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 3D ASSETS

Lioness Season 3 poster — **LIONESS — SEASON 3**EPISODIC

TRON: Ares poster — **TRON: ARES**FEATURE FILM

Stranger Things 4 poster — **STRANGER THINGS 4**EPISODIC

She-Hulk: Attorney at Law poster — **SHE-HULK: ATTORNEY AT LAW**EPISODIC

Spider-Man: No Way Home poster — **SPIDER-MAN: NO WAY HOME**FEATURE FILM

Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald poster — **THE CRIMES OF GRINDELWALD**FEATURE FILM

District 9 poster — **DISTRICT 9**FEATURE FILM

The Thing poster — **THE THING**FEATURE FILM

Alice Through the Looking Glass poster — **ALICE THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS**FEATURE FILM

The X-Files: I Want to Believe poster — **THE X-FILES: I WANT TO BELIEVE**FEATURE FILM

Star Trek Beyond poster — **STAR TREK BEYOND**FEATURE FILM

Carnival Row poster — **CARNIVAL ROW**EPISODIC

R.I.P.D. poster — **R.I.P.D.**FEATURE FILM

Battleship poster — **BATTLESHIP**FEATURE FILM

Children of the Corn poster — **CHILDREN OF THE CORN**FEATURE FILM

Dawn of the Planet of the Apes poster — **DAWN OF THE PLANET OF THE APES**FEATURE FILM

Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness poster — **DOCTOR STRANGE: MULTIVERSE OF MADNESS**FEATURE FILM

Dragonball Evolution poster — **DRAGONBALL EVOLUTION**FEATURE FILM

Furious 7 poster — **FURIOUS 7**FEATURE FILM

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey poster — **THE HOBBIT: AN UNEXPECTED JOURNEY**FEATURE FILM

The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug poster — **THE HOBBIT: THE DESOLATION OF SMAUG**FEATURE FILM

The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies poster — **THE HOBBIT: THE BATTLE OF THE FIVE ARMIES**FEATURE FILM

The Huntsman: Winter's War poster — **THE HUNTSMAN: WINTER'S WAR**FEATURE FILM

Immortals poster — **IMMORTALS**FEATURE FILM

The Incredible Hulk poster — **THE INCREDIBLE HULK**FEATURE FILM

Iron Man 3 poster — **IRON MAN 3**FEATURE FILM

Law Abiding Citizen poster — **LAW ABIDING CITIZEN**FEATURE FILM

Morbius poster — **MORBIUS**FEATURE FILM

Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian poster — **NIGHT AT THE MUSEUM: BATTLE OF THE SMITHSONIAN**FEATURE FILM

Safe House poster — **SAFE HOUSE**FEATURE FILM

The Losers poster — **THE LOSERS**FEATURE FILM

The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 1 poster — **THE TWILIGHT SAGA: BREAKING DAWN — PART 1**FEATURE FILM

The Twilight Saga: Eclipse poster — **THE TWILIGHT SAGA: ECLIPSE**FEATURE FILM

PORTFOLIOPOSTERS + FEATURED WORK

SELECTED
PRODUCTION WORK.

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

FRAMESTORE · 2026

LIONESS —
SEASON 3

3D ASSETS

Environments, props and vehicle models, textures and look development under the leadership of Framestore NY Visual Effects team.

WATCH VFX BREAKDOWN

DIGITAL DOMAIN · 2021

MORBIUS

FACIAL MODELING LEAD

Facial-modeling leadership and FACS-based expression work for the production at Digital Domain.

VIEW ON ARTSTATION

IMAGE ENGINE · 2017

LOGAN

CHARACTER LEAD / FACIAL MODELING

Digital doubles and facial expressions for Logan, X-24 and Laura: facial modeling, FACS blendshapes and facial shot modeling at Image Engine VFX.

VIEW ON ARTSTATION

THE STUDIOFOUNDED 2024

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 character and facial-modeling specialist with over 20 years of experience across high-end VFX, AAA games and cinematic production.

Marco started his professional character work on District 9 at Image Engine. After several years expanding his skills at Weta Digital and Double Negative, he returned to Image Engine to develop the character of Logan. There, his experience grew into team leadership within the character department. His career also includes lead and senior facial work at Digital Domain and for PlayStation, along with art direction and blendshape production through Mighty Canvas. Shelter brings that production knowledge and leadership directly into every brief.

Marco was part of the character team nominated by the Visual Effects Society for Outstanding Animated Character in a Photoreal Feature for Edvard/Adam in The Thing.

