My take on a vintage, 1960s-era pinball machine, featuring the fictitious character Daring Dakota Santiago (character artwork by FM Era Studio). Since the microprocessor wasn’t introduced until the ’70s, this machine sports a more simplistic design than what we’re used to today. Unfortunately for Dakota, all that time wasn’t too kind to the machine. I modeled this prop using Maya, sculpted in some finer details in ZBrush, manipulated the graphic designs in Photoshop, applied textures in Substance Painter, and rendered it out using Marmoset Toolbag.

This is my wood trunk for Term 1 at Vertex School. Thank you for giving me awesome feedback. I want to thank my mentors Lena Piech and Paul Layton for providing me with valuable feedback!

This is a game-ready art deco Australian Pub (fictitious but inspired by a number of real pubs in Sydney.)
It was created for my Term 2 capstone project on Vertex School’s Game Art Program. Many thanks to my industry mentor Ben Merrick for his help and tuition over the last 3 months and to Salvador Sánchez for his guidance in the labs. 
Modelled and unwrapped in Maya, textured using Photoshop, Substance Designer and Painter, staging, lighting and cinematic/beauty renders all in Unreal Engine 5.1. All textures are 2k or less.
The flag is animated using a cloth simulation. The disco lights and swaying cables are animated shaders created in Unreal. The traffic light is a blueprint which has the light sequencing animated within it.
Everything was made by me with the exception of the trees, plants, cigarette ends and the rocky texure on the islands which are all from Megascans.

Jeanne D’Arc Alter FGO Fanart.
Done during Term 2 at Vertex School’s Game Artist Bootcamp. Thanks to my mentor David Kong for guidance and feedback and Sacha Gaffney for showing us tips and tricks every week.

Welcome to Vito’s Pizzeria and Spaghetteria on the Island . Enjoy a delicious meal with a view !! I am happy to have completed my first game ready environment consisting of a pizzeria on an Island in Italy. The inspiration behind this scene is a real restaurant and Church Bell Tower in Burano, Italy. It was created for my Term 2 project as part of Vertex School’s Game Art Program. Many thanks to my mentor Cairo Goodbrand for his help and feedback and also to Salvador Sánchez for his guidance in the labs. I learnt so much during these past 3 months in terms of modularity, set dressing, Trimsheet creation,using floaters as part of trimsheets and shader creation in Unreal Engine.Most of the main scene elements were modeled and textured by me with the exception of Trees, foliage, birds and some set dressing props which were sourced from Megascans and Sketchfab.

Rendered in Unreal Engine 5.
The building you see there was built in XVI century in Hamburg at Pferdemarkt 28 and it survived until it was demolished in 1910. It is also my project made during Term II for Vertex School. Many thanks to my menthor Jacob Claussen for all the comments and support during this journey!

Completed my first environment as a student enrolled at Vertex School. The art piece is modeled after a real life restaurant in Boston name Ciao Bella. The goal of this project was to familiarize myself with key software used in the gaming industry such as Maya, Unreal Engine, and Substance Painter. I enjoyed putting together the environment, and feel satisfied with the final result. On to bigger and better things! Special thanks to Salvador Sánchez for helping me with feedback for the final composition and lighting.

This is an Unreal Engine Scene consisting primarily of a photogrammetry kit that I built in the second term of the Game Arts Program at Vertex School, where I am studying to be an Environment Artist. I have been practicing photogrammetry for 10+ years fairly seriously–in fact, it was my intro to 3D modeling, which developed into a profession in 3D printing for me. I’ve been looking for another chance to use my scans in service of storytelling and this has proven to be it.
I’m extremely grateful to all of my mentors at Vertex School, especially Ben Merrick and Salvador Sanchez, who guided me with apt advice at every step…
I hope you enjoy seeing this as much as I enjoyed making it! Feel free to ask questions in the comments. I’m happy to talk about my work. Stay tuned for my term 3 interior scene!

My term 2 project for Vertex School, I took inspiration from the instagram famous Hanoi train street and thought it was an interesting environment to recreate. I created at least 3 different scenes as I was playing around with asset placements as well as lighting and decided to go with the current layout. Everything was created by me except for the vegetation and garbage assets which came from megascans, and the clothing and interior mapping which came from the Unreal marketplace. Huge thanks to my mentor Ben Merrick and my peers who cheered me on and gave me valuable advice.

The meshes were done in Maya, texturing in Substance Painter.
I created a few Blueprints where I could easily change my assets to different presets from a list after they were already placed in the scene, making my iteration workflow smoother and faster. The aircon blade animation was created through blueprint logic as well.
For the Glass with texture, I follow Nikolay Shamaev Youtube tutorial and then expanded on it by adding some adjustments that were necessary to my project. For the other windows glass, I used Bump Offset to fake my interior.
I want to thank Stefan Oprisan, Ben Merrick, and Salvador Sánchez for all the help and feedback on my work.

