Senior Character Artist

Job Description

The Mill is a global creative partner for agencies, production companies and brands, working across all media channels and platforms.

We are trusted specialists in visual effects, creative technologies, and content production. Our projects include the creation of digital products and virtual experiences, as well as world class visual effects and video production.

We are a vibrant network of talented artists, producers, directors, and creative technologists from multinational backgrounds. We nurture innovation, flexibility, and diverse ideas across our studios in London, New York, Los Angeles, Paris, Shanghai, and India. We are all united by one single ambition: To create extraordinary and memorable work that captivates and excites audiences.

We are The Mill. We create the extraordinary.

This is an expression of interest for potential future hiring needs. This role can be remote anywhere in Poland only.

The Character Artist's primary responsibilities revolve around creating highly detailed character and creature assets for Game Cinematic and Commercial projects. Tasks range from crafting stylized characters to anatomically realistic humans and creatures, including facial modeling, FACS blendshapes, sculpting, retopology, texturing, and look development. The Character Artist collaborates with the Assets team in LA and the teams in India to ensure the sharing of knowledge, techniques, and workflows. There is a continuous emphasis on pushing for increased artistic and technical quality/expertise within a collaborative team, which is highly valued and encouraged.

The Character Artist possesses expertise, practices, and techniques for generating clean and efficient geometry suitable for various target outputs (e.g., rigging, simulation, photorealistic rendering, as well as real-time game engines). Collaboration with Asset Leads, Assets Department Supervisors, CG Supervisors, and VFX Supervisors is essential to ensure proper asset creation within the studio pipeline and meeting the specific needs of projects and clients. Continued collaboration with other department supervisors on workflows and pipeline is also expected.

Experience with real-time engines is highly desirable, specifically in Unreal Engine, Unity, and Frostbite.

Details

Local Report: LA Head(s) of CG

Works With: Directors, Creative Directors, CG Supervisors, VFX Supervisors, and HODs, Producers, and Coordinators

Responsibilities:
• Create high quality models, UVs, sculpts, retopology, blendshapes, textures and lookdev
• Hero Character and Creature modeling, along with hard surface models
• Exceptional understanding of Facial Modeling and FACS blendshapes
• Work efficiently and navigate a fast-paced environment
• Work with the rigging department to ensure that the animators have what they need in the rigs
• Participate in meetings with the LA / India Assets teams whenever necessary
• Collaborate with Directors, Creative Directors, CG Supervisors, VFX Supervisors, and HODs to ensure that all work being delivered meets high level expectations and specific project needs.

Qualifications
• 5+ year experience working in high quality asset creation (modeling, sculpting, uvs, texturing on hero assets from hard surface to characters)
• Must be a proactive and self-driven creative problem solver
• Proficient in Maya, Zbrush, Mari, Substance Painter
• The ability to texture in Substance Painter and/or Mari is a plus
• Ability to work within a new pipeline and continually look for ways to improve it
• Understanding of Facial Modeling, FACS blendshapes, and Facial Rigging
• Ability to texture is a plus, but not required
• Knowledge of MEL and/or Python for scripting and tool development is a plus, but not required

Jobcode: Reference SBJ-d5ye07-3-19-30-232-42 in your application.