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Brandon Reimchen
Known for Resident Evil
Works with people on why a piece is not reading, and on portfolios that keep getting passed over.
- Concept art
- Visual development
- Games
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Scott Claus
Known for Hercules
Character performance, timing, and the shot that almost works but does not yet land.
- 2D animation
- Performance
- Film
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Nicklas Byriel
Known for Founder of Chaos Theory
Client work end to end: look development, sign-off renders, and scoping a job so it stays profitable.
- Real-time
- Product viz
- Lighting
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Tyler James
Known for Heroes of the Storm
Concept art and illustration for games, and what a hiring art director actually looks for in a folio.
- Concept art
- Illustration
- Games
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Ehsan Ebrahimzadeh
Known for Indiana Jones and the Great Circle
Environments, props and game art, from blockout through to the detail pass, and the topology decisions that cost you later.
- 3D modeling
- Environments
- Game art
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Stuart Butler
Known for Mastering Technical Art in Unreal Engine
Technical art in Unreal: materials, world building, and the setup that behaves in the editor and falls over in a build.
- Technical art
- Unreal
- Materials and VFX
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Scot Bayless
Known for Crimson Skies
Game design and production: scoping a build you can finish, cutting the feature that is sinking it, and what a publisher actually reads in a pitch.
- Game design
- Production
- Publishing
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Simon Warwick
Known for Batman: Arkham Knight
Real-time in Unreal: rigging and technical animation, cinematics, and the performance budget that decides what a scene can actually hold.
- Real-time 3D
- Rigging
- Cinematics
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Tom Oliver
Known for Stuntfall
Game design and development: prototyping an idea fast, then the iteration and shipping discipline that turns it into something that actually plays.
- Game Design
- Game Development
- Game Programming
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Ben Li
Known for Space Dandy
Action and character animation for episodic series: staging a fight so it reads clearly, shot after shot, on the schedule a streaming pipeline actually holds you to.
- 2D animation
- Action
- Performance
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Carlos Rosas
Known for Venom
Character animation across feature and VFX: body mechanics, acting choices, and what changes when the same performance has to read photoreal instead of stylised.
- 3D animation
- Performance
- Creature animation
Who you would be working with 11 available
NeonHexagon
The whole thing is the person on the other end of the call. Bring something you are building, or one thing you need to learn.
Free to join and look around. Membership is US$299 a month.
What you would work on
Tell us which one you are, and we will tell you what happens next.
Choose one on the left.
Not listed? Ask anyway. The roster is small on purpose and it grows towards what people ask for, so tell us what you are working on and we will say straight whether someone here fits, or whether we can go and find them. Talk to us, or .
What a session does
An hour that moves the work forward, or teaches you what was blocking it.
A mentor opens what you brought, finds what is actually holding it up, and agrees what comes back next time. Drag to compare a level blockout with where the same shot got to over a run of sessions.
Before · blockout
After · several sessions on
Student work across a project · not one session
What they brought
A blockout that played correctly and read as mush. Every surface sat at the same value, so the route through the space disappeared. They knew it was wrong and could not name why.
What the mentor did
Value structure first. Everything else into shadow, the walkable ground held as the one bright surface, warm colour only where the player should go. Twenty minutes on the read, none on materials.
What was agreed
Dress the space to support that read rather than fill it, and bring it back from the same camera. The mentor asks about it next session.
Who you book next
Dressing a space is a different skill to fixing how it reads. The next hour can be with someone who does that instead of the person who solved the last problem, on the same membership.
How it works
Three steps between here and your first session.
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Step 01
Join the Discord
Free, and it takes a couple of minutes. Set up Discord if you do not already have it, then say what you are working on.
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Step 02
Start membership when you are ready
One button inside the community. US$299 a month, and your sessions are there the moment it goes through.
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Step 03
Book straight into a calendar
Say what you are working on in your own words, get matched by discipline, and pick a time. No coordinator in the middle.
Studio membership
US$299 / month
Ongoing access to the mentors, of which two hours a month are scheduled one to one on your files.
Joining is free. Membership starts only when you choose it.
- Two one-to-one sessions a monthAn hour each, on video. Your agenda, your files. Unused sessions stay available for 90 days.
