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Senior VFX Artist

We build ground-breaking games and content for some of the world’s biggest publishers including Microsoft, Sony, Apple and Sega. Sheffield is our largest studio and headquarters, situated just north-east of the city centre, where we’ve built and contributed to some of the world’s best-loved game franchises.

It’s an exciting time to be part of Sumo, winners of the Develop: Star Awards 2019 Best Studio and GI Biz 2020 Best Places to Work; big things are on the horizon and we want you to be part of our continued journey. Join us!

Sumo Sheffield is looking to expand our core teams experience and has a fantastic opportunity for a Senior VFX Artist to join the team.

The ideal candidate will have a history of demonstrating an exceptional eye for detail, creative flair, stylistic versatility and the ability to effectively communicate artistic vision to the rest of the VFX and game teams. Your solid communication skills combined with your passion and energy will enable the VFX team to be industry leaders.

If you can produce VFX from the magical to the mundane, from the stylistic to the realistic, we have the right team, the right opportunity and a wide variety of game genres for you to work in.

Within this role you will:

• Use your command over aesthetics and physics to create real world VFX;
• Collaborate with designers, artists and coders to design and implement those VFX;
• Take ownership and responsibility of your output;
• Optimize your VFX to budget, test, measure and strive to improve performance;
• Contribute to new techniques and workflows;
• Work under direction to create stunning VFX, optimised per platform, across multiple titles
• Create protoypes and pre-visualisation concepts to help establish visual effects direction and workflows
• Collaborate with level design and gameplay teams to create visual effects that support gameplay requirements
• Be up to date on current and emerging visual effect trends and technology
• Create clear and accurate technical documentation regarding VFX production and implementation procedures
• Work with the Graphical Rendering team/Technical Art team in the development and improvement of workflows and technologies to improve visual effect quality and performance.
• Work through all aspects of the VFX pipeline, which includes creating content from concept to final polished result

We need you to have:

• 5+ years’ experience in Real Time VFX for Video Games as a Senior VFX artist
• Expert understanding of real-time VFX authoring tools
• Experience with 3D packages for creating 3D assets
• Strong knowledge of Photoshop and After Effects
• Strong and demonstrable understanding of the Principles of Real Time VFX
• Understanding of VFX impact on console performance
• Ability to communicate and mentor other VFX artists in the team
• The ability to work with various styles of art on multiple projects
• Demo reel required

We'd also ideally like you to have (although it's not a deal breaker):

• Very strong problem-solving skills for technically challenging tasks
• Experience with UE4 (Cascade and Niagara), Unity (Shuriken), PopcornFX and other game engines for creating real time VFX
• Experience with fluid dynamics simulation software, such as Houdini and FumeFX, for fire, smoke, fluid and soft/rigid body dynamics

· Annual Bonus

· Share Incentive Plan

· Competitive Pension

· Flexible Working

· 27 Days Holiday, including your birthday. a duvet day and Christmas

· 5 Learning Days

· Access to 4,000 Udemy Courses

· Game & Book Libraries

· Wrap Parties

· Alternative Travel Prize Draw

· The Sumo GameJam

· Big Family Events

· Studio clubs, inc. running, board games, film…

· Life Drawing

· Yoga Classes

· Free fruit and drinks

· Employee Referral Bonus

· Career Development

· Competitive Mat/Paternity & Adoption

· Employee Assistance Programme

· Life Assurance 4x Salary

· Income Protection of 75%

· Relocation Support to the UK

· Visa Sponsorship

At Sumo Digital, we know that diversity and inclusivity will make our teams (and the amazing work that they do) better! We encourage and welcome ALL applications.

Our environment is relaxed, friendly and built upon the basis of every team member having the opportunity to shine and have a realisable input into the games we create. We are a very happy ship with lots of incredibly nice people that partake in shared interest groups, lunchtime clubs, charity fundraising events and lots of socialising.

We are proud to be located in Sheffield, just off J34 of the M1 offering easy road and rail access from Leeds, Manchester and the Midlands. Sheffield itself enjoys wealth of facilities including world class sporting facilities, stunning theatres and galleries, the National Video Game Museum, shopping, restaurants and incredible parks and green spaces - all on the doorstep of the beautiful Peak District National Park. We love it here.