expertise of the artist I’m talking to. For me it’s really important to point out what works well as much as what doesn’t and to identify it with a specific vocabulary. That way everyone can build the same understanding and help each other afterwards. 

When working with a team, what are the most common mistakes new artists make? How could these be avoided or improved?

Everyone is different but taking critique on your art can be hard, it can be mistaken as a personal critique when on the contrary it’s a helping guidance. My advice is to embrace the critique because iteration is the secret to good art.

Working with references is also something really important new artists don’t do enough. Having good references means that you search and select some, and by that, you sharpen your artistic eye and vocabulary. 

How do you keep realistic physical properties? Do you have pre-loaded material templates in Designer? Do you use material charts with values or do you adopt the ‘that looks close enough!’ workflow?

The advantage of a PBR workflow is that it comes with charts that are good guidelines for Base Colour or Gloss Luminance, building tools to spot forbidden ones is really important. For Assassin’s Creed Odyssey that’s also why we built a material library, it helps a lot for the artistic style but also technical consistency.

Career

If you were starting your career over today, what would you do?

Hopefully the same things, find a studio that is willing to take me and harass Senior Artists with dumb questions! A lot of the tricks I use at work, I learned those from the people that trained me at Ubisoft Annecy in 2010. All of the advice about optimization, UV unwrapping or old gen tricks are priceless.

When working with a team, what do you find the most helpful traits for Junior to Mid-level artists? 

Curiosity and humility because both are really important to learn and to keep learning throughout your career.

For artists just starting in the realm of 3D what do you think are the most important concepts to learn and any tools/software you would recommend learning?

The artistic and technical basics are fundamentals. It’s what will allow you to create things you’ve never done or bend the rules when needed. So colour theory, composition, a good artistic culture and sense of critique are important. You also need to know how to bake assets, unwrap proper UVs, use tileable materials, play with smoothing groups, sculpt, hard surface and material composition. 

Everything that will help you to be autonomous.

What level do big companies like Ubisoft expect from interns/students? Do they need to be really close to Junior level to be accepted or is there a big difference? Do you have tips for anyone seeking an internship? (Anything, from focusing on fundamentals to learning specific programs or workflows.)

Interns have by default less experience than a Junior Artist, it would not be fair to expect the same level for both. Being an intern means that you will work like everyone else so you will at least need some fundamentals in art and software to execute your mandate properly with of course the guidance of your colleagues.

I started as an intern with a degree in art and a base in 3D, everything else I learnt from my colleagues.

Do foreign students have less of a chance to be accepted as an intern at Ubisoft than students from where the office is located? (Because of relocation)

It’s not depending on a specific company, every country protects local work by putting experience limits for immigrant workers, that’s pretty usual. That’s why it’s almost impossible to hire someone that doesn’t have few years of experience and is from an another country. Some countries have open Visas for young applicants but you need to do it on your own most of the time.

What tips do you have for newly graduated/Junior Artists trying to land their first job in the industry, or even getting the first interview? 

Try to adapt your portfolio depending on the field, company or position you are looking for. For example when I see animation exercises rendered in V-Ray and the candidate applies for a position of Material Artist in the games industry it’s hard to relate to it. It’s okay to do exercises and test things but not everything needs to be in your portfolio.

Do you have any key presentation tips to make a portfolio shine and stand out?

I would say less is best, few good works in your portfolio are enough because you are always judged on the worst piece. There is no magic number of pieces to have in a book, one can work if it’s solid. Also keep things simple. If you want to showcase a material, do few screenshots instead of rendering 50 random seeds of the same material as this is not helpful. 

Materials are pretty common these days but they are almost never used on a mesh example in game condition. If I see a material blended on a wall with a little ground in UE4 I’m happier than if the material is on a Sphere alone and rendered in Iray.

How should we apply for an Environment Artist position? Do we strictly require an environment or would just assets work?

It really depends of the studio as each one makes their Environment Artists do different parts of the job. To know how a studio works, check the portfolios of their artists. An Environment Artist at Sony Santa Monica, Ubisoft, Arkane Studios or EA will not do exactly the same things. When you spot how a studio works and want to postulate, you can get a better target of their needs.

How would you prepare for starting a job as a Junior Environment Artist for a AAA games studio like Ubisoft, Santa Monica etc.? Should a self taught artist make sure to focus on anything additional?

Again, art and 3D basics are the key to getting hired as much as creating a portfolio to showcase it. The games industry is full of self-taught artists, degrees are only important for immigration papers.

What was the most difficult thing you had to create and how did you overcome the challenge?

So far I would say implementing Substance for Assassin’s Creed Odyssey with my colleague and friend Pierre Fleau. It was a bit scaring and exciting how things would scale up or be received on such a big production. We talked about that workflow for so many years so the excitement was real. 

We overcome it with the infinite support of everyone at Ubisoft Québec and it turned out to be a game changer for us so it’s maybe one of my most memorable professional moments so far.

Workflow

Do Material Artists often consider the colour composition of an environment or is this not a concern as the materials are often reused in many spaces?

Colour is the biggest artistic leverage there is, it has to be taken into consideration by Material Artists. If materials are shared or reused, it needs to be taken into account even more to dispatch budgets and art direction properly.

What ways do you ensure the quality and style of the materials across your team are consistent?  

Teaching fundamentals, sharing data and giving grounded feedback are for me, the key to consistent quality. 

Quality and art style can only be met by practice so I always encourage people to do things they have never done before, several times. That way you can fail and learn from it which is really important.

Which workflow do you use in Ubisoft?

On Assassin’s Creed Odyssey we developed a hybrid workflow that would allow us to sculpt in Substance Designer and do layering in Substance Painter, using the strength of each software. If you want a detailed breakdown we did an exhaustive talk at GDC 2019 with Pierre Fleau.

Is it better to add the details through decals or with Vertex Paint?

It’s a matter of context. Adding detail can be done directly in the textures if you handle rhythm properly, decals are great as they can be applied on a lot of assets at the same time but vertex paint per asset can drive powerful height blends. I would recommend using all of those leverages depending on your needs.

How do you keep consistent texel density on assets which are using trim sheets/texture atlas's? Is it a matter of smart UV organisation/breaking UV shells up?

Setting rules and debug tools really helps every artist to ensure the project has consistent texel density. It’s less about seams of UV shells than pixel ratio depending on the size of those UV shells.

For anyone starting Substance Designer for the first time what are your recommendations? 

Practice, Practice, Practice. Substance Designer is an amazing iterative software that will help you grow if you practice. This means at first you should avoid reusing parts of your graphs. Redo it every time until it becomes natural. Artists that copy/paste their own graphs endlessly tend to make great things without understanding it. Would you copy/paste parts of a drawing endlessly? 

Then when it starts to flow naturally, create tools to win time.

Future Work

I’m pretty busy at work and in my personal life as well so I’m not planning specific new projects for the moment. 

Advice & Tips

Practice and critiques are for me the main two things you need to think about everyday. Just try things and share those on platforms like Polycount, Discord channels, Ten Thousand Hours (Facebook page) or with fellow artists directly. Finding like minded people that share your passion will make you win precious time on your journey.

Outro

Getting into the games industry can be exciting, exhausting, inspiring, frustrating and much more. Don’t get down if you are not in the studio of your dreams or disappointed if your position does not change fast enough. If you're up for a career in the games industry you'll be guaranteed work for a long time so keep it up and enjoy the people you are working with, they are the most important thing that there is.