Ultimate Career Guide: 3D Artist by Marc Brunet

Marc Brunet 3D Artist Career Guide is a self-paced video course on working as a 3D artist in the video game industry. Marc Brunet builds two complete game characters, one hand-painted and one using a PBR (physically based rendering) pipeline, and surrounds them with advice on the industry, presenting a portfolio and getting a job. The course has 17 lessons across seven chapters and runs for about 45 hours. It is labelled for beginners on the official page and costs $200 as a one-time download on Cubebrush.

This is by far the longest of Marc's career guides, and the most technical. He recorded it after about ten years in the video game industry, working as a Senior 3D Artist, and it follows the whole production of a real-time character from sculpt to final textures. The course is also generous with bonus files, including base models, sculpts and topology cheat sheets, which makes it useful as a reference long after the first watch.

What You Will Learn

The course teaches both the craft of 3D character art and the career around it. Based on the official chapter list, it covers:

• What a 3D artist does, and why and how to become one
• The software used in production, and an overview of hand-painted and PBR real-time pipelines
• How the 3D side of the games industry works
• Sculpting and detailing a hand-painted character, then building its topology and UVs
• Baking and painting textures in 3D Coat
• Sculpting armour for a PBR character, with topology, UVs, baking and texturing in Substance
• Presenting your work in a portfolio
• Getting exposure, applying for jobs and preparing for interviews

Who Is Marc Brunet 3D Artist Career Guide For?

It suits artists who want to become 3D character artists for games, and students who want to see an entire real-time pipeline in one place. The page marks it as a beginner course, and the opening chapters explain the field from the ground up.

Be realistic, though: the practical chapters are long and technical, and you will get far more from them if you have at least opened a sculpting or 3D program before. It is less relevant to 2D illustrators or concept artists who do not plan to work in 3D; Marc's Concept Artist career guide is aimed at them.

Course Structure

The course is organised into seven chapters, with lesson lengths given on the official page:

• Chapter 1, What, Why, How: 28 minutes
• Chapter 2, Techniques Overview: software, and a demonstration of hand-painted and PBR real-time pipelines (2h 06m)
• Chapter 3, The 3D Industry: 1h 24m
• Chapter 4, Hand-painted Character: sculpting the base (2h 32m), detailing (1h 44m), topology (3h 37m), UVs (1h 29m), baking and textures in 3D Coat (2h 49m)
• Chapter 5, PBR Character: sculpting armour (7h 20m), topology (3h 57m), UVs (2h 23m), baking in Substance (1h 13m), textures in Substance (6h 22m)
• Chapter 6, Portfolio and Presentation: 3h 28m
• Chapter 7, Getting a Job: exposure, applying and interview tips (1h 10m)

Bonus files include a low-poly base model, a low-poly PBR model, the high-poly sculpts, Marmoset viewer files, texture maps and topology cheat sheets.

Price and Access

Marc Brunet 3D Artist Career Guide costs $200, paid once on Cubebrush, with an instant download of the videos and bonus files. Measured by length, that works out at roughly $4.50 per hour of video.

It is a stand-alone product, not a pack taken from ART School, so the ART School upgrade refund that applies to some of Marc's other packs is not mentioned for it.

About the Instructor

Marc Brunet has more than 20 years in the art and games industry, including senior roles at Blizzard Entertainment. He founded Cubebrush and has worked for Wacom, Clip Studio Paint and ImagineFX, before leaving his industry job to build ART School.

Things to Consider

• Time: 45 hours of video is a serious commitment; working along could take months of evenings.
• Software: you will need a sculpting program plus 3D Coat and Substance, or alternatives, to follow the texturing chapters.
• Timing: the guide reflects Marc's first decade in games, so check current tools and job requirements alongside it.
• Hardware: sculpting and baking need a reasonably capable computer.
• Feedback: the course is recorded video only, without personal portfolio reviews.
• Pairing: artists who also want to design characters can add Marc's Concept Artist career guide.

Start the Course

Interested in learning with Marc Brunet?

Start Ultimate Career Guide: 3D Artist

For the full syllabus and pricing, visit the official Marc Brunet website.

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Last verified: November 12, 2026