Hi! My name is Thiago Klafke, and I'm a Senior Environment Artist in the games industry, with over 15 years of experience in level design and environment.

Throughout my career, I was fortunate to make art and level design for a multitude of different games - from popular Half-Life mods, to Nintendo DS games, to a multiple GOTY award AAA game.

During this time, I faced uncountable challenges that allowed me to overcome my fears and learn valuable lessons - be it from learning from top talents in the industry, to having my own personal insights.

I have a passion for teaching people who are eager to learn. I really believe that most of the time all it takes for an artist to jump to the next level is to have the personal guidance of someone who has done it before.

For this reason, I created this specific mentorship program that I'm now happy to share with the right people!

What will I learn from this program?

This program is less focused on specific environment art techniques (I have another program for that), but more focused on your personal development as an artist. I really believe that a powerful mindset is much more valuable to an artist than knowing one or another specific technique. Don't get me wrong, knowing techniques is essential, but the techniques won't do you any good if you don't have the confidence to apply them.

The main reason I began making game environments was to express myself. I believe we all have unique perspectives, unique tastes, unique sensibilities, and our art really shines when we connect to that side of ours.

So with this program, I will teach you how to tap into your inner creativity, and surprise yourself with the creation of a completely unique environment, that will be your most personal creation to date.

By the end of this program, you are going to have the confidence (and the mindset) to be able to make any kind of environment you are faced with - even if you never made anything like it before! That's a strong statement, but having used this mindset/framework successfully for years, and by teaching others, I know it works.

How does the program work?

This program is all about you. Imagine that we are going down a dark cave, which we don't know what we are going to find at the bottom, and I will be next to you, as your guiding light. You will never get lost, because I will tell you exactly where to go - but at the same time you will be a 100% free to create.

This is an extremely powerful, easy, accessible workflow that can be applied to any kind of environment, be it a gritty sci-fi alley texture with substance materials, to a photo-texture based city street, to a fully hand-painted or sculpted medieval fantasy world.

I'll teach you the framework which you will then be able to apply to your own works. Use whatever techniques and style you are comfortable with.

I won't teach you how to make specific things. I will teach you how to make things. Any thing. Period. Whatever challenges you might face in your professional life, you will be equipped to tackle them.

Of course, I'm not promissing that you will get to my current expertise level in 10 hours. It will most definitely take you years of grueling and sometimes painful work. But you won't have to commit the same mistakes I did and will have the confidence to be come up with your own solutions and most importantly, become an artist able to create unique and new things.

This is an UNIVERSAL method, as I said above. It's a framework, one that you can adapt to your own needs and reality.

Who is this Program For?

• Professionals with solid experience who want to take a giant leap forward
• Promising students and young professionals who I see are on the right track
• People who are driven, passionate and want to create their own amazing environments. People who want to bring new ideas into fruitition.

You will tell me what you want to make (feel free to use any engine, software or techniques you want, this program is completely agnostic!) and I'll guide you through a very structured method to take your idea to completion in very little time.

The point of this program is NOT to make a perfect environment, it is to make ONE environment that you will have a lot of fun working on, through which you will learn this method and then be able to apply the things you learn in any way you see fit.

You can either come up with your own pitch, or you can let me pick one for you if you like a good challenge ;)

We will have skype calls where I'll explain the method and give you specific targets to hit. For example, the first milestone will be to block out the entire map using only cubes and primitive shapes. You will only advance to the next milestone once you complete this one.

After you hit each milestone, we will have another skype call where I'll give you feedback and directions on what to do next. In between milestones you can always email me if you feel stuck or have questions.

If you follow my instructions, you will learn the method simply by making a cool environment, no need to think if you are on the right track or not. With this method you will ALWAYS be on the right track, even if sometimes you have to stop and redo some of your work, it won't matter (in fact, accepting this fact will make your work much better and faster!) .

You will take as long as you need to complete the course, but one thing is for sure: Both you and me are going to be proud of the environment we make together, and your work will never be the same anymore. I'll open doors in you that that you probably wouldn't open otherwise.

What Will You Learn From This Program?

This method will make you FAST, EFFICIENT, CREATIVE, CONFIDENT and WORLD CLASS..

I don't mean someone who rushes to get the work done, I mean someone who works less so they can work better. You won't waste time polishing stuff before its time for it, and you will have a very solid vision before you move on, avoiding mistakes that add up a lot of unnecessary production time. You will simplify your work. You will have the confidence to just be yourself and trust that you can accomplish any task that comes in your way. You will be able to see the entire forest instead of an individual tree, a fundamental skill to be a good leader. You will click less buttons because you will be clicking the RIGHT buttons. You will generally lead a happier life, since work won't stress you as much as it did anymore, because you will have a METHOD you can follow and apply in any situation.

What you Won't Learn From This Program

I won't teach you how to use a specific tool. If you ask me how to do something or which tool to use, I will obviously give you directions if I'm familiar with the tool. I just mean that I won't be guiding you through specific tools, I'll leave that up to you (since that knowledge can easily be found somewhere else). I only have time and bandwidth to teach the things unique to me, that you won't find anywhere else. This is the most valuable thing you can get from your investment.

The Minimum Requirements

If you check ALL these boxes you are good to go!

• A strong desire to become a better, more creative, more confident and more efficient artist. Someone who wants to make their destiny into their own hands and come up with new things.
• You are skilled at a major 3d modelling package (Maya, 3ds Max, Blender)
• You know how to make textures, doesn't matter the method (Photo textures, Hand-Painted, Substance, Sculpted, etc...)
• You know how to use Unity or Unreal 4
• Willing to make an investment into your future. This program is not meant to be a mass-market product, but a fully-customized experience that took A LONG time to come together. I will adapt my method to your needs, your skill level and your goals. Whatever money you invest into this, I can guarantee you that you will be able to make much more with your new skills, either by getting promoted, negotiating a better salary, increasing your salary rate, taking on more work, etc...

Do you have any questions? Don't hesitate to ask!

I hope we will embark on this together and that I can help you become a much better artist and also learn new things from you!

Thiago