Guild Wars 2 game artist reveals the software you actually need to succeed

“Maya covers a wide variety of things: modeling, UVs, animation, and rigging, as well as our integrated tools for things like shader settings, effects, physics, and exporting/converting the model for use in the game engine,” the artist explains. Beyond versatility, familiarity plays a role: “It’s the modelling software I first learned and never stopped using. I’ve almost never used anything else!” Maya isn’t just comfortable, it’s strong, particularly for animation-heavy work.

Read our 15 best Autodesk Maya tutorials to get started.

For sculpting, ZBrush is indispensable. “I go to [ZBrush] when I need to create organic shapes or the larger details on my models,” they say. But it’s not about packing in every tiny scratch or grain: “A lot of that level of detail gets obliterated due to the texture resolution being too low… if the small details need to be more purposeful, like dings taken out of the edges, then I will sculpt those in ZBrush.” The lesson? Use ZBrush strategically for structural or intentional details.

Read our list of the 23 of the best ZBrush tutorials to learn this software.

Texture work happens mostly in Substance Painter. “Painter takes an interesting half-procedural approach to texturing in the way its layers work…you can also hand paint masks to reveal or hide parts of the procedural texturing,” they explain. Painter’s procedural system isn’t just convenient, it’s reusable: “You can take a texture you created on one model and apply it to a completely different model with minimal edits required. This is incredibly useful when making a set of weapons that are all the same theme applied to different weapon types. A huge time saver!”

Read our Substance 3D Painter review for more about this app.

Despite Substance Painter’s dominance, Photoshop remains critical. “Photoshop still has many tools Painter does not, or does certain things better,” the artist notes. Beyond toolsets, it’s about organisation: “It’s also an easy place for me to organise all of the various textures for an asset in a single place – we have a script that takes groups in a single Photoshop file and exports each group into their own texture file.”

Read our list of the best Photoshop tutorials to learn Adobe's tools.

Finally, when Maya struggles with UVs, RizomUV steps in. “Sometimes Maya decides it wants to be difficult and provides results that are less than ideal… In this case, I will send my model to Rizom to have it do a quick unfold and/or layout of the UVs, then send it right back,” they explain. The process is simple, efficient, and keeps the workflow moving. Visit the RizomUV website for more details on this unique app.