If you like pink and cute detailed environments, you will definitely love Jay’s work! Currently working as a 3D Environment Artist at Tiny Talisman Games, she reveals how she got in the video game industry and enjoys art in all its forms.
I have been attracted to Jay’s style as soon as I stumbled upon some of her projects on Twitter. 3D Environment was something I discovered in my first job when I talked with some of my coworkers from back then. I never took the time to think about this when playing games, and knowing that there were people dedicated to it seemed mind-blowing to me. Jay is one of them, and here is her journey.
Lovely to have you here Jay! Could you please introduce yourself to our readers?
Hi! I’m a freelance 3D artist based in the UK, specialised in stylised environments and props with an obsession for everything cute, pink and sparkly! Some of my favourite games are Fable, Slime Rancher, Sea of Thieves, Tomb Raider, Overwatch and Final Fantasy.
I’m currently on my 8th month in industry after graduating from De Montfort University in 2022, so I’m still quite a recent junior and I’m loving it so far!
How did you end up working in the video game industry?
I always knew I wanted to be an artist, it was always my best and favourite subject in school so I’d never had anything else in mind and it was a clear path for me, I just needed to figure out what kind of art career I wanted. I’d always had a great love for video games, I grew up with them, so when I discovered Game Art courses during my search for a university it was an obvious choice for me to be able to combine my two favourite hobbies into a dream career!
What was the process of discovering 3D environment modeling?
Surprisingly I actually joined my Game Art university course wanting to go into concept art, specifically to create spooky creatures for horror games, which, looking at my current work and style is a dramatic change in both genre and discipline!
Johanna: It is very different indeed! But hey, spooky creatures have the right to be pink and sparkly… Right?!
The course I joined had actually just removed their concept art module and had more of a focus on 3D, so I gave it a go and although it was pretty daunting at first with the number of programs I’d never heard of before I started to enjoy it and during the first year it really grew on me and I changed my focus over to 3D environments!
How does a day in your life looks like?
So I currently freelance with two studios as a 3D Environment Artist, one is a stylised outsource studio based in the UK called Tiny Talisman Games and the other is an indie studio based in the US. I work both jobs part time and I work from home, since both teams are remote with team members all over the globe! The time difference means I can nicely schedule my day to work with the UK studio in the morning and the US studio in the afternoon, once they’re awake!
I spend a lot of time on Discord since that’s where I talk with both teams, mainly to post updates of my work, receive feedback and chat with my colleagues! I must admit I spend most lunch breaks watching TV and napping with my cat, one of the perks of work from home of course! Though with freelancing also comes the responsibility to manage your own time wisely, especially when juggling more than one job, so a lot of my time is spent organising, planning and communicating, since in most ways I am my own boss!
Johanna: I am in this situation myself and it is so good to be working from home. No time spent in transportation and we can make ourselves some snacks anytime we want (yes, that is what I prefer doing…). But as you said, it is important to be organized to keep beeing productive at work!
As an Environment Artist, what are the things you have in mind when working on a project?
The main focus of most of my previous environments has been the atmosphere. I love creating warm and welcoming spaces so the atmosphere of the scene has to give off the right vibe. I find this comes a lot from lighting, which isn’t one of my strong points, but I really enjoy experimenting with it, along with colour, which is where my obsession for pink kicks in.
A lot of my focus goes to the initial concepting and planning, since it’s easy to get lost in the details of larger environments if you’re not keeping track of your time and assets and you don’t have a clear idea in mind. I find that being up to date with my planning and having a picture of the ideal final result is also what keeps me motivated, since if I plan well then I don’t fall behind and I see myself making the progress I planned to, which is really encouraging, especially for personal projects when I don’t have a set deadline.
With every new personal project I also aim to try some kind of new technique or tool, so I’m always gaining new knowledge and experience with each piece (which is really beneficial when building a portfolio) like trying to create a new shader in engine or a new texturing workflow or style, which usually fuels some ideas too if I’m stuck on what to create!
