Senior Lead Character Artist

The Senior Lead Character Artist will work closely with the Art Director to define and maintain the artistic style and quality of all characters and creatures. This role involves leading, mentoring, and developing the character art team, providing consistent feedback, and establishing workflows. The artist will also collaborate with technical teams for asset optimization, manage client relationships, and coordinate resources across multiple projects, contributing to hiring and performance reviews.

Must Have

• Work closely with the project Art Director to develop a style and provide consistent quality across all characters, creatures and related models
• Develop, support and challenge the individuals on the character art team to foster growth, satisfaction, and contribution
• Contribute a wide range of skills with the ability to lead by example while helping to grow a team's skills
• Provide clear and consistent feedback, direction and critique to character artists for aesthetic and technical considerations
• Help build and define the process and workflow for character creation
• Collaborate with the technical team to optimize and maintain optimal performance across all art assets
• Build and maintain partner and client relationships, trust and communication
• Work with development leads and directors to develop a strategy which provides strong character art resources to cover the studio's diverse project needs
• Collaborate with art and project leadership to coordinate character art resources, schedules, and priorities across multiple projects
• Carry out key department responsibilities that include interviewing, hiring, and training employees, reviewing work for quality, and appraising performance and resolving issues
• Serve as the external face of Certain Affinity's character art team in professional and recruiting events
• 7+ years in game development, 3+ years specifically in a lead character artist role
• Multiple shipped AAA titles, with at least one in a Lead Character Artist role
• Superb communication and interpersonal skills, with a proven history of leading and growing a team of highly skilled artists
• Experience successfully collaborating and problem-solving issues that involve multiple disciplines
• Excellent understanding of art pipelines and workflows and how they connect with multiple disciplines
• Strong foundational knowledge in traditional arts, including, but not limited to, anatomy, figure drawing, and illustration
• Expert-level proficiency with Z-Brush, Autodesk Maya, 3ds Max, and/or other 3D software packages
• Proficiency with Algorithmic Substance, Quixel Suite, Adobe Photoshop, and/or other material and texture creation tools
• Broad experience working in a wide range of proprietary and third-party 3D game engines (Unreal, Unity, etc.)
• Ability to understand and communicate visual direction through words and images
• Understanding of how character design and construction facilitates and impacts animation
• Portfolio showing off your work
• A desire to work in a diverse and inclusive environment

Good to Have

• Solid understanding of core principles of motion and how they impact character personality, action, and emotion
• Ability to provide constructive input and feedback in terms of character authorizing

Responsibilities

• Work closely with the project Art Director to develop a style and provide consistent quality across all characters, creatures and related models
• Develop, support and challenge the individuals on the character art team to foster growth, satisfaction, and contribution
• Contribute a wide range of skills with the ability to lead by example while helping to grow a team's skills
• Provide clear and consistent feedback, direction and critique to character artists for aesthetic and technical considerations
• Help build and define the process and workflow for character creation
• Collaborate with the technical team to optimize and maintain optimal performance across all art assets
• Build and maintain partner and client relationships, trust and communication
• Work with development leads and directors to develop a strategy which provides strong character art resources to cover the studio's diverse project needs
• Collaborate with art and project leadership to coordinate character art resources, schedules, and priorities across multiple projects
• Carry out key department responsibilities that include interviewing, hiring, and training employees, reviewing work for quality, and appraising performance and resolving issues
• Serve as the external face of Certain Affinity's character art team in professional and recruiting events

Requirements

• 7+ years in game development, 3+ years specifically in a lead character artist role
• Multiple shipped AAA titles, with at least one in a Lead Character Artist role
• Superb communication and interpersonal skills, with a proven history of leading and growing a team of highly skilled artists
• Experience successfully collaborating and problem-solving issues that involve multiple disciplines
• Excellent understanding of art pipelines and workflows and how they connect with multiple disciplines
• Strong foundational knowledge in traditional arts, including, but not limited to, anatomy, figure drawing, and illustration
• Expert-level proficiency with Z-Brush, Autodesk Maya, 3ds Max, and/or other 3D software packages
• Proficiency with Algorithmic Substance, Quixel Suite, Adobe Photoshop, and/or other material and texture creation tools
• Broad experience working in a wide range of proprietary and third-party 3D game engines (Unreal, Unity, etc.)
• Ability to understand and communicate visual direction through words and images
• Understanding of how character design and construction facilitates and impacts animation
• Portfolio showing off your work
• A desire to work in a diverse and inclusive environment

Extra Credit

• Solid understanding of core principles of motion and how they impact character personality, action, and emotion
• Ability to provide constructive input and feedback in terms of character authorizing