FULL EXPERIENCE ON LINKEDIN IMDB CREDITS REQUEST DEMO REEL ACCESS

ART DIRECTOR / BLENDSHAPE ARTISTMIGHTY CANVAS

LEAD / SENIOR FACIAL MODELERPLAYSTATION

FACIAL MODELING / CHARACTER LEADERSHIPDIGITAL DOMAIN

CHARACTER LEADIMAGE ENGINE

THE TEAMSENIOR ARTISTS / PRODUCTION SPECIALISTS

THE PEOPLE
BEHIND THE WORK.

A spotlight on some of the talented artists on the team, each bringing specialized experience to the needs of the production.

SPECIAL THANKS TO...

ADRIENNE VARGASANTONIO SIUARTHUR GUILLOTBENJAMIN KOUSHOLTBRIAN WHITMIRECHARLES GUANDAMIEN ABDOOLDANIEL BOHRER DO NASCIMENTOEVAN MCKNIGHTHENRY JUNEHUGO QUEIROZJASON WUJEREMY STEWARTKEVIN SCHMIDLEON LEVACICMARCO IOVINOMARIA MANASTIREANUPEDRO COSTAPEDRO JATOBATAYLOR OLIVEIRAWESLEY SCHNEIDER

FOUNDER / ART DIRECTOR

MARCO MENCO

Marco is an Art Director and character and facial specialist with over 20 years of experience across feature-film VFX, AAA games and cinematic production. With a foundation in fine arts, theatre and concept design, his work spans digital doubles, creatures, facial modeling and FACS-based blendshape systems.

He has held lead and senior roles at Digital Domain, PlayStation, The Mill, Image Engine and DNEG, and now leads character and facial work through Shelter Creative Studio. His credits include Logan, Morbius, Spider-Man: No Way Home and The Thing.

LINKEDIN IMDB

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.

CHARACTER ARTIST

MARCO IOVINO

Marco is a Character Artist with seven years of experience in the video-game industry, specializing in realistic character modeling, sculpting and texturing. Across AAA and independent productions, he translates concepts into detailed, believable characters built to hold up in demanding real-time pipelines.

Working primarily with ZBrush, Maya and Substance 3D Painter, Marco combines strong anatomical understanding with production-focused modeling and surfacing. His approach balances visual storytelling, technical precision and the practical requirements of game-ready character assets.

CHARACTER ARTIST

ADRIENNE VARGAS

Adrienne is a 3D Character Artist and modeller focused on production-ready character work for VFX and games. She spent nearly six years at Digital Domain, contributing her modeling expertise within high-end production pipelines.

Based in Colorado, Adrienne brings a practical, detail-driven approach to character modeling, combining strong form, clean production execution and the flexibility needed to support demanding team workflows.

CHARACTER ARTIST

JASON WU

Jason is a Character Artist creating high-quality game characters across realistic and stylized visual directions. His production experience includes work at This Game Studio, where his character contributions included Warcraft Rumble.

His practice spans organic and hard-surface sculpting, character modeling, texturing and material work, with a strong focus on quality, clear team collaboration and assets built to perform reliably in real-time production.

CG ARTIST / 3D ASSET ARTIST

HENRY JUNE

Henry is a highly skilled CG Artist specializing in the creation of character-focused assets. His work seamlessly bridges technical and artistic exploration to deliver high-fidelity, production-ready assets for cinematic workflows.

With a broad and deep rooted skill set, Henry's current practice spans character creation, props, procedural environment art and look development across multiple offline rendering engines. He approaches every project as an opportunity to push the boundaries of photorealism through advanced techniques, all while maintaining a clear and cohesive artistic vision that clients can trust.

EXPERTISEFROM SCULPT TO FINAL

SPECIALIZED FOR
HIGH-FIDELITY WORK.

CHARACTERS & CREATURES
Design translation, sculpting, anatomy, topology and production-ready character assets.
DIGITAL HUMANS, FACS & BLENDSHAPES
Facial anatomy, likeness, FACS-based expression libraries, high-fidelity blendshapes, rigging, animation, shot modelling and realistic skin deformation.
TEXTURE, GROOM & LOOKDEV
Skin, materials, hair and final presentation developed as one cohesive character.
REAL-TIME & VFX ASSETS
Production-ready characters and props built for modern real-time engines and visual-effects pipelines.
COLLECTIBLES & DIGITAL SCULPTURES
Premium sculptural work designed for physical production, digital presentation and close inspection.

COLLABORATIONSBUILT AROUND PRODUCTION NEEDS

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.