Game Art Program Student Showcase
What can we say, we can’t help but share our incredible student artwork.
Here at Vertex School, our 9 month Game Art Program currently consists of three terms.
Term 1 is Intro to Game Art (Skill Building). During this term you will create a Prop Capstone to be used in your portfolio.
Term 2 is when you choose between the Environment Art Track and the Character Art Track. During this term you will get an intro to your chosen track and learn the essential skills that all environment artists or character artists need to master. During this term you will complete your first Environment Art or Character Art Capstone Project!
Term 3 is when you go bigger, get more involved, and explore more advanced features. With both more experience and more project time, you will be creating your second Environment Art or Character Art Capstone Project – A professional looking real time environment or character 🙂
We hope our student showcase leaves you feeling driven to take the leap and jumpstart your own game art career. Apply for our 9 month online Game Art Program now!
TERM 1 Artwork
Trapper’s Cleaver
Andres Lobato
Trapper’s weapon from Dead by daylight.
This is one of the projects I’m working on as part of the first term at Vertex School.
Hope you all like it!
Kitchen Asset Pack
Aurelia Maxima Häcker
As the Capstone Project for my first term as student of the Game Art Program by Vertex School I was tasked with creating a prop and take it through the entirety of the current game art pipeline! I decided for a kitchen asset pack as it allowed me to do a large variety of different materials, shapes, both organic and hard surface, textures, etc.
I’m also a huge cooking fan, so I just had to do a project like this. Couldn’t resist it.
As someone who has never worked in 3D before I couldn’t be more thankful for what I’ve learned so far in this program. It’s been absolutely amazing.
My mentors for this term were Andrew Baker, with additional guidance from Paul Layton. Final critique was by Ryan Kingslien.
Modeled in Maya (LP and MP)
Sculpted in ZBrush (HP)
Textured in Substance Painter
Rendered in Unreal Engine
Loewe Gate Bag
Natasha Baeva
The Loewe Gate Bag is a perfect representation of craftsmanship in fashion. The artistry of the piece served as an inspiration for this 3D model, making the bag’s unique shape an engaging project to work on.
The process behind the final render started from carving out the initial shape in Maya and later adding the details, such as the stitching and logo in Zbrush. After the low and the high polys were finalized and the UV maps were created, the object was brought into Substance Painter for the bake and texturing.
Following that process, the props (chains and hook) for the final scene were modeled once again in Maya and textured in Substance. However, the fire hydrant was downloaded from Quixel megascans and adapted for the scene.
The composition was later arranged and rendered in Cinema4D, using Octane Otoy as the render engine. Final touches were applied in Lightroom and Photoshop. This assignment is the first Capstone project for Term 1 @ Vertex School.
Forest Well
Pablo Gutierrez Seeliger
There are always many stories to develop around water wells, what do you think has happened here? I created this game ready asset for fantasy, forest environments. It uses 5 texture sets and has some additional props. I would like to thank all my mentors at Vertex School for the guidance during this project.
Pocket Watch (Hero Prop)
Luke Chayo
Pocket Watch with inner portrait and engraving.
Huge thanks to Aviv Tal and Paul Layton for their weekly feedback and support throughout this project.
Finished this prop during the first term at Vertex.
Portrait – The White Ribbon. Albert Lynch.
World War II Prismatic Marching Compass
Katy Abraham
This World War II era British prismatic marching compass was my Vertex School Term 1 capstone project. The compass was modeled in Maya, textured and engraved in Substance painter and rendered using Marmoset Toolbag 4. Before rendering some of the maps were taken into Photoshop and further detailed.
I would like to send special thanks to my mentor Aviv Tal as well as Ryan Kingslien and Paul Layton for all the guidance and support during my first term.
The Music Box – Fable Fan Art
Jordan Harris
“A small music box that trembles with energy at your touch.”
As part of my first term at Vertex School I was inspired to create my own rendition of the Music Box from Fable 2 and 3, one of my all time favorite game franchises. Here is the result!
Made in 3DS Max, sculpted wear and damage in Zbrush.
Textured in Substance painter at 4K Resolution.
Rendered and presented to you via Marmoset Toolbag 4.
Fully game-ready asset!
Special thanks to Mohamed El Bouhy, Lae Blitzia and my fellow classmates at Vertex School for their support and guidance.
Old Victorian Wheelchair
Loiseau Ronaldo
This is a victorian wheelchair that i did, i use Maya, Adobe Substance Painter and Zbrush. The chair comes from victorian era and the oxygen tank from modern era, a mix from the two era.
Fire Extinguisher
Rico Buehler
Behold, the greatest fire extinguisher ever modeled!
Critics say:
“the angst is all too palpable. ”
“such a strange, sexless creature”
“horrifying”
“stunningly beautiful wouldn’t you say?
“excellent use of…. Marmoset”
Tackle Box
Sara Miller
I chose to model a tackle box, based off of one that belonged to my great grandfather, for my Term 1 Capstone Project at Vertex School. It was modeled in Maya, textured in Substance Painter, and rendered in Marmoset Toolbag 3.
I’d like to give a huge thanks to my mentor, Andrew Baker, and Paul Layton for all of the weekly feedback and guidance while I worked on this project.
