INDEPENDENT CHARACTER STUDIO VANCOUVER BC, CANADA / WORKING WORLDWIDE

CHARACTERS
FOR VFX & VIDEO GAMES

High-fidelity facial blendshapes. FACS-based expression systems. Realistic skin deformation.

CONTACT
CHARACTERS CREATURES DIGITAL HUMANS PROPS
Gears of War: E-Day poster
01GEARS OF WAR: E-DAYGAME
Lioness Season 3 poster
02LIONESS — SEASON 3EPISODIC
Marathon poster
03MARATHONGAME
TRON: Ares poster
04TRON: ARESFEATURE FILM

SELECTED
PRODUCTION WORK.

These are among the studio’s most relevant projects, representing high-end work across video games and feature-film visual effects.

SENIOR EXPERIENCE.
DIRECT INVOLVEMENT.

Marco Menco, founder and Art Director of Shelter Creative Studio
MARCO MENCO · FOUNDER / ART DIRECTOR

Shelter Creative Studio is led by Marco Menco, an Art Director and facial-modeling specialist with more than a decade of experience across high-end VFX, AAA games and cinematic production.

Marco’s background includes facial-modeling leadership at Digital Domain, lead and senior facial work for PlayStation, senior facial modeling at The Mill, and art direction and blendshape production through Mighty Canvas. Shelter brings that experience directly into every brief.

FACIAL MODELING LEADDIGITAL DOMAIN
LEAD / SENIOR FACIAL MODELERPLAYSTATION
SENIOR FACIAL MODELERTHE MILL
ART DIRECTOR / BLENDSHAPE ARTISTMIGHTY CANVAS

THE PEOPLE
BEHIND THE WORK.

A focused group of senior artists assembled around the needs of each production.

Pedro Costa, Look Development and Texturing Artist
LOOK DEVELOPMENT / TEXTURING

PEDRO COSTA

Pedro is a Look Development and Texturing Artist working in VFX, with a focus on creating detailed, physically grounded materials and character looks. He has worked on contracts with Crafty Apes, Digital Domain, and Framestore.

His toolkit includes Maya, ZBrush, Houdini, Mari, Substance Painter, V-Ray, Arnold, Unreal Engine, and Unity, with experience spanning look development, texturing, shading, and character workflows. Alongside his work in lookdev, Pedro has a strong interest in facial modeling and FACS/blendshape systems.

SPECIALIZED FOR
HIGH-FIDELITY WORK.

  1. 01

    CHARACTERS & CREATURES

    Design translation, sculpting, anatomy, topology and production-ready character assets.

  2. 02

    DIGITAL HUMANS, FACS & BLENDSHAPES

    Facial anatomy, likeness, FACS-based expression libraries, high-fidelity blendshapes and realistic skin deformation.

  3. 03

    TEXTURE, GROOM & LOOKDEV

    Skin, materials, hair and final presentation developed as one cohesive character.

  4. 04

    REAL-TIME & VFX ASSETS

    Production-ready characters and props built for modern real-time engines and visual-effects pipelines.

  5. 05

    COLLECTIBLES & DIGITAL SCULPTURES

    Premium sculptural work designed for physical production, digital presentation and close inspection.

A FOCUSED STUDIO.
A WIDER NETWORK.

Shelter Creative collaborates actively with Mighty Canvas and its wide network of talent, assembling the right senior specialists for each production and working as a direct extension of internal teams.

Mighty Canvas The Coalition Framestore PlayStation Digital Domain The Mill EA

CONTACT

For project inquiries, production support or collaboration.

contact@sheltercreative.com