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Contents
Summary
CG artist with eight years creating 3D assets, environments and visual effects for film, advertising and games studios in London. Models, textures, lights and renders photorealistic and stylised content, and sees shots through from concept to final composited frame. Built hero assets and environments for an award-winning commercial campaign and contributed VFX to a feature film. Comfortable across the pipeline — modelling, look development, lighting, rendering and compositing — and fluent in Maya, Houdini, Substance and Nuke. Strong eye for light, form and detail, and used to delivering to tight client deadlines without dropping quality. Looking for a CG-artist or generalist role at a studio doing visually ambitious work.
Work Experience
CG Artist
Soho VFX & Animation, London, UK
Apr 2017 – Present
- Create detailed 3D assets, environments and visual effects for film, advertising and games projects every day.
- Built hero assets and environments for an award-winning commercial campaign and contributed VFX to a feature film.
- Take each shot from concept through modelling, look development, lighting and rendering to the final composite.
- Work right across the whole pipeline in Maya, Houdini, Substance and Nuke to client briefs.
- Collaborate closely with the art directors and supervisors to hit the look and the creative intent.
- Deliver to the tightest client deadlines without ever compromising the visual quality of the work.
Junior 3D Artist
London Pixel Studio, London, UK
Aug 2014 – Mar 2017
- Modelled and textured 3D assets for a range of advertising and broadcast projects.
- Supported the lighting, rendering and compositing on a range of client shots.
- Built solid pipeline skills and a much stronger demo reel over time.
- Progressed to a full CG-artist role on the strength of the work.
3D Intern / Runner
London Pixel Studio, London, UK
Jun 2012 – Jul 2014
- Interned at a 3D studio, learning the pipeline and supporting artists on shots.
- Handled asset prep, tracking and the render wrangling for the team.
- Built the first portfolio pieces and software fluency that landed a junior role.
- Earned the move into a full junior 3D-artist position from there.
Education
BA (Hons) Computer Animation & Visual Effects, Computer Animation
Escape Studios / University of the Arts London
Sep 2011 – Jun 2014
- Degree in computer animation and visual effects covering modelling, lighting, rendering and compositing, with studio briefs. The briefs built a strong reel. Established the technical and artistic foundation the role needs.
Houdini FX & Look Development Certification, Visual Effects
SideFX / Rebelway
Jan 2017 – Jun 2017
- Certification in Houdini FX and look development covering procedural workflows and rendering. It deepened the technical-effects side of the craft. Applied directly to environment and effects work on film projects.
Highlights
Award-winning campaign
- Built hero assets and environments for an award-winning commercial campaign seen by millions. Work that holds up on the big screen is the clearest proof of craft in CG.
Whole-pipeline artist
- Takes shots from concept through modelling, lighting and rendering to final composite across the pipeline. Being a true generalist means owning a shot's quality end to end.
Certifications
Houdini FX & Look Development
SideFX / Rebelway
Jun 2017 – Present
- Certification in Houdini FX and look development covering procedural workflows and rendering. It deepened the technical-effects side of the craft. Applied directly to environment and effects work on film projects.
Advanced Lighting & Compositing (Nuke)
Foundry
Apr 2019 – Present
- Certification in advanced lighting, rendering and compositing in Nuke. It supports taking each shot through to a polished final composite that holds up on the big screen.
Selected Work
National Commercial Campaign
Jan 2019 – Jun 2019
- Created the CG environments and product shots for a national commercial campaign seen by millions, matching the art director's look through to a polished, broadcast-ready final composite.
Feature-Film VFX Sequence
Jan 2020 – Sep 2020
- Delivered VFX shots for a feature film, modelling, texturing and lighting elements that integrated seamlessly with the live-action plates at full cinema resolution.
Languages
- English (UK) — Native or Bilingual Proficiency
- Portuguese — Professional Working Proficiency
Technical Skills
- 3D Modelling
- Texturing & Look Dev
- Lighting & Rendering
- Compositing (Nuke)
- Houdini FX
- Maya
- Substance Suite
- Environment Creation
- Visual Effects
- Pipeline Workflow
Personal Skills
- Artistic Eye
- Attention to Detail
- Creativity
- Collaboration
- Time Management
Activities & Interests
- Radio
- Volleyball
- Relaxing
- Drinking
- Snow Boarding
What Matters Most
Before the detail, here is what actually decides a strong CG-artist résumé:
- The demo reel link sits at the top and is treated as the real application - the résumé exists to frame the reel, not replace it.
