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ILMxLAB Senior Character Artist
LucasFilm
San Francisco, CA, United States
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We’re on a mission: building the future. We’re working in this crazy-fun, hybridized fusion of entertainment where exceptionally high-end (previously pre-rendered) VFX meets interactive, immersive stories. That spectacular mash-up results in unparalleled real-time worlds where we endeavor to raise the bar for experiences and visuals as high as we possibly can. As if making compelling movies and games wasn’t hard enough in isolation! Don’t get us wrong, we’re not complaining about the challenges. That’s literally why we come to work: It is our great fortune to be standing at the crossroads - unconstrained by a specific title or universe - in a collaborative, highly creative and highly technical work environment. If that sounds interesting, jump in. We still believe in picking up hitchhikers.
Our team is growing. We are looking for talented, driven creative technologists to help design and build the next generation of immersive stories. Have a look at the description below. If it sounds like you, send us your stuff!
The ILMxLAB Senior Character Artist works closely with the Art and Design departments to conceptualize and build distinctive, memorable, story-driven characters for high-fidelity performances on current and future generation hardware.
Responsibilities:
• Work closely with the character lead and concept team to conceptualize and model characters and hard surface accessories based on original art and photographic reference.
• Work closely with our look-development team to create and apply textures and materials with aesthetic appreciation for real-world references, run-time lighting and story driven aesthetics.
• Work within the game engine to preview, iterate, optimize and polish models to a quality bar and visual direction as set by the Art Director.
• Work closely with the character technical directors to help define modeling standards for rigging, deformation, and simulation within performance budgets, and other run-time requirements.
• Help set quality standard across the team. Work with more junior level artists and off-site developers creating and aiding direction and feedback.
• Become familiar with new tools, performance capture hardware, software and data, and other related technology. Feed into and help drive new technology investments and pipeline improvements.
• A portfolio or demo reel demonstrating the following:
• Excellent understanding of human and animal anatomy, with supporting character and costume designs across multiple styles or genres.
• Strong aesthetic appreciation for composition, proportion, mass and volume, light, lighting and color.
• 3D sculpting and modeling abilities interpreting 2D concept.
• Strong paint skills, multi-layered materials and effective texture layout.
• Clear examples of how to emulate real-world materials in CG whilst considering hardware performance.
• An understanding of garment tailoring, cloth simulation and mesh construction built to deform in a realistic manner in real-time.
• Examples of additional relevant techniques a bonus (Including facial blendshapes and correctives, pose space deformation shapes, animated wrinkles and normal maps, hair and fur, body kits and accessories).
Requirements:
Required Skills / Qualifications:
• Advanced abilities in Maya, Z-Brush or Mud Box and Photoshop. Knowledge of Mari a bonus. Unreal experience preferred.
• Demonstrated ability to work with a high degree of self-direction and balance multiple tasks at once.
• Excellent organizational, communication and interpersonal skills. Good understanding of the critiquing process and how to motivate others.
• Demonstrates commitment to creative collaboration in a time-sensitive environment.
• Will be helping drive aspects of the teams’ development process, including stand-ups, meetings, critiques and reviews.
• Self motivation and a passion for the VR/AR industry essential.
• Must be adaptive and willing to learn new processes and technical skills with an appreciation for mentoring and teaching others.
• Work collaboratively with all other disciplines to ensure artwork meets all cross-disciplinary requirements and tasks are scheduled correctly.
• MFA or equivalent experience required.
• Two or more shipped titles and five+ years of professional experience working in video games, film, feature animation, or other related fields.