Senior Character Artist

Skeleton Key is a new game development studio and division of Wizards of the Coast. We are a group of industry veterans who are guided by the belief that empowering our teams and providing the proper time, tools, and support we can foster a creative culture where everyone can do their best work.

Skeleton Key is a new game development studio and division of Wizards of the Coast. We are a group of industry veterans who are guided by the belief that empowering our teams and providing the proper time, tools, and support we can foster a creative culture where everyone can do their best work.

Our new studio will be located in Austin, TX, and we are looking for a passionate and dedicated Senior Character Artist to join us. We are considering on-site and hybrid working options as well as full-time remote candidates.

Reporting to the Lead Character Artist you will play a meaningful role on the project by crafting iconic characters and creatures as we move from concept to pre-production. You'll also help us establish the quality, style, and pipelines for character art as a subject area within the studio.

The Ideal candidate has a strong 3D technical background, extensive modeling and sculpting experience in realistic or photorealism aesthetics, and is collaborative. This role requires a strong sense of design as well as the ability to implement the highest-quality art.

• Sculpt high-resolution AAA-quality characters and build clean game topology, UVs, and textures for character assets.
• Foster a collaborative relationship with others to build appealing characters, creatures, character skins, and other AAA content.
• Support character concept and design teams.
• Work with other art teams, and game direction to establish visual style and production pipelines/processes for crafting character models.
• Collaborate across crafts and fields to help guide the Character Art team through pre-production visual development tests and conceptualization, as well as production execution.
• Work closely with the Tech Art team to maintain guidelines for model deliveries that allow for effective deformation and expression, as well as optimization.
• Assist and partner with the Lead Character Artist and Art Director to drive and maintain the high visual quality of character models
• Be an active mentor, leader, and role model for the art team.

• 5+ years of experience in a Character Artist role on AAA projects.
• A portfolio that demonstrates a breadth of both technical and artistic execution of Character Art with an emphasis on photorealism.
• Communication skills and knowledge to both effectively give and receive creative and artistic critique.
• Excellent understanding of anatomical proportions, silhouette, and a strong sense of compositional design and balance.
• Experience using real-time engines and Unreal.
• Knowledge of art assets optimization for games.
• Expertise in both hard surface and organic high poly techniques.
• Outstanding knowledge of PBR texture/material workflows.
• Passion for making and playing games.
• Enthusiastic, positive, and team-oriented; collaborates with all departments and teams.
• Self-sufficient and self-motivated, can perform duties with little oversight.