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Character Concept Artist - Shanghai Game Studio

Riot Games was established in 2006 by entrepreneurial gamers who believe that player-focused game development can result in great games. We released League of Legends in 2009 which has since become the most played PC game in the world and a key driver of the explosive growth of Esports. With the release of Valorant, LoL: Wild Rift, Team-fight Tactics & Legends of Runeterra, Riot has now transformed into a multi-game studio, expanding our footprint in Asia and internationally in order to develop new games that can hyper-serve players globally.

As concept artist on a Research & Development-Shanghai team you will work on a brand new unpublished game project focused on the China market, working closely with the Art Director and other team members to develop early game prototypes that define the promise of our game thesis, building organizational confidence in the project & facilitating efficient progress through the R&D development cycle.

This is an exciting opportunity to join an early R&D project as the first concept artist, bringing characters & environments to life while forging the game’s core look and art style with look-development explorations. Your work will inspire and align the team, visually demonstrating the style and visual potential of our game while empowering 3D artists, animator, VFX artists and other teammates to help visualize and execute in a cohesive manner that supports the project’s gameplay and product goals. You will work in a highly collaborative fashion with other artists, designers, writers and producers and report directly to the Art Director.

Responsibilities:

• Sketch, ideate, and iterate new character/creature, prop & furniture concepts in collaboration with other teammates.
• Create look development pieces, mood-paintings and illustrations that support and visually enhance the gameplay and narrative goals that inspire and align the team.
• Create thumbnails, sketches, rendered concepts and production turn-arounds to help facilitate asset production and outsourcing as needed
• Execute paintovers over 3D blockouts that help further visual direction and visual fidelity of vertical slice assets and future production levels.
• Work with the Art Director to develop and define a consistent visual style while working with other artists (including cross-team) to maintain cohesive project-wide art execution, providing paintovers and notes along the way.
• Mentor and train more junior artists on the team while providing guidance and mentorship to our future interns
• Work with outsourced vendors, contractors, and other partners to ensure visual quality in final asset execution as well as efficient concept-3D execution

Required Qualifications:

• 4+ years of professional experience as a concept artist in the games industry or equivalent.
• Proficiency in Photoshop and other relevant concept art tools.
• Demonstrated proficiency with Character concept art supported by a portfolio that showcases high-quality work from past projects.
• Proficiency with concept art fundamentals such as composition, shape design, anatomy and proportion, color theory and perspective.
• Experience creating designs using inspiration from historical, fantasy, scifi, mainstream trends, and/or pop culture references

Desired Qualifications:

• Experience & interest in Social Simulation games.
• Experience using 3D tools to create mockups and compositions to guide 2D exploration (i.e Blender, Maya, 3DS Max, etc.)
• Shipped mobile or AAA game titles
• Experience with Unity and/or Unreal.

As a part of the application process, you will be expected to provide a portfolio or demo reel of work and may be asked to complete an art test.

It's our policy to provide equal employment opportunity for all applicants and members of Riot Games, Inc. Riot Games makes reasonable accommodations for handicapped and disabled Rioters and does not unlawfully discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, national origin, age, handicap, veteran status, marital status, criminal history, or any other category protected by applicable federal and state law, including the City of Los Angeles' Fair Chance Initiative for Hiring Ordinance relating to an applicant's criminal history (LAMC 189.00).