Manager, VFX Art

Established in 2020, the Riot Singapore Studio is Riot’s second international game development studio. Our mission is to “scale Riot’s games to hyper-serve players.” Riot has been expanding our footprint in Asia and accelerating our talent growth to develop games that deliver great experiences to our players.

We partner with our LA headquarters on game development for League of Legends, Teamfight Tactics, Legends of Runeterra and VALORANT. Riot Singapore is seeking talented, passionate Rioters with backgrounds in all areas of game development to build games that make it better to be a player. 

We’re focused on working together to promote individual autonomy, ownership, collaboration, and inclusivity, so every Rioter can be their best while we boldly pursue games. From animations to illustrations, cinematics to comics, characters to environments, we work as a team to put players first.

That's where you come in.

As a Manager, VFX Art for the League of Legends team, you’ll guide the conception and implementation of the VFX style. In addition to providing clear direction, you’ll implement the sleek, dynamic and dramatic visual effects that add atmosphere and depth to the gameplay. Through your expertise, you’ll mentor and level-up the craft and game developer skills of your VFX team. You will work with the Associate Art Director to implement a VFX style that fits within the art pillars and punctuates the game design. You will implement the effects and set the high bar. We also value differentiation and subtlety with your craft.

As a Lead VFX on the Skins team, you will support the VFX artists, both in craft and career as we create assets that will both surprise and delight players. Work may vary from champion skin abilities, to emotes, to sightwards, to seasons, and just about any other variety of VFX assets that will go into LoL. You will work closely with Product Leads, Delivery Leads, Stakeholders, and the Associate Art Director to stay aligned on vision and priorities. Quickly mediate and resolve craft disagreements and misalignments. Prioritize the craft’s health and support, above personally contributing to art production. Run and manage healthy and productive craft review sessions. Work closely with the VFX Art Leads on other LoL initiatives to build a ‘future forward’ workflow and consistent quality and style.

Responsibilities

• Provide direction for the VFX and art team
• Set a clear vision, provide consistent feedback, and build trust with your team
• Balance visual satisfaction and gameplay clarity to ensure amazing effects represent a given action or state
• Craft aesthetically astounding visual effects that communicate essential game information and bring together the essence of characters
• Use your understanding of visual effects to combine brand new assets and classic designs elegantly
• Find creative solutions to eliminate hard problems in production and as-needed
• Provide as-needed support of all aspects of VFX process; from set-up through production and troubleshooting
• Strong leadership in holding the team accountable to the creation of high-quality work and performance management
• Provide hands on craft support to the product where needed
• Find creative and effective solutions to eliminate difficult problems in production and as-needed
• Be an available resource for other products seeking clarity on Skins/Cosmetic Assets VFX/Metagames
• Support the Associate Art Director on emergent tasks where needed
• Build and maintain a healthy VFX team

Required Qualifications

• 5+ years of professional experience in the video games industry as VFX
• Advanced skills in 3D/2D Software - Maya, 3DS Max, Photoshop
• Experience creating high-quality, stylized real-time VFX
• Shipped titles as a Senior or Lead VFX Artist
• High proficiency in VFX development, including fundamentals like timing, shape language, color theory and mesh engineering
• Knowledge of the MOBA genre, ideally League of Legends, as it pertains to game design, isometric content and visual clarity
• Familiarity with the League of Legends IP and skins universes
• Expertise in handpainted stylized VFX

Desired Qualifications

• Experience giving direction and delivering clear, constructive feedback to vendors
• Past leadership or management experience
• Development experience creating materials and PBR assets within modern game engines (Unreal, Unity, etc)
• Experience with the League of Legends tools and pipeline
• Well-versed in VFX design for themed and cosmetic content across a variety of game titles, with the ability to form and articulate thoughtful creative insights.
• Tools experience: have worked in several tools, pipelines, and game engines
• Fluent in Mandarin Chinese and English, with the ability to communicate effectively in multilingual, cross-cultural treatments
• Experience managing distributed teams across time zones and in remote work environments

Our Perks

• Full relocation support
• Full health insurance for you, your spouse, and children
• Open paid time off
• Retirement benefits with company matching
• Life insurance, parental leave, plus short-term and long-term disability
• Play Fund so you can broaden and deepen your knowledge of our players and community through games
• We will double down on your donations of time and money to non-profits

For this role, you'll find success through craft expertise, a collaborative spirit, and decision-making that prioritizes the delight of players. We will be looking at your past studies, experience, and your personal relationship with games. If you embody player empathy and care about players' experiences, this could be your role!