Vertex School

I always wanted to be a character artist for a game company and have been saying this since I was in the 7th grade (in the 90s, dating myself there). The program I attended for my master's study was good but wasn't driven toward video game development,... Read More but more for advertisements and cinema. I attended a class and a few webinars under Ryan Kingslien previously such as ZBrush Cert (2 different versions) and thought to jump on board with his bootcamp. Not only did Ryan teach us about anatomy, which is EXTREMELY IMPORTANT for ANY STYLE of game mind you, but he also taught us the philosophy behind what we were doing and how to think in those terms. He wanted us to visualize what we were doing and how to approach it, rather than blindly placing forms and shapes down without much thought. He wanted to see passion and drive from his students and pushed us to apply what we've learned in our project.

This course encouraged us to blend aesthetics with the technology. It was great that Jared (I forget his last name, sorry!) from Epic Games to teach us the technical aspects for designing our characters. We learned how to utilize industry standards such as ZBrush, Marvelous Designer, Substance Painter and then render our project in Marmoset Toolbag. I must point out, Ryan was also heavy into using ZBrush, and his approach was different than Jared's where he really wanted to push the anatomy of the character and promote aesthetically pleasing forms. The marriage of appealing art backed with technical skills pushed my work into a realm I could only imagine prior to taking this bootcamp.

After the bootcamp, I had to figure out how to get a job (I come from an early iteration of the bootcamp and job support happened after I found one). My work was good enough for representatives of companies I applied at to actually contact me and set up interviews and art tests. My break didn't come until almost a year later, however, when I applied to an indie game company called Sinful Monarchy. They saw that I had the skills and wanted to improve so they gave me a chance! A year later, I'm still with them developing the craziest, most photorealistic game I've ever encountered. My home is in the Character Dev department, but I have floated between Texture and Rig/Anim teams. These people are SUPER detailed oriented, and you need to know your stuff, but at the same time, we are constantly learning from each other and pushing each other on how to do better. I even had the opportunity to teach some of my colleagues what I know, from giving tips to actually authoring pipelines for certain assets.

Was it expensive? Yes. Does it cost less than tuition? Hell yes!
Couldn't have done this without you Ryan!

Before I joined the Character Artist Bootcamp in April 2018, I could barley finish projects and felt that I was getting nowhere in 3d.
But when I signed up for the bootcamp at GAI it all changed. I had two amazing mentors, Ryan Kingslien and Marcin Klicki,... Read More who gave me the push that I needed! I had three months of intensive training, first creating a game ready prop and then a full game ready character. I learned the entire process step by step following an amazing collection of videos, recorded by industry professionals specifically for GAI students, as well as biweekly live meetings with my mentors. On top of it all there is an amazing community and live interviews with industry professionals. Sometimes we would even get portfolio reviews from the interviewee's.
Finally I felt that for the first time I was actually getting somewhere as a 3d artist. Unfortunately I wasn't able to finish my character in time, but even after the bootcamp was over, I still received guidance from my mentors and I was able to finish my first full character!
The one thing that sets GAI apart from a traditional uni or college is that you still have access, to all the videos, community, and interviews, after you've completed the bootcamp. There's even a weekly live critique session with Ryan.
So if you're a passionate 3d artist and feel lost, then GAI is the perfect place to learn from the best and find your feet as a 3d artist...

Game Art Institute is an amazing place, I was part of the April Character Art Bootcamp, my mentors and teachers were Ryan Kingslien and Marcin Klicki. The 1st assignment was to create a realistic prop to get me comfortable with substance painter and learn... Read More how to create a work process of my own to obtain accuracy, material expression, working with a polycount budget and making the best that I could with it. My second project was to create a character from a concept, even though I did not finish the character before the Bootcamp was over it was perfectly ok, because even after the end of the boot camp I was still given assistance and guidance to be able to have a finished product, I believe that this is because Ryan and the mentors there want you to be able to get a job from the work you are putting out, it is not treated like an average school assignment. It was a great experience, interacting with like-minded students, sharing workflows with each other, building a sense of camaraderie with each other, being surrounded by a community that will go out of its way to help you out, having a full library of specific high-quality tutorials to answer any question you have, weekly interviews with artist working in the industry. In my opinion, if you end up taking this class not only will you grow as an artist but also as a person.

Tips
In my opinion to get the best experience out of this class is to:
-reach out to people in the community
-help others if you know you can
-establish communications with your fellow boot camp students (you'll find that you have a lot in common and in a very short amount of time you will find yourself gaining a full classroom of friends that you want the best for them as well as they will do for you :D ! )
-make a schedule and stick to it!
-if you mess up or feel like you are not progressing reach out to your mentors
-give it your best, you owe it to yourself!

