John Waynick | Director of Game Arts

Unreal Authorized Instructor

"Here at Vertex, Unreal Engine is the heart of our training curriculum. It's my job to make sure that heart keeps beating." ~ John Waynick

John Waynick is a Technical Environment Artist and Unreal Authorized Instructor with a passion for working with the real time engine across multiple industries. He’s journeyed through the game and film industries, as well as virtual reality and simulation industries to experience multiple sides of and usages for Unreal Engine.

John heads Vertex’s Unreal Engine efforts as the Director of Game Arts. Designing curriculum while managing both content and training efforts, he is dedicated to keeping Vertex’s Unreal training options current and up to the highest Epic Games recognized standards. Most importantly, he is here to help students get jobs and to feed the multiple industries using Unreal Engine new and capable candidates.

Journeys in the Industry

John has most recently spent time in the world of Virtual Production with Lucasfilm, projecting virtual sets inside of Unreal Engine onto the LED Volume Wall for television productions in the Star Wars universe. Now he has come back to the game industry where he is working to push the capabilities of Unreal Engine 5 in the open world MMORPG Ashes of Creation for game developer Intrepid Studios.

Mostly spending his time leading and supervising teams, John is always eager to get his hands dirty wherever possible. A textbook definition of a Tech Artist, he loves finding new technical solutions almost as much as he likes making art.

John's Expertise

Environment Art

3D Modeling and Texturing
Digital Sculpting
Modular Design
Trim Sheets
Layout and Level Design
Lighting

Technical Art

Materials and Shaders
Blueprint
Editor Utilities
Code Plugins
Dynamic FX
Gameplay Elements

Cinematography

Virtual Production
Cameras
Sequencer
Animation
Soundscapes
Video Editing

John's Art Projects

Pushing the Tech Art Boundaries

Check out a tease of some of the Tech John has been working on for Ashes of Creation. In the July 2022 livestream, John along with his teammates Bruno and Allen discuss with Creative Director Steven Sharif some of the internal tech they have been building.

Landform is an internal tool that streamlines the process of painting and creating fully displaced nanite meshes directly inside the Unreal Engine 5 editor.