Introduction
Hi! I’m Michal. I’m an Environment Artist based in Poland. I have worked mostly with indie games and small studios. I started my journey with an internship at Varsav Game Studios. I’ve also worked with Forever Entertainment and Glivi Games.
My first job was at Forever Entertainment. The company was primarily interested in Nintendo Switch ports and remakes but I was hired to work mostly with their PC project named, The Mansion.
After a few months, I left the company because Nintendo games aren’t my type and I prefer to work with more realistic visuals. So I started working with Glivi Games. They had a project called Saloon Simulator. I was responsible for the visuals in general. I had more responsibilities there because we were a smaller team and the budget was similar to an indie game.
Joining Vertex
One reason I started looking for a game art program is because I was self-taught before. Teaching yourself is a much longer way of learning because you often make mistakes that you aren’t even aware of. The second reason is that the internet is full of contradictory resources. I often wasn’t sure if I was doing something right or not. I needed some direction and I thought that mentoring sessions would set me on a good path.
I had been looking for a game art mentoring program when Lena Piech – a Vertex School graduate – posted her Term II project in a Facebook group of Polish Blender users. I PMed her asking about her opinion on Vertex School’s Game Artist Program. The rest is history 🙂
Term II Project – Once Upon A Time In Hamburg
Multiple times the Facebook algorithm recommended a photograph of an XVI-century building that no longer existed and something about it caught my eye: The typography and how it stands out from the tenement nearby. So I started looking for other photographs for references. I even found a postcard and an etching.
I also like to collect references from other games that are visually similar – in this case, it was mainly Assassin’s Creed Unity. I started with a blockout and building the proportions based on the people in the photographs. 
Professional Mentorship
My mentor Jacob Claussen (Lead Environment Artist at Fall Damage) gave me so much valuable advice it’s hard to choose what the most helpful piece of advice was. I think it could be not to rush the first phases of your project. The more time you spend on the blockout phase the better.
Because of being self-taught as I mentioned, I often rushed things so I would end up with a feeling that something was wrong and it wasn’t just one thing that was wrong – there were many small things. When you spend the first weeks just grey boxing and properly setting up lighting I think you can avoid that.
If you look at the GIF at the end of my ArtStation post you will see that the blockout takes more than half of the time. I also learned that you can blockout even textures with simple colors or textures from Megascans. It is also worth it to mention that my mentor Jacob Claussen encouraged me to use ChatGPT as a search engine. You have to verify the information but it’s a really powerful tool. For example, I asked AI what kind of wood was used for construction in the 16th century.
The Most Challenging Part of the Project
The most challenging part of this project could be the roof modules. They have that shape that makes it hard to think of it as a module. I wasn’t sure how to optimize it while maintaining an interesting silhouette.
The Least Challenging Part of the Project
Everything is challenging if you put in the effort! But I think the most pleasant part was just polishing it and seeing how adding small things like the movement of pennants changes the whole perception of a work.
The Vertex School Experience
I think the program is really flexible to a student’s experience and goals. I can see that the mentors really enjoy what they do and it is important for them that you get the most out of the program and land a job. They aren’t teaching for a nice headline on Linkedin or Twitter.
Learn more about the Game Art Program now!
Student Links
Michal’s ArtStation Portfolio: https://www.artstation.com/cirmius
Michal’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michal-zielinski-9184571ab/