Maya
Zachary Gregory
Senior/Lead Environment Artist
Seattle,WA
Summary
Experienced Senior/Lead Environment artist with a strong track record of leveraging cutting-edge technologies to develop captivating games. Dynamic and driven professional with over 6 years of industry experience and a keen attention to detail. Deep understanding of gaming trends, coupled with expertise in team leadership and mentoring, allows for consistent delivery of exceptional results.
Overview
6
6
years of professional experience
6
6
years of post-secondary education
Work History
World Art Lead (Outsource)
Sony Interactive Entertainment - Valkyrie Entertainment
5 2020 - Current
- Led and mentored junior and external artists, ensuring alignment with artistic standards and technical guidelines.
- Worked closely with Design and Tech Art to resolve artistic and technical issues in external content.
- Refined vendor deliverables to ensure consistency with the game's artistic vision.
- Managed external art development, optimizing performance for next-gen platforms.
- Maintained high visual standards across environments, focusing on photorealistic modeling, texturing, and lighting.
Senior Environment Artist
Sony Interactive Entertainment - Valkyrie Entertainment
- Designed and produced high-quality, environment assets, ensuring attention to detail in modeling, texturing, and lighting in both photorealistic and stylized fashions,
- Partnered with Design, Art, and Engineering teams to tackle both artistic and technical challenges, ensuring smooth integration into the game world.
- Focused on optimization strategies, balancing performance and visual fidelity on next-gen platforms.
- Leveraged PBR workflows and full-frame optimization techniques to create efficient, visually striking assets in proprietary engines.
- Helped shape immersive game worlds from multiple biomes by contributing to overall artistic vision through consistent and high-quality environment production.
Environment Artist
Valkyrie Entertainment LLC
- Produced high-quality AAA environment assets, ensuring alignment with the game's visual standards.
- Expertly used Maya, ZBrush, Substance, and Houdini to create detailed and optimized models.
- Sculpted both organic and inorganic elements, including terrain, props, and natural features
- Took ownership of key worldbuilding areas, collaborating closely with Design to maintain gameplay metrics and performance targets
- Optimized AAA asset kits for performance, using combinations of proprietary and industry-standard tools
Graphic Specialist III/Team Lead
LSI Inc.
06.2018 - 01.2020
- Pipeline development for Army Virtual Learning Environment and Virtual Maintenance Trainer of CMV-22 aircraft
- Optimization and implementation of PBR materials incorporating legacy materials into Unreal Engine 4 and Unity for rapid iteration
- Art leadership to establish quality and procedure standards
- UE4 shader and gameplay functionality development including post process effects, material pipeline, animation blueprint scripting.
Education
Game Environment Artist Course - Environment Artist
Game Art Institute
Remote 01.2017 - 08.2018
Bachelor of Arts - Interactive Design And Game Development
Savannah College of Art And Design
Savannah, GA 09.2013 - 06.2018
Skills
Real-Time Rendering
Environment Design
Color theory
World-building
Performance Optimization
Material Creation
Modular Asset Creation
PBR Workflow
Terrain Generation
Effective Communication
Interpersonal and written communication
Time Management
Problem-Solving
Teamwork and Collaboration
Software
Zbrush
Houdini
Unreal Engine
Substance Suite
Creative Cloud Suite
Davinci Resolve
Simplygon
Marvelous Designer
Cascadeur
Timeline
Graphic Specialist III/Team Lead
LSI Inc.
06.2018 - 01.2020
Game Environment Artist Course - Environment Artist
Game Art Institute
01.2017 - 08.2018
Bachelor of Arts - Interactive Design And Game Development
Savannah College of Art And Design
09.2013 - 06.2018
World Art Lead (Outsource)
Sony Interactive Entertainment - Valkyrie Entertainment
5 2020 - Current
Senior Environment Artist
Sony Interactive Entertainment - Valkyrie Entertainment
Environment Artist
Valkyrie Entertainment LLC