A talented young designer Everett Gunther, whose work was recently showcased by Unreal Engine, told 80.lv about the advantages of UE4 for environmental artists and the best tools for the digital artist.

You might have seen some work by Everett Gunther on Unreal Engine blog. This talented environment artist has been showing a lot of promise, boasting some very interesting designs. We’ve talked with the holder of the Best Environment Art Award (Entelechy Awards 2014) and talked about the tools and middleware that helps him to create incredible visual pictures.

Who is Everett Gunther?

I got started in digital graphics about 8 years ago and have been specifically an environment artist for games for the past 4 or so. For the past 3 years I’ve been studying game development at Savannah College of Art and Design. As of now my only work experience was my internship at Kiz Studios, last year, where I worked on a few projects, including their mobile battle game Might and Mayhem. I’m still only three years into my degree, so the vast majority of the work I’ve produced has been for personal projects to strengthen my portfolio.

Differences Between Environmental Design and Level Design

I guess it is a common mistake from those unacquainted with the field. Level design is a more systemic, mechanical game design role, where the interactions and pacing of a level is planned out and fine tuned. Environment design/environment art is more about the ability to build a space with aesthetics in mind. More often than not an environment artist will be working on a level prototyped by a level designer, so environment art also involves the process of interpreting the basic structure of an area and turning those structures into something stylish and distinct.