Hello creatives, Ryan wants you to meet Jet Olaño. Jet wears many hats; he works with Unreal Engine Virtual Production Fellowship as an Instructor/Unreal Engine Technical Artist and is the Owner Operator at The Secret Hideout. He helped to instruct Industry Professionals learn a hands-on approach to In Camera Visual Effects (ICVFX) using the Unreal…

Hello Creatives, Ryan wants you to meet Jason Belic. He has known Jason for a really long time. All the way back to when Ryan worked at Pixologic. Ryan is putting the spotlight on Jason, so you can see a whole other dimension to the type of people and jobs in our industry. Jason is an artist, but he’s worked in development and building technology s…

This week we're bringing you a talk by the amazing Ashley Sparling filled with career advice for those looking to get into the game industry. Ashley is a veteran of the industry having worked at studios like Ubisoft and others and now running his own company, K9. Make sure to learn more about Ashley at the links below. Ashley Saprling's Artstation:…

This week Ryan is turning the mic over to Jacob Claussen and his career talk. Jacob Classen is currently a Lead Environment at Fall Damage Studio in Stockholm, Sweden and a Mentor at Vertex School. In this episode, Bita and Jacob go through his amazing journey to become a professional artist and the courage to continue push his creativity. Along wi…

This week Ryan is talking with the Co-Founders of The Rookies, Alwyn Hunt and Andrew McDonald. Together have put together a platform for first year artists to show their hard-earned talent, in a highly commentative industry. Alwyn has an established background in fine art and the CG industry. Some notable credits are The Hobbit 1 & 2, Watchmen, Har…

Join Ryan this week as he interviews Sean Spitzer, Unreal Enterprise - Senior Instructor/ Master Mentor Artist for VP at Epic Games. Sean has been in the games industry for 18 years working in both console and social gaming verticals. He has an extensive background in education teaching game art and design related topics at both the Academy of Art …

This week Ryan is interviewing Dam Weiss, Senior Character Artist at Untold Studios. Dan has worked as a Character Artist, Creature Artist and look Dev Artist in some very well-known films and shows. From titles such as Man From U.N.C.L.E., Captain America: Civil War, Renegades, Lion King and Moon Knight. Dan gives us a glance at working film in to…

This week Ryan is talking to the industrious Nora Shramek a Senior level Lighting and Render Artist. She helps shed some light on what it is to be a lighting artist in a studio. Learn how a robust skill set helps in her communication and collaborate in her studio pipeline. Plus, how modern artist can benefit from a background of traditional art ski…

Tune into this episode were Ryan sits with James Jacob Co-Founder of Ziva Dynamics and Director of Technology Incubation at Unity. James talks about his time working on project like Lord of the Rings and Avatar, as well as his current venture in tools for Rigging. See how the industry has blossomed through James eyes. Learn more about Vertex School…

This week Ryan has the pleasure to present to you a conversation with Vimal Kerketta, a digital sculptor/character artist whose work has been featured in many movies, video games & toys. To shed light on his beginnings for aspiring artists, Vimal recounts how he started off his artistic career. Like many it did not start in the area of art, but rat…

Ryan is excited to present his conversation with Ian Spriggs, 3D Portrait Character Artist, who's portraits push our expectation of 3D character work. Ian's work is raw and true to the subject, but in his chat with Ryan we are shown the artistry woven into his work. How there is an intension behind the eyes, or a thought placed into the mannerisms …

Ryan has the pleasure to chat with Jasmine Jai, Senior Sound Designer at HoYoverse. She crafts the sound and acoustic mood in games. Listen in on this conversation and start to listen to the ambient noise that defines your surroundings. Jasmine's job is one layer that helps build an immersive experience in the game design pipeline. Learn more about…

Listen in on Ryan's chat with Nacho Riesco. Nacho is a Freelance Digital Sculptor well known for his elaborately crafted jewelry and highly engaging demos on Pixologic's YouTube channel. They will discuss Nacho's start as an artist and his view on digital sculpting from the point of view of a traditional who is less concerned the technical side of …

This week we have our Producer at Vertex School, Jean-Marc standing for Ryan. Join Jean-Marc's conversation with Thomas Tobin, a talented Senior Tech Artist at Unity Technologies. Also, Thomas teaches Houdini at the Vertex School and shares his knowledge of procedural design with his students. Thomas gives us an in-depth view of his process and how…

We invite you to listen in on Kurtis Dawe and Ryan's conversation about Prime Ape Panet. Kurtis Dawe now has decided that he wants to use his skills and experience to bring a high-value project to NFT space with Prime Ape Panet. The project is headed up by Kurtis and a team of designers who are known for many productions like The Lion King, Godzill…

Have a listen to our chat with vertex mentor Chico Spans. Chico is a vegetation artist at Massive entertainment. Before that Chico was an environment artist at playground games as part of the road team working on Forza Horizon 4 and before that he was at Sticky studios. Chico gives us an in depth view about his journey as an artist and how he inten…

