Double Fine Productions Needs an Art Director

In all areas, the Art Director should have the ability to work through people using influence and inspiration rather than fiat.  The ideal candidate is an artistic visionary with a strong preference for working in a highly creative, innovative, small, intimate development environment. Published or current games should reflect direct experience defining and exploiting pipelines on modern hardware, such as the PlayStation 4 or Xbox One. The position requires a fluency in modern 3D art creation techniques and an avid interest in pushing the leading edge of game art development.

Responsibilities

• Work with the artists and programmers to define and supervise the game’s visual direction and internal development standards.
• Maintain an art production pipeline, process and workflow that ensures the art direction adds considerable value to the finished product.
• Supervise the efforts of the artists, define the art schedule and establish procedures and expectations.
• Ensure the timely and reliable delivery of all art assets within schedule and budget considerations.
• Specify and problem-solve technology issues related to art production, and offer constructive input as to progress and risk abatement. Communicate technical issues to the programming staff. Facilitate and lead the development and maintenance of common art criteria.
• Author and maintain the art design document, ensuring that there is clear and cogent documentation on art vision, process and pipeline.
• Proactively develop the skills of the team’s artists, including mentoring, suggesting educational opportunities, and generally advocating professional development.

Requirements

• MUST HAVE 6+ years of video game industry AND at least 1 shipped AAA title in the role of Art Director.
• Excellent leadership, communication, interpersonal, and organizational skills.
• Ability to envision and lead the creation of inspired game visuals.
• Ability to work with all disciplines to find efficient pathways for implementing the artistic vision within the limitations of the console hardware.
• Strong foundational art skills in color, composition, and form.
• Demonstrable art ability in 2D or 3D mediums.
• Convey visual direction, communicating effectively and proactively with all disciplines.
• Demonstrated successful history of well-executed pre-production periods.
• Ability to lead by example to set the studio’s visual quality bar ever higher, directing a team of artists to realize a unified conceptual vision onscreen.
• Familiarity with game development and the interrelation between game design and game art.
• Able to build, evaluate and revise art schedules and manage a team’s project execution within them. Able to schedule dependencies with other project leaders.
• Ability to define deadlines and task time estimates, work well under pressure, and able to multitask effectively.
• Demonstrated experience as a proactive motivator, confidently working with people to achieve buy-in and results.
• Industry visionary who helps set the standards for his/her craft within the real-time industries.
• Broad experience across art disciplines including modeling, lighting and shading.
• Sound understanding of design elements, color theory, anatomy, drawing and painting.
• Intimate knowledge of asset creation in modern DCC tools. Traditional art skills a plus.
• Well versed in a variety of technologies and production techniques, and should be current in the latest trends in computer graphics, production methodologies and resource management.
• Considerable knowledge of the hardware and software requirements of game development.
• Experienced at pitching visual and gameplay designs and able to adapt visual design goals to the strengths of the various consoles.
• Self-motivated, with a strong work ethic.

Apply