Valentina Hawes

3D Artist
valentina.hawes@gmail.com

A 3D artist and game developer with niches in appealing animals/creatures, character customization & cosmetics, and stylized art direction. A flexible and process-focused artist with 10 years of experience working directly in-engine on small teams.

Education

BFA - Interactive Design & Game Development
Savannah College of Art and Design
Class of 2017

Skills

3D modeling
3D sculpting
lowpoly modeling
modeling for 3d print
retopology
character design
cosmetics and customization
handpainted textures
technical art
rigging
animation
visual scripting
a little bit of C#
realtime VFX

Software

Unity (shader graph, VFX graph, timeline, mecanim)
Unreal
Godot
Blender
Maya/Max
Substance Designer
Substance Painter
Adobe Photoshop
Adobe Illustrator
Affinity Designer
Spine2D

Experience

Double Dagger Studio
2020 - Present
Character Artist
Designed and modeled all of the characters + cosmetics for Little Kitty, Big City, along with other key props and physical merchandise.
Designed the character customization feature, including authoring all texture/marking content, UI wireframes, and overall visual targets. Worked closely with the engineering team to create a workflow for layering and packing textures that would be compatible with all platforms from pc to console to mobile.
Worked with marketing partners on brand activations, pop-ups, cross-promotion and merch.
Created modeling pipeline documentation and provided 3d art mentorship to coworkers.

Subliminal
2019 - 2026
3D Artist
Designed, modeled, rigged, and animated characters along with props, environments, and fx across multiple award winning titles including Button City and Button City Soccer Days, from original indie games to interactive experiences and installations for a wide variety of clients. Cultivated years of hands-on experience with the full pipeline of pitching, prototyping, producing, shipping, testing, and maintaining games.
Worked as a senior artist on multiple projects, including working with our art director to lead a team of junior game artists. Collaborated with coworkers to create impactful indie game marketing from PR products to store page assets and social media content.

Jared’s Journey - for Meow Wolf
3D Artist
While at Subliminal, created a unique and experimental arcade game experience for Meow Wolf Grapevine (The Real Unreal). Worked within Meow Wolf brand guides and our art director’s vision to create and rig key 3D characters, props, and environment assets. Also involved in ideation and game design, plus installation and testing.

Virtual Beings
2021-2026
Character Artist
Designed, modeled and textured full sets of animal characters (cats and birds) for Forever Pets and other associated projects. Handpainted art style and character art direction work for mobile and VR.

Scraggy Rascal Studios + Valve
2018-2019
3D Artist
Designed, modeled and textured creatures, organic environment kits, and props for 3 SteamVR Home Environments: Gulping Goat Space Farm, Candy Emporium, and Winter Peak. Source 2.

Foxie Ventures
2019-2020
Texture Artist
Created 40+ handpainted textures and UV layouts for mobile/browser game Horse Riding Tales. Worked on a variety of animal models and gear to create multiple tiers of cosmetics.