Blades of Chaos
Alex Swanson
The Blades of Chaos. An old friend of the Ghost of Sparta long awaiting their reunion….
This project has been an absolute blast to work on. God of War has been a long time favorite series of mine. This is my Capstone project for the Game Art Program at Vertex School. Everything in these images were created by me. Modeled in Maya, high frequency detail and organic shapes were sculpted in Zbrush. Texturing was done in Substance Painter and finally rendered out in Unreal Engine 5.
I would like to extend my sincere gratitude to Andrew Baker, Paul Layton, John Waynick and Ryan Kingslien for helping make this possible. Thank you!
TERM 2 Artwork
Salt Fish Sushi
D.S. Tierney
“The streets of Centropolis are dangerous, but if you know where you’re going and don’t fall afoul of a supervillain, you might just find a little slice of heaven.” – Adam Edwards, The Shift
This 3D environment was brought to life in UE4 using modular pieces and tiled/trim sheet textures. Props were designed to be used throughout a larger city environment. Decals, particle effects and lighting all add to the gritty urban landscape as the warm light of the sushi shop welcomes you in. The street corner and sushi shop are a part of (in my mind) a larger city called Centropolis, but the inspirations come from a pub in downtown Boston and the sushi restaurant in John Wick 3.
The included 30-second video highlights the sushi shop and steam/smoke effects rising up from the alleys. The final three images highlight the modular pieces and props used to build the scene. Anything not pictured was added to heighten the mood using Unreal asset packs.
I love telling stories with my work and hope you enjoy this one!
Anchor Street
Toby Christmas
Depicting a poor neighbourhood called Anchor Street, in a Victorian steam punk world. Where the toxicity of the industrial revolution has quite literally taken root in the city, in the form of great pipes jutting out from the streets. A polluted fog fills the environment, with oppressive unnatural green streetlights barely lighting the way.
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Originally inspired by “Tarmo Juhola’s” artwork (https://www.artstation.com/artwork/Z5oG50), I also took Inspiration from games like Dishonoured, and Arcanum.
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Posters were sourced from historic Victorian Posters out of copyright.
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Created as part of my second term at vertex, I would like to thank my tutors Salvador Sánchez, Ben Merrick, and Vlad Vanzariuc.
Rural Japanese Convince Store
Daehan Adams
Made this for my Term 2 project. this was my first environment ever and I learned a lot. I was inspired by Your Name and rural Japan. Thank you to https://www.artstation.com/robinkarlin he really taught me a lot and we had great conversations.
Jasmine’s Market Diorama
Lucas
This environment was my project for Term 2 in Vertex School. It was based on Zimmy’s “JASMINE’S MARKET” concept and took inspiration from Valorant for the texturing.
It is my first environment piece and it was a great experience to learn and to get motivation to make more environments.
I used Vertex painting on the walls and on the floor to get some variation, made it all modular, built a trim sheet for the pillars and other textures that repeat on only one axis, made sure the Texel density was close to 5.12px/cm on all the objects, combined the smallest objects in a texture Atlas, made decals, plants, and a LOT of texture work on SPainter. In the end I assembled it and rendered in Unreal Engine 5.
Leaves and smoke FX made by Rita Branco who always gave me all the support I could need.
A huge thanks to my mentor, Jacob Claussen, who helped me so much during this project.
TERM 3 Artwork
Abandoned London Pub Diorama
Kateryna Yavorska
This diorama is my capstone project at Vertex School. I wanted to get handy with trim sheets by building a modular environment. While making the most of assets and textures myself, I borrowed few megascans and photogrammetry assets. Kind thanks to Yannick Deharo for liquor bottles assets and Connections XR for the jacket model.
Mars Colony Outer Rim
Chase Richards
Life on mars is not like the brochures made it out to be. We see their towering trees on the far side of the walls that separate us. Water is handed down from the inner city through those walls and gets to our impoverished zone at the end of the pipes. Our only chance is to show them that the outer rim grows strong.
Dragonfire
D.S. Tierney
“The Dark Kingdoms scattered across the wildlands east of the Sentent Sea should be avoided at all costs, none more so than Dragonfire and its necromantic King, Sorath the Third.” – Wizen Bracha, The Musings of Terragard Post-Zorn. Annum 1362
This 3D Environment was crafted in Unreal 5 and is based upon the amazing concept piece by Dongbiao Lu.
The concept piece spoke to me in its scale and mood, though certain changes needed to be made in order to both make it my own and make the landscape fit a 3D environment, but I hope that I have done the original justice. There were two distinct parts to the build, the modeling of modular castle pieces and the sculpting of rocks and organic trees/roots. A breakdown of those assets is included in the post. I had fun creating the flock of ravens in the sky, the fog on the ground, and laying out cloud cards to create a stunning skybox. Note: The fir trees and the raven model are from Unreal asset packs and not modeled by me.
As always, I love telling stories with my work and hope you enjoy what this one tells you!
Rock Van
Monica Gonzalez
I designed this scene as my final project in Vertex School. I modeled and textured the van (wich is actually a school bus) and all the assets inside of it. I put all together in Unreal Engine 5. I took as a reference a picture from the photographer Jane Linders. My mentors for this assigment were:
– Kem Yaralioglu
