Character Artist Job Description
Character artist
provides actionable feedback to vendors at key stages of asset creation: Low poly, high poly/sculpt, material bake and final delivery phases.
Character Artist Duties & Responsibilities
To write an effective character artist job description, begin by listing detailed duties, responsibilities and expectations. We have included character artist job description templates that you can modify and use.
Sample responsibilities for this position include:
Help create tools and scripts that reduce repetitive tasks for artists and animators expedite exporting of assets and animation from Maya to Unity
Sculpt high-resolution character models in Zbrush
Using ZBrush, re-sculpt any scanned expressions that are not precisely on pose
Maya (preferred) or similar 3D animation software experience
ZBrush (preferred) or similar 3D sculpting software experience
Work as the primary link between engineering, design and art to solve integration, performance, and functionality problems as they arise in relation to Character Animation and Rigging
Help develop and document pipelines for asset production across all art disciplines provide excellent and clear and timely communication of solutions
Responsible for maintaining and creating naming conventions, art repository, tools, and scripts for the art team
Ensures that the high-quality bar established by the Art Director is achieved
Other character artists to create best-in-class character assets for a current gen console game
Character Artist Qualifications
Qualifications for a job description may include education, certification, and experience.
Education for Character Artist
Typically a job would require a certain level of education.
Employers hiring for the character artist job most commonly would prefer for their future employee to have a relevant degree such as Collage and Bachelor's Degree in Art, Game Development, Video, Graphic Design, Computer Science, Fine Arts, Composition, Design, Illustration, Computer Graphics
Skills for Character Artist
Desired skills for character artist include:
Photoshop
Marvelous Designer
Houdini
Maya
Real-time modeling techniques
Hi-poly modeling and digital sculpting
Marvelous Designer and Substance Painter
ZBrush
Low poly modeling techniques
Substance Painter
Desired experience for character artist includes:
Knowledge of genre specific assets – know the difference between creating assets for shooters vs
Research and identify graphics trend directions in collaboration with Design Director
Creativity, technical capability and sensibility for graphics and fonts
Extensive knowledge of traditional and web-based graphic production techniques, including color separations, camera-ready art, heat transfers
Expert in Adobe products and Mac computers
Experience working with an art director in developing a unique and cohesive modeling and texturing style for characters
Character Artist Examples
1
Character Artist Job Description
Job Description Example
Our company is growing rapidly and is hiring for a character artist. To join our growing team, please review the list of responsibilities and qualifications.
Responsibilities for character artist
- The Lead Artist to ensure that the game ships on time with a reasonable workload
- The Art Director and Technical Animators in developing and maintaining proper technical requirements for construction, rendering, and rigging of the games characters
- Skinning of assets and management of textures and LODing of high poly meshes
- Assist in integration of character assets in game
- Create clean, lower-resolution game topology, UV’s, and textures
- Collaborate with animators to create characters that can move and perform believably
- Collaborate with concept artists to revise and improve designs
- Provide specifications and written feedback to external vendors who will be supplementing the character creation efforts
- Leading a team to bring highly-realistic faces to life for both cinematic and in-game sequences, capturing all of the subtle nuance of facial deformations into a highly crafted system of blendshape poses
- Discerning from video reference the idiosyncrasies about a particular person’s performance that give them their character, and Identifying which FACS shapes are being used
Qualifications for character artist
- Have shipped AAA PC or console titles in a lead artist position
- Skill in of the related creation tasks - illustration, modeling, texturing, animation, concept drawing
- Strong understanding of digital content creation tools such as Photoshop, Painter
- A minimum of 4 years’ experience in game development modeling and texturing characters using 3ds Max and Photoshop (or equivalent 3D and 2D programs)
- Advanced skill in two or more of the related creation tasks - illustration, modeling, texturing, animation, and concept drawing
- Character modeling
2
Character Artist Job Description
Job Description Example
Our innovative and growing company is searching for experienced candidates for the position of character artist. Thank you in advance for taking a look at the list of responsibilities and qualifications. We look forward to reviewing your resume.
