Lead Outsourcing Character Artist
Established in 2004, Lakshya Digital, a Keywords Studio, is the largest interactive entertainment and game development services studio in South Asia. We have game production studios in Gurgaon and Pune, and business offices in Tokyo, Japan and San Diego, California.
Our continued success is fueling the need to support overseas growth in India and Japan, as well as further expansion in the US. We are looking for top quality talent to become part of our studio in Redmond, WA, to help facilitate this effort. If you have grown weary of working on the same project doing the same thing from year to year, or if you are interested in experiencing what it is like to simultaneously work on a variety of projects, then dust off your resume, polish up your portfolio and send it to us for consideration.
As the Lead Outsourcing Character Artist, you will supervise a team to ensure the consistent delivery of top-quality character content, documentation, and assist with production plans that satisfy both externally and internally created specifications for multiple projects. The Lead Artist must be able to thrive in a highly dynamic and collaborative environment, by being highly organized and detail oriented, with exceptional oral and written communication skills. Our Lead Outsourcing Character Artist must possess relevant technical skills while in a similar role on at least one AAA Current Gen console game. Previous experience working with an external art team, or as a service vendor, is a big plus. Applicants with Game Development backgrounds preferred.
Responsibilities:
- Perform Art reviews, provide quality feedback in our tracking tools, support collaboration and communication between our PMs, Artists, and External Artists on multiple projects. Work with Account Management to ensure overall client satisfaction when interfacing with client directly.
- Will likely be needed to work directly with the client art teams and is responsible to ensuring high quality customer support and respectful collaboration.
- Regularly collaborate and support mid-to-large sized external teams (35 – 60+ artists) to find production solutions that uphold the client’s quality expectations and adhere to established technical requirements. Contributing innovative and original ideas towards all aspects of production and support of PMs and Account Managers.
- Contribute to internal studio training efforts, working with teams in India and Japan to internalize established processes and best practices.
- Demonstrate and facilitate a strong understanding of color, light, and visual design.
- Able to prioritize and provide feedback and review for more than two projects at a time.
- Work with the Project Managers and other leads and artists to identify risks, develop solid estimates, pipelines, schedules, and production plans.
- Manage and mentor junior to senior level character artists. Demonstrate, communicate, and exemplify clear expectations for quality of work, productivity, communication, and professionalism to the team.
- Responsible for the quality of all incoming art assets from the projects they are leading. Actively works to improve approval ratio for their team by providing clear and concise visual and written feedback.
- Depending on the project needs, able to create and/or polish existing 3D assets to meet final deliverable quality, when necessary, in a variety of software packages.
- Able to establish, drive, and maintain clear and respectful communication with clients, PMs, and external art teams, with minor supervision. Work with Seattle Studio Art Directors and Account managers to raise visibility on production concerns and work to implement client facing solutions.
Requirements:
- A minimum of 7+ years’ industry experience with at least one published game credited in a Lead or Principal Character Artist Role.
- Strong written and verbal communication skills and solid understanding of issue tracking tools like JIRA, or Shotgun.
- An expert-level understanding for current-gen game content development processes, pipelines, limitations, and dependencies as it relates to character creation.
- Skilled with current tools and technologies; Maya or Max, UE4, Unity, Zbrush, Photoshop, Substance Designer/Painter, and Marvelous Designer.
- 3D sculpting, modeling, texturing, and material creation skills for creating game content with the proven ability to produce and direct the production of top-quality current generation content in a variety of styles for play on multiple platforms.
- Able to analyze and understand client and Art Director aesthetic requirements and translate that into workable feedback for external and internal art teams.
- Proven ability to produce top quality content, using current generation game engines (Unreal, Unity, Lumberyard, etc.).
- Demonstrated ability to be proactive and self-motivated, work without direct supervision, and present the work of the team and the project in a professional manner.
- Must be highly organized, self-driven, customer focused, and a great team player.
- Able to collaborate with internal and external teams.
- Must be able to travel internationally 10-20% of the year.
- BA or equivalent industry experience.
What we offer:
If working on cool projects with even cooler people is not enough for you, we also offer an awesome range of benefits & perks!
- Medical, dental and vision benefits insurance. We also provide Basic Life Insurance, AD&D insurance for all of our team members
- Long-term (LTD) disability insurance and Flexible spending account (For medical and dependent care)
- Paid vacation and sick time, designated paid holidays as well as other paid time off
- 401K Plan with company match
- Flexible work schedule and great approach to work/life balance
- Opportunities for growth and career advancement
- Remote position
- Company events throughout the year
- Fully remote position
- Salary range- $90,000- $100,000 USD