2D & Concept Artist
As a 2D & Concept Artist you will join a highly functioning team comprised of a combination of full time and part-time professionals. If you can demonstrate success then you will have a chance to work across multiple products of increasing power and complexity.
Responsibilities:
- Communicate and collaborate directly with game development teams to guide the products visual progress from beginning to end.
- Regularly review game art and marketing materials to ensure content is high quality and on brand.
- Establish visual standards and provide recommendations to elevate the overall quality.
- Provide art feedback on 2D concepts, 3D art, animation, VFX, and UI by creating paint-overs, mockups, and draw-overs of to illustrate changes and improvements.
- Create original artwork on an as needed basis for our products and partners.
- Problem-solve creative and quality issues; identify achievable solutions that deliver brand consistency and appeal and improve the overall experience.
- Research and identify innovative new visual styles and techniques; provide recommendations for new products and partners.
- Develop style guides and brand guidelines; attend creative summits; share brand knowledge with game development teams.
- Participate in creative brainstorm sessions with partners to identify new ideas and game experiences.
- Meet with game developers both in person and remotely to ensure product vision and quality benchmarks are met.
- Maintain an up-to-date knowledge of our brand (past and present) across multiple games.
- Help develop and maintain visual directions for our various games and ensure distinct visual identities for each product.
- Create concept art, illustrations, or graphic designs to help communicate our feedback to our partners or to assist them in achieving the project’s visual goals.
Technical Skill and Experience Requirements:
- Excellent knowledge of art and visual design principles and techniques relating to character and environmental design.
- Ability to work in a broad range of visual styles.
- Excellent understanding of anatomy and idealized heroic proportions.
- A master of light and color, with a strong sense of design and composition.
- Exceptional draftsman and painter, with the ability to sketch and iterate quickly, and take ideas to a highly polished execution.
- Solid understanding of graphic design principles.
- Able to creatively supervise and drive projects from beginning to end with little assistance or supervision.
- Adept at problem solving (both alone and in groups); ability to evaluate creative, challenges and provide credible and achievable solutions.
- Excellent verbal and written communication skills with the ability to provide clear, concise, and actionable feedback and guidance, and present ideas with clarity, conviction, and collaborative understanding.
- Proficient and knowledgeable with Adobe Photoshop is a must.
- Sympathetic and champion collaborator that is able to adapt and adjust to a wide variety of studio work styles.
- Self-starter, reliable, and passionate about their work and committed to their discipline and its challenges.
Nice to Have Skills and Experience:
- Professional experience in console, PC and/or mobile hyper casual games development.
- Understanding of game development including: art creation processes (both 2D and 3D), technology requirements and advancements, trade-offs, and challenges associated with development.
- Experience with a 3D package (Maya, 3DS Max, etc.) is a plus.
- Ability to work independently and to be self-directing.
- Familiar with and/or have experience with Agile development under the SCRUM methodology.
- Eye for detail.
Keys to Success
- Demonstrated ability to brutally prioritize. Be prepared to give examples of critically important projects you didn’t get done in favor of even more important projects. What criteria did you use to make your decision?
- Team player willing to take direction, yet with the initiative to identify and act on matters without waiting for direction. This one is really important.
- Genuinely excited about games, have a strong interest in learning & using the latest tools, and constantly want to learn new things.
- Highly-motivated and thrive in an environment where opportunities are many times of your own making.
- Enjoy engaging in passionate discussions with smart people and letting the best ideas rise to the top.
- Strong communication skills, both with technical and nontechnical audiences.
- Willingness to work as part of a team and embrace best practices, like version control, code reviews, documentation and workflow management tools.