BC - Sr CG Look Development Artist (Characters) - Stop Motion VFX Project

About Zoic

Zoic Studios is a Visual Effects company that specializes in high end visual effects for television, film, and advertising. Our mantra is Visual Evolution - we focus on every part of the process, from the final picture to the pipeline used to create them.

Are you looking for your next creative and technical challenge? Come join our team!

Why Join Zoic?

• We are an Artist owned and operated VFX studio.
• We love what we do and always stay curious about new technology and techniques.
• We respect work/life balance in a hectic industry.
• We work with a team from all walks of life and backgrounds.

We are excited to share an incredible stop-motion animated feature project that promises creativity, collaboration, and a fantastic chance to showcase your skills!

Summary of Position

The Sr CG Look Development Artist is responsible for generating textures and surfaces in the production of high quality, accurate, photo-real and stylized CG characters and creatures.

Job Functions

• Create and refine materials to achieve the final look of a CG character and creatures.
• Build and maintain show shading networks, master materials and templates to support final look development.
• Work within a physically based shading context, balancing and validating material responses across multiple assets.
• Collaborate to ensure that assets and shots meet show standards.
• Build custom looks and materials for specialty assets to address the need to match physical assets on stages.
• Digitally create and implement CG assets for visual effects, ensuring color and surfacing of CG assets reflect the vision or requirements of the given project.
• Work to address shading and look notes and provide training, as needed.
• Support workflows for publishing and moving data between assets and lighting.
• Support development and maintenance of asset validation process for matching physical assets.
• Troubleshoot production problems, such as common rendering and lighting technical issues, and create methods to minimize their impact.
• Assist in the development of new tools and techniques to improve the asset development process.

Qualifications

• 3-5+ years’ experience on live-action or photoreal feature film productions, specifically in creating characters and creatures.
• Proficient in Renderman (or equivalent), Katana, Mari, and Substance Painter and Designer.
• Proficient Look Development, R&D and Lighting skills from both an artistic and technical perspective.
• Strong aesthetic sense and keen eye for detail.
• Technical understanding of color space.
• Efficient UV layout experience using a UDIM workflow required.
• Basic compositing skills in Nuke required.
• Strong communication, organizational and time management skills to balance priorities under the pressure of a deadline-driven production.
• Ability to take direction and implement feedback with a positive attitude.
• Basic understanding of plate and image-based lighting, as well as full CG lighting, preferred.
• Basic understanding of multi-pass rendering and 3D scene layout, preferred.
• Houdini, Maya, Zbrush, and exporting to Unreal Engine knowledge is a plus.

Additional information

• British Columbia Employees Pay Range: $45 - $65 (The actual base salary offered will depend on a variety of factors, including without limitation, the qualifications of the individual applicant for the position, years of relevant experience, level of education attained, certifications or other professional licenses held, and if applicable, the location of the position)
• Zoic does not cover relocation costs.
• Any and all WFH positions require the candidate to have a reliable internet connection via ethernet and work on Pacific Standard Time.
• This job description contains the basic requirements for the position and is NOT intended to be a complete list of responsibilities; other duties may be assigned.
• Due to the volume of applications, we receive, we regret that only those selected to interview will be contacted.