- Shipped, named work earns the interview: released titles, broadcast campaigns and credited feature shots, not a list of generic 'high-quality assets'.
- Software is stated with the part of the pipeline you own beside it - Maya for modelling, Houdini for FX, Substance for texturing, Arnold or Redshift for rendering, Nuke for comp.
- The résumé signals where you sit on the pipeline: focused specialist (modelling, look dev, lighting) or true generalist who takes a shot concept-to-comp.
- Renderer and engine are named explicitly - Arnold, V-Ray, Redshift, Unreal - because a studio hires partly on which renderer you can be productive in on day one.
- Numbers are visual-craft numbers: shot counts, asset counts, resolution, turnaround against a delivery deadline - not invented business percentages.
Why This CG Artist Resume Works
This sample reads like an artist who can be handed a shot and trusted to finish it. Here is what it gets right:
- The summary leads with the role, years and the exact pipeline span - models, textures, lights, renders and composites - so an art director knows in one line this is a generalist, not a single-discipline hire.
- It names the toolset where a studio screens for it: Maya, Houdini, Substance and Nuke are stated up front, mapping cleanly to modelling, FX, texturing and compositing.
- The headline credits are concrete and verifiable - hero assets for an award-winning commercial seen by millions and VFX on a feature film - which is the proof a reel link then backs up.
- The experience tells a believable progression: runner and intern, then junior 3D artist, then full CG artist, each step earned 'on the strength of the work' rather than a job title.
- Look development and lighting are called out as owned phases, not buzzwords, signalling someone who controls the final look of a shot and not just its geometry.
- The Houdini FX and Foundry/Nuke certifications corroborate the claimed skills, so the procedural-effects and compositing lines on the page are backed by something, not asserted.
How to Write a CG Artist Resume That Gets Interviews
A CG-artist résumé is read alongside a reel, so its job is to make the reviewer click the link and then frame what they will see. Build it in these moves:
Put the reel link where it cannot be missed
Place your demo reel and portfolio URL in the header next to your name, not at the bottom. Reviewers decide on the reel; the résumé context-sets it. Link a focused 60-90 second reel and a breakdown page that shows your specific contribution per shot.
Lead the summary with pipeline span and toolset
State years, the disciplines you own and the software in the first two lines. 'CG artist with eight years modelling, texturing, lighting and rendering for film and advertising; fluent in Maya, Houdini, Substance and Nuke' tells a supervisor exactly where you slot in before they read further.
Turn each job into shot-level outcomes
Replace duties with what shipped: 'Delivered 40+ CG environment shots for a national campaign at 4K, matching the art director's look through to final composite.' Name the deliverable, the count or resolution, and the standard it hit.
Name renderer, engine and pipeline tools explicitly
Studios filter on production tools. Spell out renderer (Arnold, V-Ray, Redshift), engine if relevant (Unreal, Unity), and pipeline kit (USD, Shotgun/ShotGrid, Perforce or git). 'Comfortable in Redshift' is a stronger signal than a vague 'rendering' bullet.
Show your place on the pipeline honestly
Decide whether you are selling depth or breadth and make the page consistent. A look-dev specialist foregrounds shading, texturing and lookdev; a generalist foregrounds concept-to-comp ownership. A muddled page that claims everything equally reads as junior.
Back claims with certifications and credited work
List vendor certifications that map to your bullets - SideFX Houdini, Foundry Nuke, Autodesk - and tie named credits to real productions. A reviewer who can verify one credit trusts the rest of the page.
What to Include in a CG Artist Resume
Beyond the standard blocks, a CG-artist page lives or dies on a few role-specific sections recruiters scan for:
Demo reel and portfolio links in the header, plus a per-shot breakdown URL that isolates your contribution.
