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Lead VFX Artist, Amazon Games

Job summary
DESCRIPTION
Amazon Games is committed to creating ground-breaking games, supporting talented developers to produce their best work. We're passionate gamers and developers with diverse backgrounds & experience - with the power of Twitch, AWS, and the entire Amazon support structure to deliver truly unique games to a massive audience.

We are looking for a Lead VFX Artist to join our team of artists, designers, programmers and other creatives to help lead the internal and external VFX effects teams. The Lead VFX Artist owns the style guide, implements and supervises the creation of video game special effects in accordance with a project’s artistic direction and production deadlines. The ideal candidate should have strong artistic skills, and an understanding of the technical constraints on the target platforms. You must have a knack for transforming ideas into fluid animations and rich effects. A high degree of familiarity with industry standard tools is a must and a strong portfolio is preferred.

Inclusive Culture, Work/Life Balance, & Career Growth
We embrace our differences and are committed to furthering our culture of inclusion. We offer ten employee-led affinity groups with 190 global chapters, innovative benefits, and annual and ongoing learning experiences (including our Conversations on Race and Ethnicity (CORE) and AmazeCon (gender diversity) conferences). Our team also puts a high value on work-life balance and offers flexible working hours. We believe striking the right balance between your personal and professional life is critical to life-long happiness and fulfillment. Additionally, our team is dedicated to supporting you with mentorship and pathways for ongoing development. We have a broad mix of experience levels and tenures, and are building an environment that celebrates knowledge sharing and promotes career choice.

Responsibilities:

Create, manage and optimize VFX assets by scheduled deadlines
Collaborate with artists, designers, programmers and animators to iterate, polish and deliver projects
Understands simple and complex VFX asset creation
Create VFX with various methods and implement them without concepts
Ensures that VFX are optimized in accordance with the approved game style and technical requirements constraints
Cultivate an organized and disciplined workflow
Works with the lead and producer create a plan and schedule
Provides assessment on how to improve team performance
Works within the technical limitations of the game engine
Creates and maintains workflow documentation for your team's content
Shares artistic knowledge with artists, and mentor them as appropriate

Basic Qualifications

• 5+ years professional experience with at least 1 shipped AAA title or equivalent work in a related field.
• Bachelor’s Degree in Art or equivalent experience in related field
• Online Portfolio demonstrating ability to create VFX and implement for real-time game engine.

Preferred Qualifications

• High level communication skills to collaborate with artists, designers, programmers, and QA.
• Experience using game engines (Unity, Unreal Engine, CryEngine)
• Experience with 3D software (Autodesk, Blender, SketchUp, ZBrush)
• Experience with animation software (Adobe After Effects, Maya/Max, Blender, DigiCel FlipBook, Toon Boom)
• Experience using image manipulation software (Adobe Photoshop, GIMP)
• Experience with Lumberyard, PopcornFX, Cascade/Niagara, or Unity’s Particle Editor
• Experience with Houdini (Fire and smoke sims)
• Ability to concept/storyboard VFX ideas
• Ability to create flipbook texture sequences
• Demonstrate basic understanding color theory, lighting, modeling and UV texturing of a 3D object.
• Ability to interpret and transform abstract ideas into compelling effects
• Ability to accept feedback and implement suggestions
• Experience and knowledge of animation principles
• A high level of comfort with scripting tools
• Meets/exceeds Amazon’s leadership principles requirements for this role.
• Meets/exceeds Amazon’s functional/technical depth and complexity for this role.