Johanna: This seems to be the nicest way to expand your portfolio and show how your work gets better over time! I admire you for all the planning part, I get myself swamped by details very easily when working on something which makes my brain work at like 200%. Knowing what you want to have as a result usually makes the process smoother!
Any past or present projects you have been proud to work on?
I’m most proud of the work I’ve done so far for my jobs, since I get feedback and advice from real clients creating real games and it’s really rewarding to be able to send something off that I’m proud of that will hopefully eventually end up in a published game! But of course NDAs won’t let me get into detail unfortunately.
Aside from that I was really proud of the Final Major project I created during my third year of university, my ‘Rococo Palace’. It was my biggest environment and it was my first time writing a brief for a university project and since I got to choose all the details it was great having so much freedom with what I could create. I still adore it, the colours, the vibe, the lighting, it was really fun to work on, however looking back at it now I see areas for improvement and things I’d do differently given what I’ve learnt since then, which is always cool to realise I’m improving with every project!
I’m also really proud of my most recent project, my ‘Acorn Shop’, since the last time I tried hand painted textures was 3 years ago on my first ever 3D model! So it was a nice throwback and comparison of skill and it got a lot of love, which was really nice to see since I created it during my job hunt.
You seem to enjoy cosy and cute stuff – I do too! What inspires you the most when making art?
I’m a lover of all things pink and fluffy and I adore cosy aesthetics and design in things like fashion, films, games and home décor and I found my interests in those things slowly making it’s way into my 3D art, which was really cool and unplanned, it just came to me so naturally! I love being able to create whole new worlds and ideas based off of existing things that I love so much, like intricate Rococo architecture and sunny flowery fields, and I can take these things and tweak them to suit my preferences exactly.
Johanna: To be honest, your Rococo Palace project is one of my favorites. It was so hard to only pick one shot that I had to choose it for the thumbnail as well…!
Making such pleasant and cheerful art makes me feel the same way and I love that I can spread that through games, hopefully in the same way they did to me when I was younger, since I grew up with games like Viva Piñata, Banjo Kazooie, My Sims and Little Big Planet, which eventually became really big inspirations for me too and unknowingly fuelled my stylised art addiction!
How do you stay creative outside of work?
I’m the kind of person to try out any and every kind of craft and artform, including buying all the equipment and materials only to get distracted by another activity and leave it in a cupboard for months, oops. I’ve tried felting, sewing, pyrography, glass work, photography, embroidery, jewellery making, a little bit of everything! I love to try out different methods and techniques, not aiming for a perfect result, just having fun, and I find that I pick up cool things along the way that I can use in my work!
I started my art journey with basic realism pencil drawings and paintings but my high school art teacher encouraged me to push away from this and try more abstract styles and loose media, which really helped me and inspired me to explore new areas of art. I find it always helps to have another form of art that you keep as a hobby, with no requirements for the finished result to look perfect, or even finished at all, so it becomes a time to be creative without any pressure, which I find is sometimes the issue with pursuing art as a career.
Johanna: Wow so you really tried so many creative activities! That is so cool to see that you are able to take and incorporate some of it into your work. Also, it is nice to read that you don’t feel too much pressure to craft something perfect when it comes to hobbies as I feel like this is not always that easy!
Do you have anything else you would like to share with us?
I’d like to share that my own journey into industry wasn’t the easiest, my initial job search after graduation was actually quite a failure and none of my many applications went any further than occasional interviews and art tests. But I took a step back to work on my portfolio and that’s when my current jobs found me! I’d never actually planned to go into freelancing, it didn’t interest me at all but now I don’t know if I’ll ever want to leave freelancing, I love it!
So although I took that step back to take a break from job hunting, I never gave up, I just changed my approach for a while and tried something new, which is what I’ll always advise to any students and graduates currently looking to get into industry, since it won’t always be easy and you’ll need a lot of patience, but try to be open to different experiences and opportunities and keep improving your portfolio!
Jay Topham – 3D Environment Artist
ArtStation / Twitter / Email
Thank you so much Jay for your time! Hope you all enjoyed learning more about them and their work. Next interview is already prepped, so stay tuned!