Responsibilities for character artist
- Bringing highly-realistic faces to life for both cinematic and in-game sequences, capturing all of the subtle nuance of facial deformations into a highly crafted system of blendshape poses
- Discerning from video reference, identify idiosyncrasies about a particular person’s performance that give them their character
- Sculpting any scanned expressions that are not precisely on pose with a focus on key facial assets such as eyes, mouth, nose, and brow
- Populating the blendshape rig with the base expressions and test to ensure likeness is maintained through range of motion
- As part of a continual improvement process, export the mesh out to Z-Brush for the creation of a blendshape corrective and then return this back into the rig
- Works very closely with the rigging department to create clean, efficient, and highly polished facial rigs
- Of existing character assets
- Take leadership in pre-production planning to define and address technical design requirements and issues
- Sculpt high-resolution character models
- Populate the blendshape rig with the base expressions and test to ensure likeness is maintained through range of motion
Qualifications for character artist
- Highres character sculpting, (ZBrush, Mudbox)
- Lowpoly gamemesh modeling, including UVs, (Topogun, Maya)
- Texture baking and editing (Photoshop, Mari, XNormal)
- Life Drawing
- Openly seek feedback and input on work
- Constructively give feedback to leads
3
Character Artist Job Description
Job Description Example
Our innovative and growing company is searching for experienced candidates for the position of character artist. To join our growing team, please review the list of responsibilities and qualifications.
Responsibilities for character artist
- Having an in depth understanding of 3D digital sculpting techniques, normal map and displacement map creation with ZBrush, Mudbox
- Sculpt high-resolution characters
- Character renders for marketing
- Assist in character concept and design
- Create high quality character likeness for use in game
- Must have a good understanding of conveying facial emotion and recreating facial poses
- Experience and knowledge of facial anatomy
- Ability to sculpt facial poses as per art direction
- Knowledge of blendshape correctives
- Experience with retopologizing software and workflows
Qualifications for character artist
- Take ownership and responsibility, drive work and be reliable
- Own tasks from concept to in game final
- Expert and deep knowledge of character rigging and animation support for mobile games using Maya and Unity
- Mastery in character rigging with a special focus in animals, quadrupeds, birds, reptiles
- Must understand the importance of gameplay and user experience in a social/mobile space
- Must be able to quickly identify needed improvements to existing pipelines, performance, and tools and provide effective and accurate solutions as they relate to character rigging and animation
4
Character Artist Job Description
Job Description Example
Our company is growing rapidly and is looking to fill the role of character artist. Thank you in advance for taking a look at the list of responsibilities and qualifications. We look forward to reviewing your resume.
Responsibilities for character artist
- Experience working with outsourcing teams
- Data wrangling, to and from, various mix of teams
- Communicate feedback, both written and verbal
- Support deveopement of proprietary art pipeline and workflows
- Support the acquisition team during performance sessions
- Work closely with the development teams to establish / maintain visual target while in production
- Contribute to documenting workflow and pipelines
- Create a range of high quality characters based on concept art for the Breakaway world
- Create clean, low-resolution game topology, uv’s, and textures
- Work with the art director and character team to set the visual style and quality bar
Qualifications for character artist
- At least 5+ years of Zbrush and/or other sculpting digital tools
- Industry leading understanding of human and animal anatomy
- Strong understanding of next gen shader technology with an ability to create a wide range of highly realistic materials
- Solid experience and understanding of art pipelines on Xbox One and/or PS4, and an interest in finding ways to evolve and improve the character art creation pipeline
- Ability to adapt rapidly to new or changing technology
- Excellent ability to self-manage, demonstrates proactive communication, and meets deadlines
5
Character Artist Job Description
Job Description Example
Our growing company is looking for a character artist. We appreciate you taking the time to review the list of qualifications and to apply for the position. If you don’t fill all of the qualifications, you may still be considered depending on your level of experience.
Responsibilities for character artist
- Engage in technical and aesthetic problem solving efforts
- Mentor other 3D artists, helping them to raise the quality bar
- Create and improve pipelines and workflow, organize 3D assets and organize the character team’s schedule
- Complete work under reasonable deadlines
- Help set quality standard across the team
- Understand the artistic director’s intentions through graphic references
- Capable of resolving a range of complex artistic development issues for both artists other team members
- Actively improves skill set and abilities by keeping aware of industry trends and techniques, evaluating competitive products, learning new software packages and traditional art methods
- Create top-quality character-related models and textures to set the quality bar for our project
- Assist with Tech Art and Engineering in planning and implementing our art pipeline
Qualifications for character artist
- Must be able to work well within a team
- At least 3 published games including one Xbox One or PS4 title
- Strong Maya, Max, XSI or Modo
- Strong ZBrush or Mudbox
- Photoshop and Substance Designer/Painter
- Frostbite/Unreal experience