Frederico Carneiro

About Me

Frederico Carneiro

Art Lead · Senior Environment, Level & 3D Artist

I direct and build the look of real-time game worlds, and the tools that make them.

9+ years in AA/AAA development, 5+ leading art teams. Hands-on from blockout to final lighting and polish across environments, level art, weapons and 3D, with deep Unreal Engine 5 expertise. I define visual direction, build the pipelines teams ship on, and keep visual quality and performance inseparable.

Experience

11 Bit Studios

  1. Mar 2026Aug 2026 – present

    Freelance 3D, Tech & Environment Art

Sperasoft

  1. Apr – Jul 2026

    Senior Level Artist

    Contract · AAA project under NDA

Reikon Games

  1. Jun 2023 – Dec 2025

    Associate Art Director

    Principal Level Artist

    Lead Environment Artist

  2. Mar 2022 – Dec 2025

    Lead Weapon Artist

  3. Oct 2021 – Jun 2023

    Lead 3D Artist

  4. Mar 2020 – Dec 2021

    Lead Prop Artist

  5. Nov 2018 – Feb 2020

    3D Artist

UNIT9

  1. 2018

    3D Artist

SwingDev

  1. 2017 - 2018

    3D Artist

    From internship

Freelance

  1. 2014 - 2017

    3D, web, photo & video

Metal Eden - interior environment

Metal Eden · Art Direction

Leadership & Direction

From solo artist to directing the look across a 30+ artist team.

At Reikon Games I took on leadership across multiple disciplines: visual direction, efficient art pipelines, and growing artists, all while staying hands-on in production.

01

Associate Art Director

Visual direction, with the Art Director, across the whole game.

  • Defined and maintained the overall visual direction alongside the Art Director.
  • Held artistic consistency across environments, props, weapons, VFX and animation.
  • Reviewed and gave feedback to a team of 30+ artists.
  • Balanced hands-on production with direction.

02

Lead 3D Artist

Built and led the 3D art team from a solo role.

  • Led a 3D art team of 6, scaled up from working solo.
  • Mentored artists with regular feedback and reviews.
  • Set quality benchmarks and style guides.
  • Planned and ran sprints for the team.

03

Lead Environment Art

Directed environment art across every map.

  • Directed environment art across all game maps.
  • Built modular workflows and asset libraries.
  • Balanced quality against real-time performance budgets.
  • Worked closely with level and gameplay design.

04

Lead Weapon Art

Owned the weapon pipeline, concept to in-engine.

  • Owned the weapon pipeline from concept to in-engine.
  • Coordinated concept, gameplay, VFX, animation, tech art and production.
  • Defined weapon art standards.
  • Personally delivered weapon assets.

Hiring & Team Scaling

Helped build the art team from 6 to 30+.

I helped scale Reikon's art department from a small team to full production: reviewing portfolios, running art tests and interviewing, then mentoring new hires into the studio's standards.

8+
Years of experience
6
Artists led as Lead 3D
30+
Art team at peak
30 120
Studio growth

Mentorship & Development

Let's work together.

Open to new opportunities and collaborations. Available now.

Curriculum Vitae
Frederico Carneiro

Frederico Carneiro

Art Lead · Senior Environment, Level & 3D Artist

hello@fredcarneiro.com Warsaw, Poland

About

Art lead and senior artist with 9+ years in AA/AAA development, 5+ leading art teams. Hands-on from blockout to final lighting across environments, level art, weapons and 3D in Unreal Engine 5. I define visual direction, build the pipelines teams ship on, and keep quality and performance inseparable. Creator of MAKINA, co-founder of NodeStrand.

Work Experience

11 bit studios Mar 2026 · Aug 2026 - present

Freelance 3D, Tech & Environment Art

Warsaw, Poland | Returning client

  • Freelance environment, 3D and tech art support across two engagements.
Sperasoft Apr 2026 - Jul 2026

Senior Level Artist

Warsaw, Poland | Contract · AAA project under NDA

  • Level art on an unannounced AAA title, working to an established studio pipeline.
Reikon Games Nov 2018 - Dec 2025

Warsaw, Poland | 7 years 2 months

  • Delivered high-quality 3D assets across environments, props, and weapons for a shipped AA title.
  • Defined and owned hard-surface production pipelines, ensuring consistent quality and efficient workflows.
  • Created assets from concept through high-poly, low-poly, UV, texturing, to final in-engine implementation.
  • Collaborated with tech art to develop optimized material systems and asset standards.
  • Drove performance optimization across 3D content for target platforms.
Associate Art Director Jun 2023 - Dec 2025
Principal Level Artist · Lead Environment Artist Jun 2023 - Dec 2025
Lead Weapon Artist Mar 2022 - Dec 2025
Lead 3D Artist Oct 2021 - Jun 2023
Lead Prop Artist Mar 2020 - Dec 2021
3D Artist Nov 2018 - Feb 2020
UNIT9 Jun 2018 - Oct 2018

3D Artist

Warsaw, Poland

  • Created 3D assets for interactive digital experiences and mobile games.
Swing Development (SwingDev) Feb 2017 - Apr 2018

3D Artist / Junior 3D Artist

Warsaw, Poland

  • Developed 3D assets and environments for various client projects
  • Progressed from internship to full 3D Artist role
Freelancer Nov 2016 - Jan 2017

3D Artist

Porto, Portugal

Freelancer Jan 2014 - Mar 2016

Webdesign, Photography, Video

Portugal

  • Created WordPress and Joomla websites for clients
  • Photography and professional photo retouching
  • Corporate video production and editing

Projects

Shipped title

Metal Eden

  • Served as Associate Art Director, contributing to visual direction while remaining hands-on in production
  • Held the visual standard across an art team that grew from 30 to over 120, led the weapons art team, and ran the reviews and shared workflows that kept the look coherent
  • Delivered weapons, props, and environment assets, along with the pipelines and quality standards behind them
Metal Eden

Vertical slice

Ruiner 2

  • Co-defined the art direction and produced the visual art with one other artist: environment and level art across every map in the slice
  • Carried the demo from pre-production to a full playable vertical slice, including the main city hub level, environment shaders and VFX
Ruiner 2
MAKINA UE5 editor plugin · 0.9.2 beta
  • Creator of MAKINA: I created everything in the tool, from concept and system design through to the shipped beta
  • A UE5 editor plugin for environment art, built to keep the whole production process in-engine. In beta across UE 5.6-5.8
NodeStrand UE5 material platform · live
  • Co-founder: copy a material or blueprint out of UE5, share the link, paste it straight back in
  • Free community library of UE5 materials, built to remove the setup cost of sharing engine content

Tech Stack

Software

BlenderZBrushSubstance PainterUnreal Engine 53D CoatPhotoshop

Specializations

Hard Surface ModelingOrganic SculptingPBR TexturingHigh-to-Low Poly WorkflowUV MappingReal-time Asset Creation

Technical

BlueprintsUE5 Editor ToolingTool & Pipeline DesignPerforceGit

Additional Skills

Pipeline DevelopmentAsset OptimizationTeam CollaborationMentoring

Education

Multimedia Communication Technologies 2014 - 2017

Instituto Universitario da Maia - ISMAI, Portugal

Bachelor's Degree in Design (Exchange) 2015 - 2016

Baltic International Academy, Riga, Latvia

Technological Specialization Course 2013 - 2014

Instituto Universitario da Maia - ISMAI, Portugal

Languages

Portuguese

Native

English

Proficient

Polish

Elementary