About the position
As an Art Lead at Riot, you will bring worlds to life through your vision, craft, and leadership. You'll help define the next generation of VFX art at Riot, build and guide a team of talented artists, and your craft execution will stand as an example to the team. With your experience you'll create aesthetically astounding visuals that communicate essential gameplay information. Beyond art, you will be accountable for your team's artistic quality, performance, and growth. As a Lead VFX Artist on an Unpublished R&D Project you will be responsible for building and managing the VFX team to meet and support the game-wide art direction. You'll work closely with other art and design leaders on the team to build towards a unified vision while owning and informing the VFX space, and make calls on how it contributes towards that vision. As this is a pre-production role, you will also focus on developing a new art style and pipeline that will serve as the foundation for the project's long-term artistic vision. You will report into the Art Director.
Responsibilities
- Partner with the Art Director to define style benchmarks that will meet the needs of the product and players
- Develop the VFX art style and aesthetic through in-game work, style guides, best practices and communication with the team
- Lead and leverage the VFX team to high quality execution on the art style
- Contribute to key pre-production tasks, such as defining artistic benchmarks, testing technical solutions, establishing performance benchmarks, and establishing the foundational vision for VFX art
- Provide craft mentorship and guidance to level up VFX artists on the team to work towards artistic and career goals
- Work with Design, Engineering, and Product Owners to understand their goals and how VFX can support them
- Lead the collaborative process with Design and any other groups that require it
- Own hiring manager responsibilities and create succession plans including onboarding accountability for new additions to future proof teams VFX needs
- Work with OS supervisors to maintain successful craft discipline integration of outsource vendors
Requirements
- 5+ years of professional experience as a VFX Artist or Lead VFX Artist in the gaming industry
- 1+ years of professional experience in a management role for senior developers
- Professional expertise in handpainted stylized VFX
- High proficiency in VFX development, including fundamentals like timing, shape language, color theory and mesh engineering
- Experience working cross discipline to create production ready pipelines and standards
- Experience working with modern game engines such as Unity, Unreal, or proprietary technologies
Nice-to-haves
- Experience working on a highly recognizable stylized game
- Experience working in pre-production for at least one game title
- Experience giving direction and delivering clear, constructive feedback to vendors
Benefits
- Open paid time off policy
- Flexible work schedules
- Medical, dental, and life insurance
- Parental leave for you, your spouse/domestic partner, and children
- 401k with company match