- The whole roster, not one personStay with one mentor while a project runs, or switch as the problem changes. Matched by discipline, booked straight into their calendar.
- The room, between sessionsPost a work in progress and ask what is going wrong. The people in there are full-time faculty, not a help desk. No response time is promised and nobody is assigned to you.
Cancel yourself, any time, inside the community. Ask within 14 days of your first payment and we refund what you paid, less US$149 for each session you have already used.
Before you join
What this is not
Not a course or a qualification
There is no curriculum, no cohort and no certificate. You set the agenda and a mentor works to it. That suits people who know what they want and frustrates people who would rather be taught in order. If you want a formal qualification, CG Spectrum Institute runs accredited courses and we will point you at the right one.
Not a job guarantee
Nobody here can promise you work, and anyone who does is selling you something. What a mentor can do is tell you honestly where your work sits against the standard, and what would have to change for it to clear that bar. Whether you act on it is the part we cannot do for you.
Not unlimited one-to-one
Two scheduled hours a month is two scheduled hours a month. You are not alone between them: the room is open, and the people in it are working professionals on staff rather than moderators or a support desk. What you cannot do is book a mentor whenever you want one. If you need daily one-to-one time, this will feel thin.
Studio membership is not an accredited course and does not lead to a qualification. Prices in US dollars. Full terms
Bring the thing you are stuck on.
Join free, tell us what you are working on, and get to work with someone who has done it before.
Meet your mentor
What people bring to a session
The picker keeps it to eight. This is the longer version.
Every line below is something someone on the roster has done for a living. Bring the thing you are actually stuck on.
Getting something finished
- A film or animated shortScott Claus, Simon Warwick
- A game, up to a slice that holds togetherScot Bayless, Stuart Butler, Tyler James, Brandon Reimchen
- A portfolio or reel, mostly by subtractionBrandon Reimchen, Scott Claus, Tyler James, Stuart Butler
- Client and commercial jobsNicklas Byriel, Tyler James
- The personal project you keep not finishingScott Claus, Nicklas Byriel
Craft, by discipline
- Concept art and visual developmentBrandon Reimchen, Tyler James
- Digital illustration and paintingBrandon Reimchen, Tyler James
- 3D modeling, environments and propsEhsan Ebrahimzadeh, Stuart Butler, Tyler James
- Animation and performance, 2D and 3DScott Claus, Simon Warwick
- Rigging, technical animation and cinematicsSimon Warwick
- Lighting, look dev and renderingNicklas Byriel, Simon Warwick
- Real-time and UnrealSimon Warwick, Stuart Butler, Nicklas Byriel, Tyler James
- Technical art, materials and level designStuart Butler
- Product and architectural visualizationNicklas Byriel
- Vehicle artNicklas Byriel, Stuart Butler
Software our courses are taught in
- Unreal EngineReal-time, games, previs and virtual production
- Maya3D animation and modeling
- PhotoshopConcept art, illustration and drawing
- HoudiniFX and simulation
- Toon Boom Harmony2D and cutout animation
- ZBrushCharacter, creature and hard surface sculpting
- 3ds Max3D visualization
- Visual StudioGame programming
- Blender3D foundations and concept workflows
- V-RayRendering for visualization
- UnityPrototyping and mobile games
The business around the work
- Pricing, scoping and quotingNicklas Byriel, Tyler James, Scot Bayless
- Running your own studioNicklas Byriel, who runs Negative Black
- Shipping commercial titlesScot Bayless, on Falcon 3.0, Crimson Skies and 007: Everything or Nothing
- Working with large clientsTyler James on Blizzard and Cryptozoic, Brandon Reimchen on EA, Activision and Capcom
- Teaching and course designStuart Butler, two decades at Staffordshire University
The rooms people have worked in
- AAA gamesRocksteady, Bethesda, MachineGames, Arkane, Blizzard, EA, Activision, Capcom
- Feature animation and VFXWalt Disney Animation Studios, DreamWorks Animation, Rhythm & Hues
- Visualization and productNegative Black, SGM, Nokia, Carlsberg
- Higher educationStaffordshire University, 3D College Denmark
The roster is small on purpose and it grows towards what people ask for. Not everything here has a mentor on it today, so tell us what you are working on and we will say straight whether someone here fits, or whether we can go and find them. Talk to us