“Peach season is upon us and there is no better place to celebrate than Honey Home. Enjoy fresh peach tea and sweets, courtesy of the proprietress Magnolia and her young daughter Aria. Though situated on the outskirts of the Moonblossom district, it is well worth the trek!”
~Excerpt from the food section of the Daily Witch’s Brew~
This is my second term capstone project for the Vertex School Environment Art program. The scene was inspired in part by the manga series Hakumei to Mikochi for its mouthwatering food depictions and beautiful environments. The props are modeled within Maya and zBrush and textured with some hand-painted designs in Substance Painter and Photoshop. Big thanks to Professor Cairo for his guidance on the project.

Reach has been a long working project of mine that I decided to bring to life for my first Environment Art project. The architecture is an original design by me with the layout of the Transept being based on the London Natural History Museum. The Transept is a small portion of a larger cathedral I’ve designed that I plan on adding onto throughout my journey as an Environment Artist.
The focus of this scene was to use modular kit building while learning different techniques such as; Vertex Painting, decals, and world color variation to create variation in the scene. I used vegetation to create a few plants in this scene and applied the textures to Speedtree to create the ivy wrapping around the columns, roof, and wall assets. The merchant boat is a hero prop I designed previously for my first game art project.
Reach was a thriving city based around the religious body that controlled the leadership and economy. After a flood hit Reach, the religious leadership abandoned the city and the wealth they kept in a massive cathedral. Leaving the people to loot the abandoned resources and wealth of the massive cathedral constructed in the center of the city with boats to traverse the water.

For my 3rd term assignment, I went for a hand-painted stylized approach for my train station to emulate Ghibli’s style.
Inspired by Ghibli’s Spirited Away and Taiwan’s Alishan railway.
A big thanks to Professor Cairo for his guidance, his Kuwahara filter, and his clouds.

I finally finished my term 3 project at Vertex School.
I have learned so much during the 9 months I studied there, and I would highly recommend it. A big thank you to my mentor Ben Merrick for supporting and giving me feedback during the making of the project. The project was inspired by the medieval Era. The original concept art was created by Caio Vinicius, make sure to check him out.
Everything was modeled and textured by me, no megascans were used.

When a game of Ouija goes wrong and someone unwanted is summoned !!
For my final term at Vertex School, I created this scene. I wanted to explore an interior room environment with an eerie feeling. Very thankful to Vertex for providing awesome learning content and also grateful to my mentor Cairo Goodbrand for providing timely feedback on this project. I would highly recommend Vertex to anyone interested in learning 3d game art. For this project, most of the main elements were modeled and textured by me with the exception of some of the set dressing props which were sourced from Megascans and Sketchfab. Also got to dabble into Speedtree this time for basic potted plant creation and enjoyed it. The Inspiration for this was based on an illustration from Beep Boop Art. The audio for the video is sourced from Pixabay.

The Laboratory of a mad doctor!
This is the final project created for Vertex School. The interior scene comes from concept art from the internet. Within the scene, I explored the difficulties that come with transparency within a 3D environment. The models in the breakdown are all crafted by me. Set dressing props and decals are gathered from Megascans as well as Sketchfab for the Brain model. I am very thankful to my mentor Cairo for helping me navigate the scene creation and providing creative feedback for the overall process.

The woodland druid Juniper is the character model I created during my third term at Vertex school following their character art track. I wanted to create a character who spoke to my love of all things fantasy, exploring, and nature. It was a lot of fun coming up with an original character concept and, with the support of my mentor for this project, Dan Pingston, translating that into a 3D model. So I want to say a big thank you to Dan who always motivated and inspired me to do the best work I can and to enjoy every step along the way smiley

Rendered in Unreal Engine 5.2.
This is the fan art of the best TV series out there made during Term III in Vertex School. Thanks to my mentor Jacob Claussen for all the support! Hope you enjoy it and good luck to the fans with looking for easter eggs!
The mega scans assets are wood & brick tileable texture; chairs, meat & bread assets. All the other work is mine.

Here is my term 3 and final capstone project for Vertex School. Huge shoutout and many thanks to Ben Merrick and Salvador Sanchez for their fantastic feedback. My idea for this project came from Horizon Zero Dawn and I took their inspiration from Indian architecture to create this scene. My main goals for this project was to fully utilize the trim sheet and tile sheet workflow and not use substance painter at all save for the tank material which had to be done individually. I also challenged myself to use 100% substance designer and not have to add any special ZBrush or Maya steps except for using ZBrush to project the height map of the rocks.
I also wanted to utilize my knowledge of advanced materials that I learned through my stay at Vertex School which includes all the material graphs you see. The foliage was from Megascans and Unreal marketplace.

Paintball doesn’t get nearly enough love in the art world… I mean, these guys look like real-life Power Rangers!
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Models were made in Maya and Zbrush, except for the clothes which were made with Marvelous Designer. Textures were made in Substance Painter. Maps were adjusted and logos were created with Krita. Renders were done in Arnold.
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This project was my final capstone piece for Vertex School’s Game Artist Program in the character art track. When I started Vertex, I was a complete beginner in the world of 3D. I have learned so much and I know that I’m still only at the very start of my journey. I can’t wait to start working on the next project and continue my growth as an artist.
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My mentor for the last 24 weeks of Vertex, Crystal Bretz, was incredible to work with and learn from, and anyone who happens to see this should check out her work!