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Lead FX Artist, Hearthstone

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The Hearthstone team is looking for a versatile and creative Lead FX Artist to create evocative visual effects in the fun and whimsical, hand-painted style that is synonymous with Hearthstone. You’ll develop real time FX from concept to implementation and work to maintain a consistent aesthetic across all the FX in the game, create benchmark assets, workflows, and help the FX team learn and grow. The ideal candidate has a strong grasp of color, texture, shape and timing as relates to FX and the ability to translate the Art Director’s vision into actionable feedback for the team.

Do you have extensive experience working with in-game FX systems and 3D packages to build everything from fire, slime, and magic to pack openings and legendary summons, as well as a general understanding of good gameplay communication? Do you also have a deep understanding of the principles of anticipation, follow-though, staging, and other facets of animation? If so, we need you!

If you’re ready to work alongside a team of the best artists, engineers, designers, and producers on the planet and enjoy the support of a company whose culture is all about collaborative game development, we want to hear from you!

Responsibilities

• Drive and develop an artistic vision of hand-painted, stylized, non-photoreal FX to be used in real-time game assets within Unity.
• Coordinating with art leads, design, and production to help plan and accomplish the strategic goals of the FX art team.
• Lead a team of artists and be an active participant in team discussions, critiques, and reviews to ensure timely completion of FX assets on style and at the desired quality bar.
• Provide technical setup, integration, and troubleshooting of performant FX in Unity.
• As the team grows, help build a FX team of highly talented artists who would thrive on the team and at the company.
• Having solid game design awareness and being an exceptional game design-oriented collaborator.
• Document and communicate specifications and visual benchmarks to support the games artistic vision to both internal and external artists.

Your Background

• 7+ years professional experience as a FX artist and/or art lead and you specialize in using Maya, Photoshop, and real time FX systems.
• Passion for crafting charming and light-hearted imagery synonymous with Hearthstone
• You’ve hired exceptionally talented artists onto a team and helped them “learn and grow” through constructive art feedback and coaching.
• Proven problem-solving/prototyping ability for the early game development process as well as an eye for polish and detail for final production.
• Able to effectively collaborate with every department of a game development team (game designers, programmers, tech art, animation, etc.).
• You’re a positive, proactive problem-solver and help lead by example while contributing to the studio culture with the actions you take on the team.
• You have a passion for Blizzard games and understand the unique approach to creating Blizzard art for our game universes.

Blizzard Entertainment is a global company committed to growing our employees along with the business. We offer generous benefits and perks with an eye on providing true work / life balance. We’ve worked hard to foster an intensely collaborative and creative environment, a diverse and inclusive employee culture, and training and opportunity for professional growth. Our people are everything. Our core values are real, and our mission has never changed. We are dedicated to creating the most epic entertainment experiences…ever. Join us!

Blizzard Entertainment is an Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, national origin, protected veteran status, or any other basis protected by applicable law, and will not be discriminated against on the basis of disability.