Datagen provides high-performance data that is key to production-ready algorithms to accelerate R&D and improve computer vision models with access to a fully controllable synthetic data generation platform. In this episode, Ryan meets with Gil (CTO and Co-founder), Teddy (Marketing Manager) and Evan (Director of 3D Technologies and a Vertex Mentor)…

Jacob Classen is currently a Lead Environment at Fall Damage Studio in Stockholm, Sweden and a Mentor at Vertex School. In this episode, Bita and Jacob go through his amazing journey to become a professional artist and the courage to continue push his creativity. Along with being a recognized artist in our industry. Jacob is also a educator who res…

Tyler and Larry have a PHd in NFTs and host a popular podcast called That's Nifty where they interview amazing artists working in this space. In this episode, Ryan talks with Tyler and Larry to unpack what an NFT and what they've learned from collecting and interview artists like Aeforia, Smeccea, Kid Mograph and more. Learn more about That's Nifty…

Jama Jurabaev is a concept artist working at Lucasfilms and is founder of BigMediumSmall Studio. Recently complete design work for episodes of Boba Fett on Disney +. In this episode, Ryan and Jama go through his twitter feed to talk about Jama's amazing artwork and the tools he uses. Along with being a recognized artist in our industry, Jama is als…

Andre Holzmeister is the artist behind ArtMonkees' upcoming NFT release. In this podcast, we catch up with Andre just as he finishes up the last piece of art. Andre goes on to talk about how it has been his dream to create a toy collection and how that dream was impossible or insanely complicated back in 2007 but now is within his reach because of …

Have a listen to our chat with Doug and James from Super Pop Drop as they talk to us about digital artists in the fashion metaverse space! Think digital wearables and all the other assets that you need to create a fashion show like avatars, runways, lighting setups etc... You'll hear all about their journey to Super Pop Drop from their days as crea…

Have a listen to this fascinating chat with digital sculptor Auriea Harvery from her home in Rome and Vertex here at the Leona art gallery in the heart of East Austin, TX. Auriea Harvey is a digital sculptor producing simulations and objects that bridge physical and virtual space. Auriea Harvey is a boundary-breaking artist originally from Indianap…

Omar Awediah is the Character Art Lead at Sucker Punch Productions and a mentor at Vertex school. Before that he was a character art lead at Amazon game studios and Obsidian entertainment and Cloud imperium games. Omar gives us a glimpse into many aspects of his life as an artist creating characters for a major studio. You get to hear all about Oma…

Giovanni Nakpil, Creative Director Gio, has been a digital model supervisor for Industrial Light and Magic, worked on principal creatures for "Star Trek" and "The Avengers," amongst other notable Hollywood films before switching gears to designing and building video game assets for Valve Corporation, then onto Oculus and now working at Adobe. Liste…

Start projects and never finish? What does this say? To help you understand it I read a poem by Jack Gilbert called "Lovers". It's pretty neat. This lesson helped me honor my own work more and see myself differently. Hopefully it can do some good work for you as well. Much Love, -Ryan P.S. This is the last of the special series of podcast episodes …

What is mastery? How do you build skill as a creative? These are questions that drive me to this day. They drive my work at Vertex School, the classes I run and my own practice as a 3D Artist. In this episode, we look at the idea that mastery is not magic, it's process. Learn the process and you become the master. Enjoy! -Ryan…

In this episode we talk about my own journey as a creative man and a bit about how I learned to allow myself to be open to joy and that spark of inspiration. As a man, I have always struggled between the joy of creating and my need to provide for myself and my family. While there is no easy answer for this, knowing and accepting yourself is key. Re…

Discover your rules for what makes art... what makes you an artist... and what you MUST do to finally give yourself that pat on the back that we all need. This exercise changed me and helped me understand how I was screwing up my creative life. It took longer to stop doing it but this was step one to accepting myself and my own process. Much Love, …

Our inner critic can be our biggest source of strength or it can haunt our every creative moment. What does he/ she want? Why do they do what they do? What does it say the things it says? You might be surprised to find out. Listen to the whole podcast episode and I hope this helps you on your creative journey! -Ryan…

Lets learn about the three creative roles that help us bring our creativity into the real world: Visionary Realist Critic I hope this helps you understand your creative journey! -Ryan

In this episode, Ryan Kingslien starts this special conversation about being a creative by looking at the two poles most creatives struggle with... engineering success or disappearing into the dark wood to find their own special magic. This is episode one of this special series designed to help you understand your own creative journey more and give…

Welcome to the new/old podcast: The Creative Metaverse where we interview creatives, artists and technologists helping to create the new creative tech universe! I'm super excited to bring some new voices to our podcast to both interview and to be interviewed. You know, there is a great saying by Arthur C Clark, "The Future is already here. It's jus…

