Character Artist - Facial Blendshapes
Join our award-winning God of War team
We are looking for a character blend shape artist to help in creating the artistic vision and development of our characters. Core responsibilities include sculpting blend shapes for realistic humans and creatures. Secondary responsibilities include texture map painting, 3D modeling/ sculpting, and material setup/UV layout according to defined quality standards, artistic styles, conceptual designs, development pipelines, technical parameters, and production goals.
A character blend shape artist must possess the ability to effectively collaborate with the character technical art staff and animation departments as well as development team members outside of their direct disciplines such as the Art Director or Character Art Lead to optimally achieve artistic goals and implementation as they relate to design and technological considerations.
Responsibilities
Works with character technical art and animation to achieve realistic facial animation for humans and creatures.
Is a contributor to the development of the artistic techniques and processes utilized to define and achieve a product’s visual style or encourage artistic evolution within the studio. This entails expanding methods to improve the production pipeline, tools, systems, and visual integrity.
Maintains the artistic goals and vision through all phases of the game development cycle from pre-production through final product release. This entails ensuring character assets are of the highest artistic quality and uphold the integrity of the games design and artistic vision of the game as a whole.
Maintain a good knowledge of the game's design to facilitate communication and enable the early identification of issues.
Facilitates requests or information needs regarding any aspect of the character art creation process as requested.
Capable of resolving a range of complex artistic development issues for both artists as well as other team members.
Actively improves skill set and abilities by keeping aware of industry trends and techniques, evaluating competitive products, learning new software packages and traditional art methods.
Requirements
Blend shape creation experience.
Strong knowledge of the Facial Action Coding System (FACS) system as it pertains to facial rigs.
Experience building realistic blendShape facial rigs.
Experience working with scan data.
Knowledge of facial anatomy and how muscles lead to form changes.
Experience sculpting wrinkle maps and defining regions for wrinkle activation.
Traditional fine art skills and training (illustration, painting, organic forms, color theory, perspective, 2D & 3D design.).
Maya (or equivalent 3D modeling package) and Photoshop. Z-Brush/Mudbox experience desirable.
Some familiarity with video game product development including, but not limited to workflow, tools, lighting, high and low poly modeling, texture painting, surface sampling, particle systems, mapping techniques, UV layout, in-game animation, and material setup.
Previous or next-gen video game platform experience is desirable.
Basic communication, organizational, time management and interpersonal skills.
Preferred Experience
B.A. in fine arts or relevant curriculum - or - equivalent skill set.
Minimum 1 year of industry experience or related experience.
1 or more published titles considered a plus.
Experience with Blend Shape building tools and scripts is a plus.
A working knowledge of Python is also a plus.
We value talent, self-motivation, and team spirit. In turn, we provide an environment with a large degree of autonomy and opportunities for growth.
Sony is an Equal Opportunity Employer. All persons will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, gender, pregnancy, national origin, ancestry, citizenship, age, legally protected physical or mental disability, covered veteran status, status in the U.S. uniformed services, sexual orientation, marital status, genetic information or membership in any other legally protected category. We strive to create an inclusive environment, empower employees and embrace diversity. We encourage everyone to respond. We genuinely appreciate the time and effort you spent in contacting us and we thank you for your interest in Santa Monica Studio.