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Lead Technical Artist (Remote, USA)

Metatheory Inc. is a technology-driven entertainment company. With a focus on blockchain, we build games, interactive multi-platform stories, and virtual world experiences imagined across innovative story franchise IPs. We are a remote-first dynamic team of builders, developers, and entrepreneurs that include key founding members from Twitch, as well as Emmy and Peabody Award winning producers and storytellers.

Our flagship IP is DuskBreakers, an eccentric, interactive sci-fi saga set in a post-apocalyptic world where a mysterious alien ship (The Dusk) becomes a beacon of hope for humanity. The franchise spans games, video, NFTs, and other media formats.

The Lead Technical Artist makes sure the artists have the tools they need and that art is produced in a way that is time efficient and aligned with the technical limitations of the target platform. The role also requires you to make sure we are using the correct tools, in the right way, in order to reach the project’s visual ambition.

The ideal candidate is a hybrid between artist and programmer, and will work as a link between the two departments. You are proactive and able to work remotely. You also have extensive knowledge in softwares that offers procedural solutions, such as Houdini and Substance.

You will work closely with the Art Directors to help implement, research, and evolve our content pipelines and tools required to reach our visual ambitions.

As an employee at Metatheory, you will work remotely in a team spread all over the world, where social skills are very important.

Responsibilities

• Work with the Art Director to enable and execute the project’s vision.
• Help develop or acquire the tools required to achieve the Art Direction and maximize the visual quality of our products.
• Define and document the graphic production pipeline (modeling, animation, characters, lighting, shaders, VFX, etc..) while maintaining them through production.
• Coordinate and act as an intermediary between the Tech Art, Art, and the Programming team, including validation of render and tool requests from the Art Team.
• Assure the consistency of performance and art quality throughout our games from a technical perspective.
• Propose and support the right tools to accelerate certain procedural tasks used in production of high volume and high quality 3D art content.

Requirements

• 5+ years’ experience and shipped titles as a Technical Art Director or Lead Technical Artist in the game industry.
• Strong artistic eye for multiple disciplines such as 3D art, lighting, VFX.
• Experience mentoring a team of artists, engineers, and/or technical artists. Strong knowledge of rendering pipelines and shaders.
• Comprehensive knowledge of CG fundamentals: modeling, textures/shaders, rigging, animation, lighting, rendering, compositing.
• Comprehensive knowledge of DCC software such as Maya, Houdini, Substance Designer and Substance Painter.
• Excellent aptitude for troubleshooting technical issues associated with lighting, shaders, performance, tools and pipelines. Knowledge of Python and the Qt Framework
• Competent in designing and developing tools and pipelines for artists
• Ability to communicate effectively with artists, designers, engineers, and other members of the development team.

Bonus

• Experience with pre-rendered pipelines
• Knowledge and experience using C++
• Experience in creating and optimizing shaders
• Experience with Houdini and procedural pipelines
• A foundation in traditional art

You may be required to use some or a combination of the following software:

• Unity
• Houdini
• C, C++, Java
• Python
• Maya
• Adobe Photoshop
• Substance Painter
• Substance Designer

You will need to have your own computer and software initially.

We were founded to challenge the ways that we all relate to games and storytelling, and in doing so change how we relate to each other. As an equal opportunity employer, we aim to create a culture of safety and belonging from how we hire to how we build communities.

Even if you do not meet all of the qualifications listed above, but feel you could add a valuable perspective to our organization, we’d still love to hear from you!