The bootcamp is one of the best decisions I've made in my life. I've come pretty far from where I used to be 2 months ago, and I feel like I keep going further.

Ryan, Susan, the team and especially my Mentor have all been super helpful with pushing me... Read More to help me obtain my real potential and then some. (Hey, there's always room for improvement!)

What's even more astounding about the Game Art Institute is the community built around it. There are a lot of helpful, professional, and passionate individuals that share like mindsets, I think that is worth its weight in gold. There's also so many helpful tutorials and articles that get shared around and are apart of the Bootcamp itself.

If you do join, do the work, put in maximum effort, ASK A LOT OF QUESTIONS, thats how you will see results.

Ryan Kingslien and crew are some of the most knowledgeable artist working in Zbrush today. Their expertise in other applications is equally amazing as well. What GAI does is put you in the saddle with industry experts to keep you on task and moving at... Read More a studio pace. The workflows are not up to date, they are up to the minute! The instructor's coming from their respective studios to do live training and introduce workflows that have been used only for weeks to get a complex problem done. The only complaint I had has actually been fixed since I attended and they provide supplemental training as well. If you are self-taught or learned the training videos this will fill in all the gaps. If you learned at a University and things didn't sink in or you needed more tutelage this program will fill in the gaps.

As a working technical artist who trains others, I always want to teach current workflows this Bootcamp should be on everyone's resume!

Before attending GAI, my 3d artwork was mediocre at best. The personal guidance I received helped push my abilities to a professional level. There are both technical and mental exercises that help you learn techniques in creating professional portfolio... Read More worthy work.

From the very beginning, you will be challenged to create work that will be relevant to the company you'd like to work for. This school provided more for me in terms of real world experience then, 3 years in college.

First of all to make myself a bit more clear about my situation..I am new with everything 3d/game creation related.I attended University for this exact subject and I felt even more confused and hopeless after i completed it(and poor)!Then I found GAI!!I... Read More have for the first time completed a project I am proud of enough to make an art station to share my work(To me this shows the first success)Thanks to the guidance and knowledge obtained through GAI I no longer feel lost or like I will never achieve the level that is needed to enter The Game industry as a proffesional.Gai institute is a true haven for anyone of any level to learn and comunicate and grow alongside fellow students.Besides the support from the GAI team you will also be blessed by the helpfulness of fellow students who all are always willing to help or give you great advice to help you reach that next level in your skill.I cant list all the Pro's in one message i will just leave it at life changing and that GAI makes the effort and if you put in the same effort and have determination you will see great things.

Cliff notes version: Absolutely worth the time and money if you're serious about getting a career in the creative industry or growing as an artist.

Foot notes version: I've been following Ryan Kingslien and taking part in a number of online classes he's... Read More offered across a range of topics with some of the best teachers there on the subject matter provided. The amount of technical know-how I've picked up over the years has really helped me develop my skills and start the transition out of a lack-luster career doing graphic design. I've been a graphic designer for a long time now but my heart has always been in character design and creation. Game Art Institute and Ryan Kingslien have been an absolute boon for helping to make that happen.

On top of the skills you gain Ryan also provides insight into an area too often overlooked for developing artist: the mindset of a creative person. This is the kind of information I wish I had available to me when I was just starting out. I know I'm not alone in going through the years of self-doubt and deprecation, most of which could have been avoided or reduced had Ryan been around sharing his insights. At the very least find and watch his video on YouTube expanding on the "valley of the suck."

My first Game Art Institute class is the VR Bootcamp taught by Eddie Christian. Eddie is an amazing teacher, who on top of being a wealth of knowledge about VR is constantly innovating with the Occulus Rift. Learning from him and taking part in his class is a chance to get in on the ground floor of something that will be huge. I can't recommend it enough. So in the end if you really want to boost your skills or dive into a subject matter that is as rewarding as it is intense the Game Art Institute is well worth the investment.

I took the environment artist bootcamp and it was worth it, having both Ryan Kingslien and Shawnell Priester as mentors was great on several terms:
On real feedback on what was right and what was wrong and how to improve, on learning different techniques... Read More and new actual ones.
On getting to know how real artist actually work and how they approach things, learning substance designer was something i had delayed for several years but, now i can say it's a truly awesome and powerful software with so much possibilities and potential.

Right now, learning substance and marvelous designer has a lot more value than before, also, substance has become an industry texturing software standard.