Associate Character Director

Job Description

Please note this role is open to candidates based remotely in Montreal as well

About the Organization: EA is one of the most iconic brands in entertainment with nearly 30 years of innovation, passion, and connection of millions of players across the globe to their favorite video games IP. We are assembling a team with the purpose of constructing a novel and immersive experience. This is your opportunity to join this new team that will shape the future of interactive entertainment.

About our team: We are starting a new team composed of experienced EA/EA SPORTS employees and new talent from across industries. With some of the most valuable IP in the world, and the resources EA has to offer, we have access to the capabilities needed to deliver amazing new experiences for an expanded audience of players worldwide.

About the role: Reporting to the Senior Art Director , you will help define the artistic style and overall look of the game's character and vanity item. You will guide an internal and external team of artists to make sure these characters and items are visually stunning , cohesive and consistent with the game's vision. You have content creation and you allow your collaborator to create remarkable character models. You will ensure that the visual quality of the content and experiences we create for our players is of the highest standard. You are down to earth and eager to work in a collaborative environment.

Your Responsibilities:
• Work with Art Director, Producers, Technical Artists and Engineers.
• Collaborate with the Art Director to establish a cohesive visual language for characters and vanity.
• You will provide a creative brief and give clear direction to your several collaborators (internal and external).
• Ensure that your collaborators are in touch with the latest trends, methodology and technology.
• Partner with management and ensure that the deliverables deadlines are respected.
• Establish visual targets and prototypes.
• Work as a craft leader to strengthen the local art team's capabilities and expertise. Plan, organize, and introduce training that fits the team.
• Work as a people manager to support career growth and provide mentorship for the team members. Provide performance assessments for the environment artists.
• Mentor new artists in the team.
• Provide feedback and critiques to team members through art reviews.
• Set quality standards and style consistency for the character art in-game.

Your Qualifications:
• 5+ years' character art direction experience.
• 5+ years' leadership experience.
• A portfolio that illustrates your range of creativity in character art. Please provide a link to a portfolio on the resume.
• Experience working with Maya, Photoshop, ZBrush, substance Painter and Marvelous Designer.
• Experience with vanity classification.
• Experience in prototyping and working with diverse teams consisting of technical artists, artists, engineers and riggers.
• Knowledge of the latest industry-standard tools, workflows, and techniques including physically based rendering.
• Demonstrate an expert understanding of human anatomy, clothing construction (wrinkle behavior), proportion, silhouette, and topology, and how it relates to rendering and deformation.
• Demonstrate an understanding of a broad mix of character-related disciplines such as modeling, texturing, shading, rigging and binding, animation, facial animation, and blend shapes.
• Experience presenting art direction focus and art reviews through to our teams.
• Demonstrate an excellent ability to interpret 2D reference material and scan data into 3D textured and surfaced models.
• Demonstrate an ability to document workflows to be used by our teams.
• Guide other artists on the team, sharing best practices and encouraging a healthy team culture

BC COMPENSATION AND BENEFITS

The base salary ranges listed below are for the defined geographic market pay zones in these locations. If you reside outside of these locations, a recruiter will advise on the base salary range and benefits for your specific location.

EA has listed the base salary ranges it in good faith expects to pay applicants for this role in the locations listed, as of the time of this posting. Salary offered will be determined based on numerous relevant business and candidate factors including, for example, education, qualifications, certifications, experience, skills, geographic location, and business or organizational needs.

BASE SALARY RANGES
• British Columbia (depending on location e.g. Vancouver vs. Victoria):
º $93,700 - $143,700 CAN Annually

Base salary is just one part of the overall compensation at EA. We also offer a package of benefits including vacation (3 weeks per year to start), 10 days per year of sick time, paid top-up to EI/QPIP benefits up to 100% of base salary when you welcome a new child (12 weeks for maternity, and 4 weeks for parental/adoption leave), extended health/dental/vision coverage, life insurance, disability insurance, retirement plan to regular full-time employees. Certain roles may also be eligible for bonus and equity.

Jobcode: Reference SBJ-gkyz24-18-222-84-251-42 in your application.