Check out this awesome interview with John Jasper Fielding, a Lead Animator at the Mill! John's got some amazing history with cinematic animation. Listen in and learn from him! Enjoy! Learn more about Vertex School: https://www.vertexschool.com/ Learn more about John: https://johnjasperfielding.com/ Want to be an Animator in the Video Game Industry…

Listen to this awesome interview with Robert Morrison, a Lead Animator at Certain Affinity! He's got some amazing insights into the world of animation. Learn more about Vertex School: https://www.vertexschool.com/ Learn more about Robert: http://www.robertanimator.com/ Want to be an Animator in the Video Game Industry? Apply for your spot in our up…

Listen to this awesome interview with Elaina Scott! Elaina Scott has worked on titles such as Iron Man 3, Avengers 2, The Hunger Games, Fast Five, Insurgent, Transformers 4, TMNT, and The Fantastic Four. Hear her tips about landing a job in the industry. Learn more about Vertex School: https://www.vertexschool.com/ Learn more about Elaina: https://…

Listen to this awesome interview with Andrew Tan, an animator at Sucker Punch Productions! Learn more about Vertex School: https://www.vertexschool.com/ Learn more about Andrew: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrewtananimation Want to be an Animator in the Video Game Industry? Apply for your spot in our upcoming 3D Animation Program here: https://www…

Check out this interview with Mark Peart, a lead animator at Super Spline Studios. Mark has animated for huge franchises, such as Lego and Call of Duty. Enjoy! Learn more about Vertex School: https://www.vertexschool.com/ Learn more about Mark: http://www.markpeart.co.uk/about/4564871070 Want to be an Animator in the Video Game Industry? Apply for …

Check out this awesome interview we had with Sophie Shepherd, an animator at Creative Assembly! Learn more about Vertex School: https://www.vertexschool.com/ Sophie's Twitter: https://twitter.com/smshepherd Want to be an Animator in the Video Game Industry? Apply for your spot in our upcoming 3D Animation Program here: https://www.vertexschool.com/…

Check out this interview with Matt Tovar, a character animator who also works as an assistant professor! Matt shared with us a lot of great insights into the world of animation and his journey to get where he is today. Enjoy! Learn more about Vertex School: https://www.vertexschool.com Learn more about Matt: https://vimeo.com/matthewtovar Want to b…

Listen this interview with Ju Li Khaw, a senior animator at Arkane Studios! Ju Li had a lot of insight into being a professional animator. Enjoy! Learn more about Vertex School: https://www.vertexschool.com/ Learn more about Ju Li: http://www.animstate.com/author/julikhaw/ Want to be an Animator in the Video Game Industry? Apply for your spot in ou…

Listen to this interview with Jess Simard, a 3D animator at Playground Games, as she sheds light on her experience working in animation. Learn more about Vertex School: https://www.vertexschool.com/ Learn more about Jess: https://www.artstation.com/jesssix Want to be an Animator in the Video Game Industry? Apply for your spot in our upcoming 3D Ani…

Check out this interview with Mike Jungbluth, an animation director at Bioware. Mike has a lot of insight to being an animator! Learn more about Vertex School: https://www.vertexschool.com/ Learn more about Mike: http://www.animstate.com/author/mikejungbluth/ Want to be an Animator in the Video Game Industry? Apply for your spot in our upcoming 3D …

Listen to our interview with Jon Mack, an amazing animator working for Facebook's VR-AI department. With years of experience working for AAA games, he's got a lot of insight into the world of animating video games. Enjoy! Learn more about Vertex School: https://www.vertexschool.com Learn more about Jonathan Mack: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonatha…

Check out this interview with Michael Rudd and Kaushit Saha. Michael is the CEO and Art Director of Playwood Games, and Kaushit is a freelance artist who worked on the game "Wartile." More about Wartile: https://www.wartile.com/ More about Kaushit Saha: https://www.artstation.com/kaushiksaha More about Vertex School: http://vertexschool.com Want to…

Check out this interview with Nayoun Kim, a senior character animator at Jellyfish Pictures! She was so fun to talk to, and has a lot of insight into being an animator in the industry today. She's worked on big pictures, such as Kung Fu Panda 3, How to Train Your Dragon 2, and The Croods. Enjoy! Nayoun's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ncharo…

Check out this new episode with Brandon Pham Want to be a Character Artist or an Environment Artist in the Video Game Industry? Apply for your spot in our upcoming Game Artist Program here: https://www.vertexschool.com/

Check out this new episode with Vuk Benovic Want to be a Character Artist or an Environment Artist in the Video Game Industry? Apply for your spot in our upcoming Game Artist Program here: https://www.vertexschool.com/

Check out this new podcast with Mohanad Hossam Want to be a Character Artist or an Environment Artist in the Video Game Industry? Apply for your spot in our upcoming Game Artist Program here: https://www.vertexschool.com/