Game Art Program Student Review – Agil Kazimov
Today we introduce you to Game Art Program graduate, Agil Kazimov. In this blog post, Agil gives a Game Art Program student review while sharing the process of creating his term III project, Woodman Village.
Introduction
Hello, my name is Agil. I am a civil engineering graduate, but I have been working as a logistics manager for the last 5 years. Vertex School is the first art school that I have attended.
Before Vertex, I did some modeling with Blender. Previously, I had a small infinite runner game that I attempted to develop, and I began with 3D modeling while working on the project. I continued with it because it was part of the game development process where I lost the sense of time when working on it, which, for me, was a sign that it was something I needed to pursue. Additionally, I took on small freelance jobs here and there and completed a three-month internship as a 3D Artist for a German company when I started the Game Art Program at Vertex School.
Agil’s Term III Project, Woodman Village
Joining Vertex
I used to like doing character art and Vertex Founder Ryan Kingslien had a lot of very useful tutorials on human anatomy on YouTube. That’s how I first heard about Vertex School.
For a long time, I kept learning through online resources. But after some time, I felt like I had hit a wall I couldn’t pass because, even though I kept working on new pieces, the quality of my work just stayed stagnant. I started to feel like I needed to have someone professional critique my work and give me some pointers; otherwise, I wouldn’t be able to progress. Vertex School was the perfect fit for improving my skills across the board.
Term III Project – Woodman Village
My term III project is named Woodman Village. For Term 2 and Term 3, my mentor was Ben Merrick. He did an excellent job at pointing out problems and giving useful pointers for improving work. He also taught us a lot of useful ways of using Unreal Engine. For Term 1, I had Lena Piech as my mentor. She did a great job of helping us out with our basic skills like modeling, sculpting, texturing, and rendering. It was a very productive term that helped us understand the pipeline and techniques used in the industry. We also had labs to help us out with our work with Salvador Sánchez. Because of the time difference, I wasn’t able to attend all of the labs, but every time I did manage to attend, Salvador gave very useful tips and pointed me in the right direction.
For my term 2 project, I chose to create my own concept which consumed a lot of time. So for term III, I chose to do a work based on someone else’s concept art.
Agil’s Term II Project Created With His Own Concept
I always save concept works I see on Artstation that I think would look good in 3D or that I may want to use in the future. So for my term III project, I chose a concept I previously saved. It’s a concept art by the talented artist Zhipei Fu named Woodman Village.
Woodman Village Concept Art by Zhipei Fu
Agil’s Reference Board
Considering my current level, I am satisfied with my term III project. Last term, I spent a lot of time in Substance 3D Designer creating textures for the project. I am surprised by the progress I have made, considering I knew nothing about Substance Designer when I started the term.
Professional Mentorship
Our mentors helped us with almost everything, from shape to color, from concept to modeling, and from composition to lighting. Even if we didn’t have any questions about the progress we made that day, they always had some advice for us to help improve our work.
The Most & Least Challenging Parts of the Project
For me, the most challenging part was textures because I knew nothing about Substance Designer, and I was trying to create realistic textures for the project. The modeling part was the least challenging because, at that point, I had done a lot of it and was confident with it.
The Vertex School Experience
The Game Art Program was a highly valuable 9 months that improved my skills across the board. Starting from Term 1, I learned and improved upon important basic techniques and skills that I simply didn’t come across while trying to learn everything through online sources alone. We used these skills while working on our Term 2-3 projects, consolidating the information and practicing techniques we had learned. And because the program was flexible in terms of timing, all of this was done while having a full-time job!
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Agil’s ArtStation Portfolio
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Recommended next read: Getting a Career as a Game Artist