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Lead 3D Character Artist
1 year ago
Blackbird Interactive is a creative-fueled, future-driven, independent game studio where the best talent in the industry can find long-term careers to help grow their abilities while working on a wide range of projects, which encompass world-class IPs as well as our own creations across multiple genres.
In 2022, we announced that our studio is implementing a four-day work week as well as supporting in-studio, remote, and hybrid work arrangements as permanent options to our employees.
Lead 3D Character Artist
We are working on a fun new game with a stylized art direction, populated with unique characters, creatures and environments. Lead our tight-knit team of highly dedicated and talented Character Artists and work with Design, Code, Audio and beyond to create gameplans for the best in class character art.
The successful candidate will lead a team in modeling and texturing character assets based on concepts provided by the Concept Team. You will be responsible for commanding a diverse array of exceptional characters and creatures for our title.
Please include a link to your showreel/portfolio.
Responsibilities
- Lead the character team en route to realizing 2D concepts as 3D models for a broad array of characters, creatures and animals
- Develop strongly-supported Creative, Feature and Technical proposals and pitch them effectively to ensure buy-in
- Define and execute full array of possible Character features to satisfy gameplay criteria
- Explore and define workflows for modeling and surfacing
- Identify best approach to author or acquire model and surface data
- Direct local and external staff with clear, concise and effective guidance and feedback
- Drive critical review process for your team in a positive, respectful and nurturing manner
- Collaborate with Art Director; use the established art vision to create effective art gameplans
- Partner directly with Sr. Animator and Rigging TA to ensure practical and effective solutions for all character types and variations
- Consider and balance technical limitations and opportunities with creative objectives
Requirements
- Experience in an Character Modeling leadership role
- Strong knowledge of anatomy and structure
- Thorough knowledge and proficiency with Maya, Zbrush and/or Mudbox
- Experienced with Photoshop
- Expert Knowledge of game art asset implementation and pipelines
- Clear understanding of creating textures for a PBR lighting model
- Understanding of gameplay considerations, limitations and implications for animation
- Collaborative, solutions-oriented, self-directed and accountable
Pluses
- Knowledgeable of Substance Designer and Painter
- Knowledge of Quixel Suite
- Used or knowledgeable in Unity & Unreal.
Vacation & Extras
+ 4-day, 32-hour work week for all full-time staff
+ Mentorship program
+ Skunkworks internal game jam program
+ 4 weeks paid vacation per year
+ 11 paid stat holidays
+ 3 paid days per year for professional development
+ December holiday studio closure (extra paid time off!)
+ Comprehensive health/dental benefits from day 1
+ Life insurance
+ $300 Healthcare Spending Account per annum
+ RRSP matching up to $1500
+ Profit-sharing bonus program
If applying for an artistic role, please provide a link to your portfolio and/or demo reel.
Any questions about the role and/or accessibility requests can be sent to: hr@blackbirdinteractive.com
Unfortunately, we cannot reply to everyone. Only successful applicants will be contacted about the next steps. Thank you for your understanding.
If you are interested in the role, please apply even if your experience and skills don’t perfectly match our ideal credentials. We are committed to inclusion and especially encourage members of historically marginalized communities to apply. As an equal opportunity employer we encourage applications from all qualified individuals. BBI does not discriminate against applicants based on gender, race, national and ethnic origin, religion, age, sexual orientation, marital and family status, and/or mental or physical disabilities.
Blackbird Interactive is privileged to be developing our projects on the traditional, ancestral, and unceded territory of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish) and səl̓ílwətaʔɬ /Selilwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations.
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