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I came in to Vertex School after quitting my job in the film industry. I wanted to do something creative in my life. I began dabbling in 3D art and self teaching myself whatever I could grasp from various YouTube videos and online premade courses. What I lacked from these resources was stability, a routine, and most importantly live feedback. I found Vertex School and it’s Environment Art Bootcamp online and pulled the trigger. This was one of my best decisions ever! I got two days per week of exhausting (in the best way possible) of one on one interaction with Ryan Kingslien and John Waynick as they taught us everything they knew from industry behavior, to proper industry pipelines and their respective softwares. I came in with limited knowledge of Blender and came out knowing 5 times the amount of software and feeling confident enough to tackle anything. When I was fighting imposter syndrome during the process I was able to reach out to Ryan and John and be able to speak with them, and as proper mentors they guided me back on the right path. All this may sound amazing, and it was, but it was extremely difficult. I worked around 10-11 hours a day on my craft. I was unemployed and this was my hail marry, I poured my soul into this and it payed off. That being said, I feel that if I hadn’t I wouldn’t be in the position I am now. This online course that Ryan provides is not a course that will land you a job the same way an Ivy League does. This place provides you with the tools and knowledge to get to that point yourself. I applied to endless jobs for months before I started working at High Moon Studios. I have the bootcamp to thank for directing me in such a way that I had a strong enough portfolio to get the job, however, after that I had to work on my own to apply and get myself out there. It was comforting to know that any question I had, and any time I needed help with a cover letter or an application, or even my art test for my interview, I had a network of beautiful artists and the team at Vertex to help me out. I’d recommend this program to anyone who has the time and the will to learn but lacks the initiative. I needed the schedule, and the deadlines to work, I was not able to do this on my own. And I found that here. I am eternally grateful to Ryan and John.

I joined Vertex last August and have just recently finished at the same time as I got my start in the industry! I now work at Antimatter Games based in the UK. I studied illustration for 3 years and used 3D applications for all of my work - I was always drawn to concept art and still image but wanted a job in the industry but didn't know how to approach it or what to try to specialise in. During my degree I did a lot of freelance work for various artists such as directors, writers, musicians etc. And got to early 2020 and decided I wanted to just go for that studio position somewhere. I started looking online at tutorials on game art and how to alter my workflow and was making some progress but felt very lost. So, I searched around for online courses with mentorship to further my knowledge with industry pro's - I checked out Cliton Crumpler's course, cgma, think tank etc. And while all of these are great I was much more heavily drawn to Vertex and what they had to offer as the courses were at a good length, price and split into character and environment. I hopped In after meeting the advisor (who helped me out a lot over the course) and we started with the basics and fundemtals of game art and 3d. Further down the course became more intensive and exciting as we started building our capstone props, followed by a full environment. We would have two weekly meet ups that typically last 3-4 hours which you should pay attention all the way because other peoples problems you most certainly learn from as your instructor helps out whoever is in need in alphabetical order. I found it great as outside of class time instructors will always try to get back to you quickly with feedback and advice - bear in mind they have tonnes of other students to look after as well as lives to live so I really appreciated them going out of their way to do this. John for instance would draw up annotated slides for me to fix issues I was having and Jacob did a portoflio review with me once on his lunch break once. So, they are very caring instructors who do their best for you. What Ryan has built is great and I can't recommend it more. But the catch is - you have to work. Work hard. The minum each week is 20 hours but push that and sacrifice you're free time for the duration of the course if you want to do well and improve your skillset and get noticed. Thanks!