A software line grouped by pipeline stage - DCC (Maya, 3ds Max, Blender, Houdini), texturing (Substance Painter/Designer, Mari), rendering (Arnold, V-Ray, Redshift), comp (Nuke, After Effects).
Selected credits: named campaigns, released games or feature/episodic titles, with your role and the studio.
Pipeline and collaboration tooling - USD, ShotGrid/Shotgun, Deadline, Perforce or git - that shows you fit a production environment.
Vendor certifications (SideFX, Foundry, Autodesk) and any specialist training in FX, lookdev or real-time.
A short technical-skills block that pairs each tool with the discipline you use it for, so the list reads as production-ready rather than aspirational.
CG Artist Resume Summary Examples
Open with role, years and specialty, then a concrete strength and a credit that proves it. These cover different seniority and focus from the sample, so borrow the shape, not the lines:
Entry-level resume summary example
Junior CG artist and recent computer-animation graduate specialising in hard-surface and environment modelling for advertising and games. Comfortable taking an asset from blockout through UVs, PBR texturing in Substance Painter and lookdev in Maya, then lighting it in Arnold for a clean turntable. Built a focused reel across three studio briefs, including a fully textured sci-fi environment and a product hero shot rendered to broadcast spec. Strong on topology, UV layout and clean naming conventions, and used to working to an art director's reference and reviewing in dailies. Looking to join a studio as a junior generalist or modelling artist where a fast-improving reel and solid pipeline habits can grow into shot ownership.
Senior-level resume summary example
Senior CG artist with twelve years owning lookdev, lighting and final comp on commercials and episodic VFX across two London studios. Leads the look of hero shots end to end - modelling and texturing where needed, then lighting in Redshift and V-Ray and finishing in Nuke so plates and CG sit together at full cinema resolution. Delivered 200+ shots across national campaigns and a streaming series, set up the USD-based lookdev pipeline two studios now run on, and mentors junior generalists through dailies. Trusted with the shots that have to hold up on the big screen and with the deadlines that cannot move. Seeking a senior generalist or lead lighting role at a studio doing visually ambitious, reference-driven work.
CG Artist Work Experience Examples
Strong CG-artist bullets name the deliverable, the tool, the count or resolution, and the standard it hit. These sets show different specialisations - borrow the structure, fill in your own shots:
Generalist / commercials
- Delivered 45+ CG product and environment shots for a national commercial campaign at 4K, modelling and texturing hero assets in Maya and Substance then lighting in Arnold to match the art director's reference.
- Took shots from concept blockout through lookdev, lighting and final Nuke composite, integrating CG with live-action plates so the join held up on broadcast and big-screen playback.
- Cut per-shot turnaround on a tight three-week delivery by templating the lighting and AOV setup, letting the team land all 45 shots without dropping quality or missing the client deadline.
- Collaborated with the art director and CG supervisor through daily dailies reviews, turning look and lighting notes around the same day so the whole 45-shot campaign stayed on its broadcast air date without slipping a single delivery.
Lighting & lookdev specialist
- Developed shaders and lookdev for 30+ hero assets in Substance Designer and Maya, building reusable PBR material libraries that two project teams reused across a season of episodic VFX.
- Lit and rendered 120+ shots in Redshift across a streaming series, managing AOV passes and per-shot render budgets so nightly renders cleared the farm overnight and handed clean elements to the comp team inside their deadline.
- Rebuilt the studio lighting template around USD, cutting per-shot scene-assembly time roughly 30% and standardising how artists handed shots from lighting to compositing so the whole team shared one consistent setup.
- Finished shots in Nuke, matching rendered CG to the plate grade, grain and lens characteristics so the integration held up at full resolution and supervisor notes dropped from several review rounds to one or two before final.
Real-time / games
- Built and optimised 60+ environment and prop assets for an Unreal-based title, baking high-to-low normals and keeping each asset inside its tri and texture-memory budget for the target platform.
- Authored PBR texture sets in Substance Painter to a shared material standard, then set up master materials and instances in Unreal so artists could re-skin assets without touching the graph.
- Lit and dressed real-time environments in Unreal using Lumen and baked lighting where needed, balancing visual quality against a locked 60fps frame budget so each level held its look without dropping below the target frame rate.
