Senior Character Artist

At Velan Studios, we foster a culture of curiosity. Our games embrace diversity and are fueled by the adventurous spirit of our team. We are the creative minds behind titles like Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit, Knockout City, and Hot Wheels Rift Rally, and our journey continues! Our studio's mission is to pioneer groundbreaking gaming experiences and reimagine play in new ways. We're committed to pushing the boundaries of traditional gaming, blurring the lines between reality and fantasy, and revolutionizing the industry one game at a time. Velan Studios comprises a team of remote, hybrid, and onsite professionals, with hybrid and onsite team members operating from our Troy, NY office.

Responsibilities

• Create high quality character assets such as faces, hair, outfits, and props
• Collaborate with Art Director and Leads to ensure assets are high-quality and support the artistic vision for the project.
• Work closely with other teams such as concept, animation, rigging, and design to make sure characters are built to meet specifications
• Help establish processes and pipelines and mentor other character artists at the studio
• Assist production and leads with reviewing schedules, providing estimates, and completing tasks on time.
• Work with outsourcers to review content and integrate assets.
• Stay up on current trends and techniques in the industry to help push quality and speed on the character art team.

Requirements

• Experience with and examples of realistic AAA quality character art
• 5+ years of industry experience as a Character Artist, or other relevant experience.
• Expertise in modeling, sculpting, topology, and texturing and material work for characters.
• Ability to create high-quality characters based on existing concept art in addition to working with the animation team with the goal of creating high quality, expressive characters.
• Solid understanding of modern pbr material authoring techniques
• Advanced understanding of ZBrush, Maya, Adobe Photoshop, Substance Painter and/or other game production tools.
• Experience working in Unreal, Unity or other AAA Game Development Engines.
• Strong communication and organizational skills.
• Self-direction, passion, and creativity in your work.
• A receptiveness to feedback and the ability to act successfully on direct critique.

Additional Qualifications

• Concept and creative ideation (2D or 3D).
  
• Experience with character customization pipelines
• Rigging, skinning, and animation experience.
• Leadership and/or mentoring experience.

The salary for this position is typically within the range specified below* per year. Please note that the actual base pay may vary based on factors such as your qualifications, skills, experience, and other relevant considerations.

In addition to your salary, our comprehensive compensation package includes various perks, such as potential annual bonuses (though they are not guaranteed), health, dental, vision, life, and disability insurance, a retirement savings plan, paid holidays, and flexible time-off benefits.

*$75,000 - $130,000