Jarien Skywall

Lead 3D Art Generalist and Senior 3D Character Artist.

16+ years of 3D art experience.

5 years of leadership experience.

Background in games, educational software, and product visualization.

Core skills: modeling, texturing, optimization, in-engine asset setup, pipeline setup.

Additional knowledge: rigging, animating, shaders, VFX, particles.

Senior 3D Character Artist at Studio Drydock (2024-10 – 2026-05)

• Title: Wylde Society. Platform: TBD.
• Characters, clothes, hair. Sculpt, retopologize, UV, bake, texture, setup in Unity. Some environments, props, & tiling textures.
• Collaborate with Leads, Concept Art, & 3D Art to give & respond to feedback to ensure it adheres to game's visual language.
• Ensure art serves gameplay & story, e.g. clear silhouettes, real-world period-accurate hair & clothing construction.
• Follow & add to documentation; balance aesthetic quality & technical constraints, e.g. clean topology for deformation.

Freelance 3D Artist at Various clients (2009-08 – 2025-03)

Select game development projects

• Title: Nunaka. Client: FableVision Studios, with Chugachmiut, an Alaskan Native consortium. Platform: iPad, Android. Model & texture toony characters, clothes, environments, props for multi-award-winning pre-K educational game.
• Title: May's Journey. Client: Chaima Jemmali, Northeastern University, & UC Santa Cruz. Platform: PC, Web. Handpainted, artistic characters for educational game to teach computer programming.

Technical Art Manager at Visible Body (2021-01 – 2022-12)

• Title: Visible Body & Visible Biology. Platform: Web-based PC & mobile, zSpace.
• Streamline Artist-to-Engineer 3D production pipeline: refine, document, & teach 3D art standards. Troubleshooting support.
• Supervise Technical Artist. Guide internal tools creation based on input from Art, Leadership, Product Owners, & stakeholders.
• Scripting, shader coding, shader graphs, tools creation, particle systems, rigging, animation, modeling, texturing, Unity setup.

3D Character Artist at Poorly Timed Games (2020-07 – 2021-05)

• Title: Grim Tranquility. Platform: PC. Characters & creatures. Communicate with Concept & Narrative to support game's vision.

3D Art Manager, 3D Operations team at Wayfair (2018-03 – 2020-07)

• Identify pipeline needs; propose, lead, prioritize, & contribute to initiatives; proactively track & report impact metrics; iterate.
• Consistently lead, support, & mentor visdev team R&Ding complex surfaces techniques e.g. wicker, fur, velvet, tufting, wood.
• Define & document visual & technical standards; live training to ensure internal & outsourced 3D artists hit target quality.

Senior 3D Artist, 3D Visualization team at Wayfair (2016-12 – 2018-03)

• Lead, tutor, & critique artist team lighting & rendering photoreal, scenes to brand standards in fast production environment.
• Help steward respectful communication, culture, & professionalism & support team growth from 5 to 60 artists in 1 year.

Technical Artist, Wayfair Next team at Wayfair (2016-02 – 2016-12)

• Models, materials, textures, lighting, UI, UX, optimization, pipeline advising. Prototype & launch 3 VR and AR apps in 1 year.

Adjunct Instructor at Mount Ida College (2015-09 – 2017-05)

• Teach 3D modeling, UV mapping, texturing, lighting, & rendering to Game Art & Animation Bachelor's students.

3D Artist, Technical Artist at VivEd Learning (2008-06 – 2014-07)

• Title: Cyber-Anatomy, Cyber Science 3D, Netter's Interactive Anatomy. Platform: PC, web, zSpace, custom VR hardware.
• Scientifically accurate human anatomy, animal anatomy, microbiology for award-winning educational software.
• Props, environments, maintain material/texture library, node-based shaders, lighting, particle effects, Unity optimization.

3D Artist at Liquid Development (2006-10 – 2008-04)

• Models, UVs, textures, LODs, collision meshes for AA & AAA clients; art ranging from handpainted stylized to photoreal.
• Select projects include Rockband (client: Harmonix), Warhawk (client: Incognito), & Killzone 2 (client: Guerrilla Games).

Bachelor of Science in Media Arts & Animation – The Art Institute of Portland (2002-04 – 2007-06)

Advanced Stylized Character Art Mentorship – CGMA (2023-01 – 2023-04)

Individual Character Art Mentorship – The Mentor Coalition (2023-02 – 2023-03)

Creating Stylized Game Assets – CGMA (2020-04 – 2020-07)