Character Artist CG Jobs

Job Description

At Hinterland, we strive to create lasting, meaningful experiences and memorable worlds. In WINTERMUTE, the story mode for our genre-defining survival experience, THE LONG DARK, we have a rich cast of characters to bring to life. In TALES FROM THE FAR TERRITORY, the expansion pass for Survival Mode, we also have a range of character-focused assets that need creating. To that end, we’re looking for a talented Character Artist, with a strong interest in stylisation, to join our veteran development team.

In this role, you will work under the guidance of the project Art Director to create game-ready characters, as well as helping to bridge the gap between the visual direction and the necessary technical requirements. Your work will have a lasting impact on the player’s experience of the game, and will help support their meaningful connection to the world we are trying to build.

YOUR IMPACT:
Your work will help strengthen the player’s connection to to game world, and their investment in the story. You will collaborate with a talented cross-disciplinary team to bring characters, wildlife, and a range of gameplay features to life. The results of your work will be enjoyed by millions of players around the world.

YOUR RESPONSIBILITIES:

Collaborate closely with the Art Director to create a diverse range of characters and wildlife within an existing art style.
Interpet 2D concept art into high-quality and game-ready 3D assets
Collaborate with the wider art team to help problem solve and push for quality throughout the game world.
Work within existing pipelines and workflows, and in collaboration with the animation team who will bring your characters to life in cinematics and in-game moments.
Review your work in the game, and playtest the game so that you understand the intended player experience.
Ability and willingness to contribute to constant improvement of methods and workflows, to support the creation of high-quality player experiences.

We are striving to create a truly diverse cast of characters in this project, and so we highly encourage character artists with diverse backgrounds to apply.

Please ensure you include any relevant portfolio materials with your application. No AI-generated assets please!

YOUR SKILLS & QUALIFICATIONS:

The ideal candidate will be extremely passionate and motivated to create truly beautiful characters within an existing art style. Beyond this, specific skills and experience we’re seeking for this role include:

Expert-level capabilities in the use of Maya or Blender, Photoshop, and Substance Painter/Designer
Deep proficiency with hand-painted textures and working within strong stylizations.
Proficiency with Zbrush and a strong digital sculpting skillset.
Unity experience, ideally in a production environment
Excellent polygonal modelling skills, with a focus on clean and efficient models
A strong art background, with a foundation in traditional art skills - we'd love to see artists who excel at painterly, illustrative aesthetics
An excellent understanding of video game processes and performance budget constraints
Ability to communicate ideas quickly, effectively, and work collaboratively within a team
A keen interest in character design, and both human and wildlife anatomy.
Experience with rigging and animation dependencies
Highly organized and self-motivated.
Ability to embrace and share feedback. Making games is a team effort at Hinterland, so everyone’s opinion counts!
An interest in fashion and clothing.

About Company

In an industry not known for taking care of its people, Hinterland strives to be different. We believe that the diversity, points of view, experience, and individual backgrounds of our team members contribute to a rich mosaic that helps us create better experiences, and helps those experiences reach a wider audience.

Hinterland is an equal-opportunity employer. We encourage applicants from all backgrounds to apply for our positions, regardless of ethnicity, social class, sexual orientation or identity, or religious affiliation. We value seniority and experience for our senior and leadership roles, but are always looking for ways to bring diverse viewpoints and experiences from across the spectrum of entertainment and technology.

We embrace a flexible working environment that focuses on high-autonomy balanced against high personal accountability. All our positions are remote-first, focused on finding the best fit for culture and talent. This remote-first flexibility is balanced with a physical studio in Vancouver, which is optionally available (COVID-permitting) to anyone on the team who wants to use it. We strengthen our team bond through offsite retreats, where we focus on creating memories together. We feel this balance of remote and in-person opportunities creates the strongest alloy for our culture.

We encourage everyone on the team to find balance between work and life, and never ask anyone to compromise one for the other. We are a No Crunch studio. We have high expectations of the level of commitment and the quality of the work done by our team, and trust everyone to manage their own schedule and workload. We offer a generous bundle of benefits and vacation time, and strongly encourage our team members to enjoy the 5+ weeks of paid time off we offer annually. We are a family-first studio and offer a range of tools to support our team and their growing families.

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