Material Art Fundamentals Mentorship Overview

In this mentorship, you’ll build a stronger foundation in creating materials in Substance Designer, with a focus on believable surfaces, strong artistic decision-making, and practical production workflows.

You’ll learn from Eric Wiley, a Principal Material Artist at Blizzard Entertainment with over 15 years of experience in the video game industry. We’ll begin by reviewing your project idea, current skill level and goals, then define a personalized roadmap based on what you want to create.

This mentorship can cover topics such as Substance Designer workflows, texturing fundamentals, model-based texturing, shader setup and blending in Unreal Engine, portfolio presentation, and more. We’ll explore what makes a good texture, how to create materials that are readable and visually interesting, and how to achieve a specific style.

Each week, you’ll receive feedback, practical demonstrations, breakdowns, and resources tailored to your project needs. The goal is to help you improve your technical execution and create more polished, portfolio-ready work while keeping your goals realistic, focused, and achievable.

This mentorship is designed for beginner to intermediate artists who want to improve their material art skills in a focused, constructive learning environment. Whether you’re learning Substance Designer for the first time or refining your current workflow, we’ll focus on strengthening your fundamentals, elevating your skillset, and creating more polished materials for games.

Prerequisites: PBR basics, Substance Designer, and Modelling software (as needed).

Reminder: In order to sign up for a mentorship, we require that you first complete an application process. If you are approved, we’ll send you a code which you can use to book and pay for your mentorship using the Enter Code and Pay button.