Character Artist

At Velan Studios, we foster a culture of curiosity. Our games embrace diversity and are fueled by the adventurous spirit of our team. We are the creative minds behind titles like Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit, Knockout City, Hot Wheels Rift Rally, Bounce Arcade, and Midnight Murder Club, with multiple new projects in the works! Our studio's mission is to pioneer groundbreaking gaming experiences and reimagine play in new ways. We're committed to pushing the boundaries of traditional gaming, blurring the lines between reality and fantasy, and revolutionizing the industry one game at a time.

We’re looking for a skilled Character Artist to bring our games to life!

Responsibilities

• Create high quality character assets such as faces, hair, outfits, and props
• Collaborate with Art Director and Leads to ensure assets are high-quality and support the artistic vision for the project.
• Work closely with other teams such as concept, animation, and design to make sure characters are built to meet specifications
• Work from loose concepts and use your creativity to polish designs or generate new ideas by reusing parts from other characters
• Setup basic rigs and skinning for your characters
• Help establish processes and pipelines for the project
• Assist production and leads with reviewing schedules, providing estimates, and completing tasks on time.
• Stay up on current trends and techniques in the industry to help push quality and speed on the character art team.

• Experience with stylized character art in a production environment
• 5+ years of industry experience as a Character Artist, or other relevant experience.
• Expertise in modeling, sculpting, topology, and texturing and material work for characters.
• Ability to create high-quality characters based on existing concept art in addition to working with the animation team with the goal of creating high quality, expressive characters.
• Solid understanding of modern pbr material authoring techniques
• Basic working knowledge of rigging and skinning
• Advanced understanding of ZBrush, Maya, Adobe Photoshop, Substance Painter and/or other game production tools.
• Experience working in Unreal, Unity or other AAA Game Development Engines
• Strong communication and organizational skills.
• Self-direction, passion, and creativity in your work.
• A receptiveness to feedback and the ability to act successfully on direct critique.

Bonus Points

• Concept and creative ideation (2D or 3D).
• Experience with character customization pipelines
• Rigging, skinning, and animation experience.
• Leadership and/or mentoring experience.

We're thrilled that you're considering joining our team. We want to let you know that candidates who can work onsite in our Troy, NY studio are highly preferred. We believe that working together in person can foster better collaboration and creativity, and we're excited about the opportunity to have you right here with us. Velan Studios is made up of a team of remote, hybrid, and onsite employees, with hybrid and onsite team members operating from our Troy, NY office.

The salary for this position is typically within the range specified below* per year. Please note that the actual base pay may vary based on factors such as your qualifications, skills, experience, and other relevant considerations. In addition to your salary, our comprehensive compensation package includes various perks, such as potential annual bonuses (though they are not guaranteed), health, dental, vision, life, and disability insurance, a retirement savings plan, paid holidays, and flexible time-off benefits.

*salary range: $80k - $120k annually

Velan Studios is dedicated to building a diverse, inclusive, and authentic workplace, so if you are excited about a role but your experience doesn’t align perfectly, we encourage you to submit a General Application. Velan Studios is an equal opportunity employer that is committed to inclusion, diversity, and providing a workplace free from discrimination and harassment. We seek to create a work culture that matches the diversity of our players.