3D Artist (External Development - Contract)
2 months ago
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Join the award-winning team that created God of War
Santa Monica Studio is seeking a 3D Artist on our External Development Team for the development of a new unannounced title!
The ideal candidate has experience and knowledge in creating high quality art assets from scratch, including sculpting, baking and texturing assets to final. In this role you’ll work with several different art departments and be in the mix between working hands on and giving feedback to external teams. Ideally you excel at one type of asset creation but still have comfort and confidence in a wide variety of styles or asset needs, ranging from environment props, foliage, architecture, level worldbuilding or basic character work. This is a true generalist role, and you will have the opportunity to assist in the creation of assets used by all art departments.
Responsibilities
- First pass quality check on delivered assets, requesting additional revisions or adjustments before work is seen by Leads and Directors
- Ability to implement delivered assets into the game engine after approved
- Minor Zbrush mesh cleanup or adjustments on delivered assets as requested by the External Development Director, Art Directors or Art Leads
- Texturing and material creation of delivered assets for use in game
- Resolve technical inefficiencies with delivered art assets by giving feedback to the external partner or fixing it internally (ie. Poor UV layouts, Poor mesh topology, LOD issues)
- Write up style guides or tutorials for our internal processes to assist external teams in working with our tools or matching our style / process
- Communicate clearly between the internal team’s needs to the external partners in terms of writing up feedback or making detailed briefs
- Flexible and willing to work on several types of assets including character props or weapons, environment props, foliage, architectural pieces, breakables, etc
- Occasionally creating assets from scratch with provided concept art when time permits, including Zbrush high res modeling, low res re-topology, texturing and material creation
- Able to handle higher workload and feedback volume than more junior members on the team
Requirements
- Strong experience and competence working in Maya to create models and materials
- Can show an online portfolio demonstrating high quality full asset creation from scratch, including modeling, texturing and material creation
- Advanced proficiency in Zbrush to make sculpting adjustments or sculpt assets from scratch if needed
- Proficiency in Substance painter to make adjustments on delivered assets if needed
- Experience working with optimal UV layouts and able to communicate or give feedback on how to improve UV layouts depending on the delivered asset - ability to problem solve complex UV layouts or assets
- Experience in baking maps or resolving map baking issues when going from high res to game res - knowledge of common baking outcomes that can result in degraded final assets quality
- Great aesthetic and artistic eye to constantly improve quality of delivered work by giving feedback or making final adjustments internally
- Desire to work on many different tasks and work with many people internally or externally
- A passion for game development and pushing art quality forward in the industry
- Highly organized, self-motivated and able to demonstrate the ability to follow through on tasks
- Solid understanding of technical and run time aspects of game development, such as texture, shader and polygon optimizations, and how these effect framerates
- Be able to communicate to external teams in a professional way that represents our studio in a positive manner and to strengthen relationships with our development partners
- Able to assist and mentor more junior members on the team in the outsourcing and asset review process
Preferences
- Substance designer experience, creating materials with procedural nodes
- Animation or rigging experience
- Worldbuilding experience on full scale environments, including an understanding of environment composition
- 2D Art background or concept art skills to help with paintovers or feedback
- Shipped AAA games or games with high quality art in the past
- Understanding of the outsourcing process or experience working with outsourcing in past roles
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At SIE, working with our partners, we consider several factors when setting each role’s base pay range, including the competitive benchmarking data for the market and geographic location.
Please note that the individual base pay range may vary based on job-related factors which may include knowledge, skills, experience, and location.
In addition, this role is eligible for benefit offerings that include medical, dental, and vision. Click here to learn more.
The estimated base pay range for this role is listed below, this is an hourly rate.
$44.13 — $66.15 USD
Equal Opportunity Statement:
Sony is an Equal Opportunity Employer. All persons will receive consideration for employment without regard to gender (including gender identity, gender expression and gender reassignment), race (including colour, nationality, ethnic or national origin), religion or belief, marital or civil partnership status, disability, age, sexual orientation, pregnancy or maternity, trade union membership or membership in any other legally protected category.
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