Organic Environment Art Mentorship With Peyton Varney

Create believable natural environments for games with personalized 1-on-1 mentorship from Senior Environment Artist Peyton Varney, specializing in organic world building and vegetation creation. 

What You'll Learn

MENTORSHIP Overview

Create believable natural environments for games with personalized 1-on-1 mentorship from Senior Environment Artist Peyton Varney, specializing in organic world building and vegetation creation. 

Drawing from professional workflows used in AAA development, Peyton can help you navigate every stage of environment art creation. Sessions may cover composition, vegetation workflows, material creation, scene assembly, storytelling, optimization, and portfolio presentation. Through paintovers, demos, project reviews, and detailed critiques, you’ll gain practical feedback and clear direction for improving both the artistic and technical quality of your work. 

By the end of the mentorship, you should have a stronger understanding of the artistic and technical decisions that go into creating immersive game environments. More importantly, you’ll leave with actionable feedback, improved problem-solving skills, and a clearer path forward for continuing your growth as an environment artist.

THIS MENTORSHIP IS IDEAL FOR

  • Junior and intermediate environment artists who have a foundational understanding of 3D modeling, materials, and scene assembly. It offers tailored guidance to help you strengthen organic worldbuilding skills, refine vegetation and natural environment workflows, and create immersive, production-ready portfolio pieces

mentorship GALLERY

Peyton CAN HELP WITH

  • Vegetation & Organic Assets
  • Environmental Storytelling
  • Creating Textures & Implementation
  • Layout & Composition
  • Presentation & Breakdowns

Prerequisites

Advanced-junior to experienced game artists. You should have a good grasp of 3D tools and basic production workflows to get the most out of the mentorship.

Assignments

what's included

Every plan comes packed with everything you need to master professional texturing workflows.

Learn From The Best

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Peyton Varney is a Senior Environment Artist at Naughty Dog, with credits on The Last of Us Part I and The Last of Us Part II. He is currently working on the studio’s upcoming title, Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet. Prior to joining Naughty Dog, Peyton began his career as an intern at Insomniac Games, where he contributed to Marvel’s Spider-Man for PlayStation 4.

In addition to his professional work in the AAA game industry, Peyton has spent the past seven years teaching online and creating educational content focused on environment art for games. He developed his own courses, produced tutorials for schools such as Gnomon, and built a YouTube channel that provides free learning resources for aspiring artists.

Teaching has become one of the most rewarding parts of Peyton’s career. He enjoys helping others better understand the environment art pipeline and supporting artists as they pursue their own creative goals. It has also allowed him to continually develop his communication skills while learning from the fresh ideas, perspectives, and techniques that emerging artists bring to the industry.  Today, Peyton mentors environment artists at Sierra Division Academy, sharing the workflows, techniques, and insights he has developed throughout his career.

Learn At Your Own Pace

Choose the amount of time that best fits your learning style. All options include community access.

8
Weeks
$1,200
or $300.00 × 4 installments
  • 8 one-on-one live sessions (1 hour each), scheduled weekly
  • Personalized demos and paint-overs
  • Notes and transcripts may be provided
  • Access to the Sierra Division Discord and private Academy channels
10
Weeks
$1,500
or $375.00 × 4 installments
  • 10 one-on-one live sessions (1 hour each), scheduled weekly
  • Personalized demos and paint-overs
  • Notes and transcripts may be provided
  • Access to the Sierra Division Discord and private Academy channels
12
Weeks
$1,800
or $450.00 × 4 installments
  • 12 one-on-one live sessions (1 hour each), scheduled weekly
  • Personalized demos and paint-overs
  • Notes and transcripts may be provided
  • Access to the Sierra Division Discord and private Academy channels

Installment plans on all options where available

HOW joining the waitlist WORKS

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