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Lead Character Artist

Playground Games is looking for a Lead Character Artist to join our Forza team on a permanent basis.

ABOUT US:

As a first-party Xbox Game Studio, we are passionate about making genre-defining games that are accessible, beautiful, and, most of all, fun.

SUMMARY:

As Lead Character Artist you’ll oversee the Character Art team, working in conjunction with the Art Director and Art Manager to plan work for the team and ensure our high quality bar is realised. You will be expected to steer your team in creating clean and functional topology, high quality materials and optimise content for game, as well as being comfortable leading communications with technical departments.

You should be familiar with industry standard software packages such as 3DSMax or Maya, as well as having extensive experience with ZBrush and Substance Painter. You have exceptional knowledge of human anatomy and have a great understanding of best practices to suit animation needs and engine requirements.

WHAT YOU WILL BRING:

• Portfolio demonstrating real time character artwork to very high standard
• Strong interest in self-development of managerial skills, overseeing the work of other team members and mentoring and developing junior staff
• Able to communicate with artists, technical team members and studio leadership.
• Strong understanding and demonstration of human anatomy and proportions
• Established character production workflows such as creating clean deformable topology, efficient UV mapping and baking, texturing, and cloth creation techniques
• A good understanding of technical considerations for character creation, with the ability to communicate with technical team members
• A self-motivated team player, with good communication skills
• Experience on shipped AAA game projects

DESIRABLE SKILLS:

• Traditional art foundation
• Experience with cloth simulation setup
• Passion for playing games
• An interest in modern fashion
• Experience with blendshape creation workflows
• Experience with hair creation
• Experience with anatomy scanning and clean up

This is a fantastic opportunity to make world-class games with an established, talented, and collaborative team at one of the industry’s most exciting first-party game studios.

Playground Games is an equal opportunities studio and encourages candidates of all backgrounds to apply.