Riot Games

Principal 3D Character Artist - Unpublished R&D Product

Riot Games$166K — $232K *
Consumer Technology
8 - 10 years of experience
Job Overview by Ladders

Qualifications

  • 8+ years of character modeling experience in gaming as a Senior or Principal Artist.
  • Strong proficiency in Maya, Zbrush, and Substance Painter for modeling, sculpting, and texturing.
  • Extensive experience with Unreal Engine 5+ for asset implementation.
  • In-depth knowledge of human anatomy, form, and color theory.
  • Proactive in staying current with industry trends and best practices.
  • Proven capability to elevate quality standards and provide constructive feedback to peers.
  • A diverse portfolio showcasing various character styles and fidelities.

Responsibilities

  • Produce visually appealing, high fidelity 3D characters and cosmetic assets.
  • Understand and influence the production of in-game assets that are optimized and animation-friendly.
  • Elevate concept designs while adhering to technical and design requirements.
  • Collaborate with multiple disciplines to ensure assets align with the overall project vision.
  • Document processes and mentor junior team members to foster growth within the team.

Benefits

  • Open paid time off policy promoting work/life balance.
  • Flexible work schedules to accommodate personal needs.
  • Comprehensive medical, dental, and life insurance coverage.
  • Parental leave plans for employees and their families.
  • 401k plan with company matching contributions.
Full Job Description
As aPrincipal 3D Character Artistat Riot, you will bring characters to life by crafting and texturing high fidelity models. You will help build some of the most iconic characters and cosmetics in the world of gaming. Your sculpting and texturing skills, artistic eye, and understanding of anatomy, form, and color will make you one of our key style advocates for the game you're working on. Working within both technical and design constraints, you will use your knowledge of proportions, anatomy and readability to ensure models are optimized in game. You'll be self-guided and help raise the bar for character art at Riot. You will be a mentor to other character artists and support the upholding and sometimes creation of style guides. Your craft expertise and high-level execution will enrich the player's immersive experience.

As a Principal 3D Character Artist within the Research & Development team, you'll work on a new unpublished AAA game. As a Principal Character Artist you'll partner with all the other departments to execute our unique visual style and ultimately create new and satisfying experiences for players.

Responsibilities:
  • Produce the look and feel of high fidelity 3D characters and cosmetic assets
  • Understand project requirements to influence and create in-game assets that are optimized, performant, and animation friendly
  • Interpret and push concept designs to the next level while accounting for technical and design constraints
  • Collaborate with various other disciplines to ensure all assets perform and are in line with project vision, style guides, and ready to scale through a cosmetics pipeline
  • Document and communicate processes to others and mentor junior members of the team

Required Qualifications:
  • 8+ years of character modeling experience as a Senior or Principal Artist in the gaming industry
  • Strong experience working with modeling, sculpting and texturing programs such as Maya, Zbrush, and Substance Painter
  • Extensive Unreal Engine 5+ experience
  • Deep knowledge of human anatomy, form, and color theory
  • Proactively stay up-to-date with industry trends and new processes
  • Proven ability to set quality bars and provide actionable craft feedback to other artists
  • A portfolio that shows a range of character styles and fidelities
  • Experience collaborating across disciplines to solve visual, technical, and production challenges

Desired Qualifications:
  • Experience working on cosmetic pipelines for live service game operations
  • Experience shipping multiple games and/or content for multiple live games

When submitting your application, please provide a portfolio of your high-quality character art - including a range of character styles and fidelities.

For this role, you'll find success through craft expertise, a collaborative spirit, and decision-making that prioritizes the delight of players. We will be looking at your past studies, experience, and your personal relationship with games. If you embody player empathy and care about players' experiences, this could be your role!

Our Perks:

Riot focuses on work/life balance, shown by our open paid time off policy and other perks such as flexible work schedules. We offer medical, dental, and life insurance, parental leave for you, your spouse/domestic partner, and children, and a 401k with company match. Check out our benefits pages for more information.

  • (Los Angeles Only) Base salary range between $166,600.00 - $232,800.00 USD + incentive compensation + equity + 401K with company match + medical, dental, vision, and life insurance + short and long-term disability + open PTO.

About Riot Games

Riot Games is a video game developer and publisher based in Los Angeles, California. The company was founded in 2006 by Brandon Beck and Marc Merrill, and is best known for its flagship game, League of Legends. The game has become one of the most popular esports titles in the world, with millions of players and fans around the globe. Riot Games is committed to creating high-quality, immersive gaming experiences that bring people together and foster a sense of community. The company is also dedicated to promoting diversity and inclusion in the gaming industry, and has launched several initiatives to support underrepresented groups.
Learn more about Riot Games
Size
2,500 employees
Industry
Founded
2006

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