3D environment modeling - 11 week mentorship

Elevate your 3D career with this 11-week mentorship designed to bridge the gap between technical mastery and artistic storytelling. Whether you are transitioning into environments or a professional refining your workflow, you will master the film and animation production pipeline through personalized expert feedback.
Join a small group class

Build a world-class portfolio and learn the exact techniques needed to grab the attention of top-tier studios.

Next term starting date:

July 1st 2026 - Enrollment now open!

Who is this for?

  • Students coming from generalist courses and want to focus on 3D environments.

  • Concept 3D artists good at appeal and stylization, but are lacking in technical and topology skills.

  • Technical artists that are comfortable with topologies, uvs and realistic elements, but want to learn more stylized and appealing styles. 

  • Experienced artists who need an extra push to raise the quality of their projects through professional feedback and mentoring.

  • Students who want to learn first hand the production process in film and animation projects.

  • Character artists who want to expand their skill set.

  • Artists with experience in 3D softwares who want to learn props and 3D asset production.

Previous students

  • Renee Zhou

  • Kylah Sunde

  • Joseph Zhang

  • Zeenath Fathima

  • Matthew Junn

  • Nahomi Castro

Meet your mentor

Hello there! I’m Yoel Pereira, a 3D environment modeler with over 8 years working across animation and videogames, and during this time I’ve had the chance to work on some really fun projects and studios like Skydance Animation for Spellbound, My dad the bounty hunter for Netflix, Clash of Clans, David the movie for Sunrise, and many other like Clash of Clans, Pokemon or Claynosaurz among others.

Through my career I kept seeing the same thing: talented artists stuck not because of skill, but because they didn't know where to focus or what good looked like at their stage. Without that clarity, progress is slow and a lot of people give up before they really get going. That's what pushed me to start this mentorship — and seeing students finish with projects they are genuinely proud of is what makes it so fulfilling. If you want to grow as a 3D environment artist, I'd love to be part of that journey.

  • David

  • Spellbound

  • My dad the Bounty Hunter

  • Clash of Clans

  • The Inn - Personal project

  • Claynosaurz

  • Ambush - Personal project

  • Bidoof's Big stand

  • The land - Personal project

Course structure

LECTURES

Pre-recorded.

  • Structured curriculum covering theory, technique and tools.

  • Visual walkthroughs with screen-recorded demos,

  • Technical breakdown of workflows, tools and different modeling techniques.

  • Speed-modeling videos and real production modeling examples.

  • Access a library of pre-recorded, high definition lessons covering the full production pipeline.

  • Permanent and full access to future lessons.

DAILIES

Monday: 11:30 a.m. PST / 08:30 p.m. CET

  • Mid-week touchpoints to share your current status and keep your project on schedule.

  • Quick corrections on current work in progress.

  • Solve roadblocks and define next steps.

  • Short focused sessions.

  • Open floor for quick questions and troubleshooting.

  • Access to private Discord where you can discuss with your mentor and peers about your progress.

CRITIQUE

Thursday: 10:00 a.m. PST / 07:00 p.m. CET

  • In-depth feedback on assignments and exercises.

  • Specific actionable notes on topology principles, technical workflows and artistic requirements.

  • Available recording to review anytime so you won’t miss anything.

  • Clear next steps and areas to focus on.

  • Define next assignments with context and goals.

  • Space to discuss creative decisions and deeper questions.

What will you will learn?

Every student comes in with different strengths, gaps and goals. The topics below cover the full scope of the mentorship, and your mentor will define which areas to focus on and in what order based on where you are and where you want to go.

  • Every piece of your portfolio starts with a concept, but not every concept will create a great portfolio piece.

    • Choosing the right concept, what do you need to look for in a concept art.

    • Evaluating scope, is it realistic to produce in 10 weeks?

    • Research and breakdown of references.

  • A good projects cant stand without a strong foundation and defining the most crucial aspects early on.

    • Build proxy geometry to block composition and scale.

    • Camera placement, framing and aspect ratio.

    • Understanding the importance of a strong blocking.

    • Defining list of assets and task priority.

  • Being a 3D artist means thinking like an artist and working like a technicial. Learn what you need acording to industry standards.

    • Deconstruct the scene into a structured asset list

    • Getting familiar with the reference workflow, referencing and managing external files.

    • Good practices, naming conventions, outliner organization and scene hygiene.

    • How to organize scenes according to industry standards.

  • The core of the course, you will model your hero and supporting assets

    • Clean topology, correct edge loops and surface control.

    • Hero asset modeling.

    • Subdivision modeling

    • Modular asset production.

    • Surface detail and knowing when a model is done.

  • Perfect technical execution means nothing if the scene lacks style and visual identity.

    • Principles of stylization.

    • Shape language consistency.

    • Analysing references on professional environment from films and games.

  • UVs determine how your assets will look further down the pipeline.

    • UV unwrapping.

    • Texel density.

    • UDIMs for hero assets.

    • Avoiding seams.

    • Organise UVs for texture painting.

  • Introduction to MASH nodes, and utilities.

    • Most used nodes.

    • Use cases.

    • Repromesh and instancer.

  • Not every assets requires extrudes and bevels, learn to be creative with the tools available and achieve everything you have in your mind

    • Vegetation for trees and bushes.

    • NCloth and dynamic simulations.

    • Creating ropes, cables and chains.

    • Complex rooftiles.

  • Environments are rarely just hero assets. Use mash procedural instancing to populate environments with debris, trees, grass and foliage.

    • Scattering elements with MASH

    • Combining procedural and hand placed elements.

    • Controlling density, scale and rotation variation.

  • Even if you completed everything perfectly, your art piece will fail if you dont manage to showcase it with a proper presentation.

    • Lighting principles for environment.

    • Three point lighting.

    • Creating materials

    • Basic render setup for multiple render passes.

    • Compositing basics.

    • Final presentation.

  • Now that you are done with your project, what comes next?

    • Thought process on how to start building your portfolio.

    • Applying for jobs.

    • Define next steps in your career.

    • Tips & tricks and miscellaneous.

Key features of this mentorship

  • Weekly live 1:1 feedback.

  • Intimate small-group format so your progress never gets lost in the crowd — every student gets individual attention every week.

  • Lessons personalised to your level and goals, not a one-size-fits-all curriculum.

  • Permanent access to all course material, plus free access to every future lesson and update we add.

  • Private Discord channel that stays open after the course ends, so the community and support don't stop when week 11 does.

  • Multiple weekly meetings meetings to keep momentum and have multiple feedback weekly.

Referral offer:

Know someone who would benefit from this course? Save 100$ on your tuition for every friend you refer.

1100$ Full price

950$

until June 10th

Enroll now!

Join the course

Have a question about the mentorship? Wondering if it's the right fit for you? Send a message and I'll get back to you personally.