Senior Character Artist

Job Description

Your Platform

Located in the San Francisco Bay Area, Melbourne, Australia, Toronto, Canada and Guildford, UK – Sledgehammer Games is the videogame development team behind Call of Duty®: Modern Warfare 3, Call of Duty®: Advanced Warfare and Call of Duty®: WWII. Since our founding in 2009, our greatest passion has been making AAA games. The strength of our team makes us not only excellent at what we do, but also how we do it. We firmly believe in supporting our passionate employees to be the best they can be. Here at Sledgehammer Games, everyone is a game maker.

We are constantly evolving and innovating – which are some of the most rewarding aspects of game development. With our extraordinary audio, design, engineering and art teams, we've been able to achieve some of the highest-quality game execution of any studio in the industry. We love making games and we work hard to make sure that each new game we make is even better than the last. Creativity is key, and we're looking for dedicated game developers for our exciting next project.

Sledgehammer Games is wholly owned by Activision. To learn more about our studio, please visit us at www.sledgehammergames.com or search for Sledgehammer Games on your favorite social media platform. Want to hear what it's like at the studio directly from current employees? Check out our #LifeatSHG developer profiles: https://youtu.be/12DUBszg-w4

Your Mission

As a Senior Character Artist you will work as a key member of the character art team to create high quality and detailed character designs. These assets are based on game requirements, technical capabilities of the gaming platform and product scope. Individual must have a basic understanding of anatomy and proportions as it translates to 3D modeling, and mesh deformation. Takes initiative to learn and adapt to new team practices based on evolving technologies. Can work in a multidiscipline work atmosphere, alongside other Character Artists and with the Lead Character Artist while under time constraints.

Priorities can often change in a fast-paced environment like ours, so this role includes, but is not limited to, the following responsibilities:
• Collaborate with the Art Director and Concept Artists to develop look and feel of assets.
• Create exciting characters that are efficient, built to scale and satisfy budgetary requirements.
• Project management for a number of assets and prioritize tasks.
• Maintain and share extensive knowledge pertaining to military gear, uniforms and equipment.
• Work with Technical Art Director to understand budgetary requirements and ensure that the characters created fulfills these requirements.
• Receive feedback and modify work based on direction.
• Provide feedback to improve the tools.
• Follow schedules and meet deadlines.
• Understand mesh topology and edge loops as it translates to efficient modeling practices for in-game characters, and is experienced building highly detailed characters.
• Understanding of 3d scan as a foundation for organic or hard surface model workflows.
• Good understanding of UV coordinate space, texturing, and memory budgets.
• Thorough working knowledge of Maya, Zbrush, and Substance Painter.
• Understands the principles and practices of physically based workflows and texturing.
• Promote a positive work environment through high personal and performance standards.

Player Profile:
• Prior Experience/Previous Positions related to current position:
• 4-6+ Years of directly related experience in gaming.
• Performed similar role on at least 1 published game title.
• High level of proficiency using Maya to create detailed characters to scale and accuracy.
• Demonstrated Ability to create detailed Zbrush or Mudbox models.
• Candidate must have experience using Substance Painter, and Photoshop to create hyper realistic textures for next gen materials.
• Experienced in 3D character concepts and development process.
• Experience is working from Scan data.
• Candidate must be proactive and work well in a large team environment and have excellent communication skills.
• Experience creating efficient and clean models with proper UV layout inside Autodesk Maya
• Radiant experience a plus.
• Properly estimate time to complete work, sort and evaluate various priorities and builds in buffers.
• Verify art asset performance and appearance in the game engine.

Bonus XP:
• An understanding of weighting and animation principles
• Able to rapid prototype and help conceptualize character designs
• Experience with scan data.
• Experience with Marvelous Designer

We love hearing from anyone who is enthusiastic about changing the games industry. Not sure you meet all qualifications? Let us decide! Research shows that women and members of other under-represented groups tend to not apply to jobs when they think they may not meet every qualification, when, in fact, they often do! We are committed to creating a diverse and inclusive environment and strongly encourage you to apply.

We are committed to working with and providing reasonable assistance to individuals with physical and mental disabilities. If you are a disabled individual requiring an accommodation to apply for an open position, please email your request to accommodationrequests@activisionblizzard.com General employment questions cannot be accepted or processed here. Thank you for your interest.
Our World

The video game industry and therefore our business is fast-paced and will continue to evolve. As such, the duties and responsibilities of this role may be changed as directed by the Company at any time to promote and support our business and relationships with industry partners.

We are an equal opportunity employer and value diversity at our company. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status, among other characteristics.

Jobcode: Reference SBJ-d991o9-18-188-142-146-42 in your application.