- Wrote and shared a modelling-to-engine checklist covering pivots, naming conventions, LODs and lightmap UVs that cut art-side import bugs noticeably and shaved repeated rework off every asset handed from modelling to the engine team.
Extra tips
Work under NDA or not yet aired belongs on the page.
Describe the scope, client type and your specific contribution without naming the title rather than dropping the credit.
Top CG Artist Skills
List the tools paired with the discipline you use them for - a CG-artist skills block should read like a production credit list, not a software inventory:
Hard skills
- 3D modelling (Maya, 3ds Max, Blender)
- Texturing & shading (Substance Painter / Designer)
- Lighting & rendering (Arnold / V-Ray / Redshift)
- Look development
- UV mapping & layout
- ZBrush sculpting
- Hard-surface & organic modelling
- Compositing (Nuke / After Effects)
- Houdini FX & procedural workflows
- PBR material workflows
- Environment & set creation
- Real-time & game engines (Unreal / Unity)
- Rigging & animation awareness
- Photoreal & stylised lighting
- Render optimisation & AOV management
- USD pipeline & scene assembly
- Pipeline tooling & version control (ShotGrid, Perforce, git)
- Photography & reference-driven look matching
Soft skills:
- Strong artistic eye
- Attention to detail
- Taking and applying direction
- Collaboration in dailies
- Time management under delivery deadlines
- Iteration without ego
- Problem-solving
Common CG Artist Resume Mistakes
These are the errors that get a CG-artist résumé set aside even when the underlying work is good:
- Burying or omitting the reel link - if a reviewer has to hunt for your portfolio, the résumé has already failed its main job.
- Listing software as a flat keyword dump with no discipline attached, so the reader cannot tell whether you model, light or comp with it.
- Claiming generalist breadth across every discipline equally, which reads as junior; commit to the depth or the breadth you can actually defend on your reel.
- Naming no real productions - 'worked on high-end CG projects' carries none of the weight of a named campaign, released title or credited feature.
- Inventing business metrics like 'increased efficiency 40%' instead of the numbers that matter in CG: shot counts, asset counts, resolution and turnaround.
- Leaving the renderer and engine unstated, forcing a supervisor to guess whether you can be productive in their pipeline on day one.
CG Artist Resume FAQs
The questions candidates most often search when writing a CG-artist résumé:
Yes - a demo reel is essential and effectively is the application. The résumé exists to frame it, so put a 60-90 second reel and a per-shot breakdown link in the header. Most CG hires are decided on the reel first and the résumé second.
A CG artist creates 3D assets, environments and effects across film, advertising and games - often as a generalist spanning modelling, lookdev, lighting and comp. A VFX artist specialises in integrating effects into live-action footage. CG is the broader 3D craft; VFX is one of the places that craft is applied.
They overlap heavily and the titles are often used interchangeably. 'CG artist' is the broader industry label for someone making computer-graphics imagery; '3D generalist' specifically stresses comfort across the whole pipeline rather than one discipline. Many CG-artist roles are, in practice, generalist roles.
List the production tools grouped by pipeline stage: a DCC such as Maya, 3ds Max or Blender; texturing in Substance Painter and Designer; a renderer like Arnold, V-Ray or Redshift; compositing in Nuke; and Houdini if you do FX. Name the renderer and engine explicitly - studios screen on them.
No - a strong reel beats a degree for almost every CG-artist role. A degree in computer animation or VFX helps build that reel and the technical foundation, but studios hire on the work itself. A self-taught artist with shipped shots competes directly with a graduate.
One page is the norm for a CG artist. Reviewers spend their time on your reel, so keep the résumé to a tight page that links the reel, names your software and lists selected credits. Reserve length for the breakdown page behind the reel, not the résumé.
Pair each tool with the discipline you use it for: modelling (Maya/Blender), texturing and lookdev (Substance), lighting and rendering (Arnold/Redshift), compositing (Nuke), plus UV mapping, PBR workflows and a real-time engine if relevant. Add the soft skills studios value - taking direction in dailies and hitting delivery deadlines.
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