Shortcut CGI reviews: what we learned from our students

The reviews on Trustpilot

Trustpilot is an independent website where customers rate a company from one to five stars and leave a comment. We have managed our profile since March 2026, and all the reviews are public on Shortcut’s Trustpilot page. They are written in Italian, and the quotes in this article are our translations.

From the comments, the platform builds a summary. According to that summary, the courses are practical, well structured and suitable even for complete beginners, and the teachers are helpful. We recognize ourselves in it, because it describes the things we work on most: practice, the order of the lessons and the time mentors give each student.

What our students wrote to us

On March 10, 2026, Antonio Caiulo reviewed Francesco Latini’s hard surface modeling course, which teaches how to model rigid objects such as weapons, vehicles and robots. “With his method I was able to understand things I couldn’t grasp before,” he wrote.

Two days later, Diego Ruo Rui described the course on ZBrush, the software used to sculpt a 3D model as if it were clay. He found it “clear and progressive,” and about the mentor, Giovanni Orlando, he said: “The teacher, Giovanni, made all the difference.”

Chiara Bazzotti took the same course too, and in a review on Google she called it “far beyond my expectations.” She wrote that Giovanni is “patient” and the community “welcoming.”

Silvia Romei attended the 3D Starter course, with ZBrush, Maya and Substance 3D Painter. She summed it up like this: “The LIVE lessons are a game-changer.” On the same day, March 11, Giulia Bonfanti focused on the hands-on work: “Practical teaching on real projects, and teachers who are always helpful.”

Put side by side, these sentences are all about the relationship with the people who teach: a method you can follow, a patient mentor, helpful teachers. It is the part of our work that is least visible from the outside. Students, though, remember it first.

On our website we have also published the story of Giulia Antognini, now a Junior Lighting Artist at DIGIC Pictures. In her words: “Thanks to Shortcut Project, I made my dream of working in the industry come true.”

This story means a lot to us. It reminds us what the people who enroll with us are aiming for.

Our method

Behind these words there is a specific way of working. Our courses are taught by mentors who work in production today: senior artists, VFX supervisors and lead artists. The studios they have worked for include Rockstar Games, Framestore, DNEG, DIGIC Pictures, Netflix, CD Projekt Red, Ubisoft, Guerrilla Games, Reply Game Studios, Kinopatia and District Zero.

Lessons are live, class sizes are limited and every piece of work gets feedback from the mentor. We follow the same process as a production: the work starts with the brief, the request a studio uses to assign a job, and ends with delivery. Along the way, students build their portfolio, the collection of work an artist shows to studios.

Silvia’s “game-changer,” Giulia Bonfanti’s real projects and Giovanni’s patience as Chiara described it are this method, seen by those who experienced it. Our master programs last 36 weeks of lessons, and all courses, master programs and mentorships are listed on our school page.

The free 3D Starter course

On July 17, 2026, we received a review from Lucrezia Contini about her first step into the school. Lucrezia first met us on our Discord server, and from there she joined our free 3D Starter course.

The course has three modules. The first is digital sculpting in ZBrush with Giovanni Orlando. The second is hard surface modeling in Maya with Davide Dainese, along with UVs, the map that decides how a texture sits on the model. The third, with Francesco Latini, covers texturing in Substance 3D Painter and the render, the final image.

By the end, Lucrezia had “a first portfolio piece” in her hands. In her review she also valued the constant support on Discord, where students ask for feedback on their projects.

For us, the Starter is the gateway into the world of Shortcut. Those who join find the community, the events and feedback on their work, and the choice of a master program grows from there.

The community around the courses

Chiara and Lucrezia also talk about what happens outside the lessons, and for us that matters as much as the courses. Shortcut works as a 3D hub: besides training, it has a community, events and a job board.

Our Discord server brings together more than 2,000 artists, and joining is free. It is home to the classes, the study rooms, the portfolio reviews and the open classes, which are lessons anyone can attend.

There are also challenges and contests. The Speed Sculpt Art Battle is a live competition night: each participant sculpts a character on the night’s theme, then the community votes on the entries. The contest for Halloween 2026 is Bad Candies.

The job board on our website lists open positions: as of October 22, 2026, there are 712, from 348 studios and sources in 33 countries. We are also registered as a school on The Rookies, the international platform where computer graphics students publish their work.

Our steps this year

The reviews confirmed to us that the mentor is what makes the difference, when they work in production and follow each student closely. It is also the direction in which we are growing the school.

Since September we have offered two new mentorships, one-to-one programs with a mentor who works in production. The first is the Stylized Environment Art Mentorship, dedicated to video game environments, with Angelo Ciervo, Stylized Environment Artist. The second is the 3D Lighting for Animation Mentorship, with Ottaviano Brando, Senior Lighting Artist for Disney and Marvel.

Since October, there have been two master program classes. In the same month, we began offering free career guidance talks to art high schools in Italy. As of late October, 17 schools are on the calendar and 6 dates are already confirmed.

Twenty-five reviews are still only a beginning. What they say, though, is clear: those who study with us remember, above all, the people they worked with, and we keep building the school from there.