3D Environment Artist

JORDAN EZZELL

*D Artist

Nashville, USA +1-615-***-**** ***********@*****.***

EXPERIENCE

• Created detailed 3D models of environments pieces using Blender for an in-development game.

• Design and model low-poly architectural pieces based off of artwork reference and the game’s established art style.

• Remodel, redesign, and retexture of older architectural models, resulting in a 60% improvement in model and texture quality.

• UV unwrap and texture low-poly models in Substance Painter for implementation in Unity. Animation Elevated

3D Artist

March 2025 - Present

• Online tutor for various students in various subjects, including Blender, Rhino 3D, Adobe Suite, architectural design, and graphic design.

• Students carry a wide age range, with the youngest being 12. Able to adapt to students’ needs and skill level as necessary on a session-to-session basis.

• Able to help students on-call with assignments, giving me a top tutor rating and 5-star reviews. Varsity Tutors & Wyzant

Tutor

October 2024 - April 2025

EDUCATION

University of Tennessee, Knoxville

Bachelor of Architecture

• Focused on 3D Modeling and Game Design.

• Studio project “frAm3” earned the 2023 Architecture at Zero Undergraduate Merit Award with Mars Seay.

• Thesis project “motherlode” was nominated for the 2024 Distinguished Design Award.

• Graduated Magna Cum Laude in May 2024.

• Developed prototype of Dreamless Kingdom from scratch, transitioning from Unreal 5 to Unity 3D.

• Built inventory, dialogue, quest, save and load, and movement systems using C# and Ink. Old codes were re-written and saw a 15% increase in efficiency.

• Designed and built UI systems for inventory, dialogue, and quests, complete with animations and 25% more efficient game development pipelines for each system.

• Built grayboxes of levels and ability to move between them seamlessly while maintaining inventory, quest, and dialogue information.

Hyperdense

Game Designer

May 2024 - September 2024

• Created detailed 3D models of environments pieces using Blender for an in-development game.

• Designed and modeled 50+ asset pieces based off of historical reference pictures using hard-surface modeling and sculpting, resulting in a 30% improvement in model detail.

• Followed a low-poly to high-poly pipeline for implementation with Unreal 5 Nanite. UV mapped assets for texturing in Substance Painter.

AGD

3D Environment Artist

September 2024 - Present

SKILLS

• Expert in Rhino 3D, with 5 years of experience creating architectural models, drawings, and procedural pieces with Grasshopper. Long-term usage of this program allows me easy transition into other 3D software.

• Expert in Blender, having used it for 2 years for high-poly and low-poly modeling of video game pieces, architectural models, rendering, drawings, and texturing. Able to hard-surface model and sculpt comfortably within the program.

• Expert in Adobe Suite products such as Illustrator, Photoshop, and InDesign, having used them for 5 years to create drawings, imagery, animations, and large-scale documents or books.

• Proficient in Substance Painter, Maya, Houdini, After Effects, Unity, and Unreal Engine. While these programs have been used more short-term, my expertise with other programs allows me to quickly learn the basics of new software. Can easily flip between multiple 3D programs based on needs. PORTFOLIO

• Website https://jezzell.studio/

• ArtStation jezzell.artstation.com

• Plan of Tactics (Animation Elevated, TBD)

• unannounced (AGD, TBD)

• Dreamless Kingdom (Hyperdense, 2025)

• motherlode (2024)

• frAm3 (with Mars Seay, 2023)

• Contributed to design and layout of various rooms and furniture within the Art & Architecture Building.

• Worked with other faculty members and departments to design to their needs. Led design of the Design Futures Lab to accommodate future VR and game design classes.

• Contributed towards office remodel, studio layouts, building drawings, and furniture fabrication. Led design of pin-up furniture.

University of Tennessee Facilites

Facilities Assistant

May 2022 - May 2024

JORDAN EZZELL

3D Artist

Nashville, USA +1-615-***-**** ***********@*****.*** COVER LETTER

I am thrilled to throw my name into your talent pool. I graduated with a Bachelor of Architecture from the University of Tennessee in May of 2024. In my time there, I became a highly-skilled architectural designer, earning me awards such as the Architecture at Zero 2023 Undergraduate Merit Award, and worked as a teaching assistant and design assistant to Facilities for many years. I was always fascinated by 3D modeling, begging to be the one to model our design in whatever group project I was in; in my final year, I was made aware of 3D modeling and game design as a possible career path and pivoted towards that journey, using my thesis as an opportunity to transfer my skills to Blender, Unity, and all things related to game modeling.

The resulting project, motherlode, earned me a job with Hyperdense the day after I graduated; I was asked to build a prototype from scratch in Unity for Dreamless Kingdom, including quest systems, dialogue with Ink, level design, sprite animations, save and load, and many other things. Since the natural end of that contract, I have begun working as a 3D Environment Artist for AGD and Animation Elevated; whatever free time I have is used to create more portfolio pieces and bridge any knowledge gaps I have with 3D modeling. I am an incredibly hard worker, and my fascination with 3D modeling allows me to work ten times harder!

I have practiced hard-surface modeling for about 6 years, starting with Rhinocerous and slowly adding programs like Maya, Houdini, and my current software of choice, Blender. I am similarly proficient with the Adobe Suite, having used it since 2019, and am self-taught to the point of comfort with Unity, Unreal, C#, and Substance Painter. I can freely move around all of these programs as needed and have developed appropriate workflows for game modeling, rendering, and scene assembly. All this to say, I am an incredibly fast learner and am confident in my ability to quickly learn additional programs as needed.

My educational background allows me not only the ability to follow given references, but also design from scratch whenever necessary. I can design and model architectural structures on the fly, and I am capable of modeling at any scale, from the large campus down to the screw, to create a believable assembly. I have spent the past 2 years studying game modeling in order to understand optimal topology, retopology, and how my work as a hard-surface modeler translates to texturing and in-game usage. My life-long love for art, sketching, and traditional printwork have given me a sharp eye and an innate ability to create, iterate, and imagine on a technical, emotive, and compositional level. My non-NDA work can be viewed both on my ArtStation (jezzell) and on my own website, jezzell.studio. I am again excited to apply, and I look forward to hearing from you in whatever capacity it may be! To whom it may concern,

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