Heart Machine is a close-knit team with our studio located in Los Angeles and talented team members all across the globe.

Although we are all passionate and work incredibly hard, our studio is not a crunch-factory - we like to live our lives, have holidays, and remain healthy throughout a project.

We are committed to creating an inclusive environment where all voices are heard and respected, and folks from underrepresented groups have a place to share their passion and creativity. We believe welcoming different life perspectives is crucial to building better games, scaling our studio sustainably, and improving our understanding of one another.

We are seeking a highly skilled and organized Lead Character Artist since our current lead is internally transitioning to a purely content creator role. With a very small Character Art team, you will also be a heavy hitting content creator, bringing your stylized skills to maintain the Hyper Light Breaker style. You will become the point person to collaborate with other leads and departments, maintain and improve the pipeline if needed, and manage the Character Art team.

If you're interested in becoming part of a kind, diverse and extraordinarily talented crew of people and working on the types of projects you dreamt of as a kid, please reach out to us.

Responsibilities

• Estimate and plan character art tasks and timelines with production and other discipline leads to hit target milestones and quality.
• Oversee all sculpt, game mesh and lookdev needs for character art: characters, weapons, companions, minimal vehicles. Supervise artists and provide asset feedback to achieve desired style consistency, technical requirements, and the visual quality bar for design and art vision. Maintain and improve the Breaker style guide if needed.
• Create blockout and production assets for hero and secondary characters and character props in a timely manner based on art direction and iterative feedback.
• Work closely with Concept Artists and the Art Director to scope concept art for a realistic production schedule. Adhere closely to approved concept art while improving upon concepts if helpful.
• Cel shaded lookdev R & D with tech artists and graphics programmers if needed.
• Maintain and/or improve pipeline and documentation: sculpt processes; budgets for game mesh geo, texture, and materials; character customization constraints.
• Collaborate with other disciplines to maintain visual and technical goals, constraints, optimization/performance needs.
• Stay on top of character art related bugs. Address and/or delegate the work needed to fix them in a timely manner.
• Manage the Character Art team of concept and character artists. Evaluate and discuss appropriate staff training if needed. Maintain proper onboarding documentation within character art. Provide annual performance reviews, both written and verbal. Connect with team members 1v1 on a monthly cadence to address concerns, discuss progress, assess shifting personal art goals, assess any outside factors that were previously unknown, manage time off requests and add them to the company calendar.
• Participate in monthly project retrospective meetings to address concerns and improve upon existing processes.
• Address project marketing needs related to character art: create and/or modify one-off poses, turntables of game assets and sculpts, and image compositions that are tweaked/refined for public scrutiny. Include respective character artists and other departments to address all input as needed (animation, rigging, art direction, PR, etc).
• Stay up to date with appropriate industry software changes and how these could improve character art style and/or pipeline

• Kind, compassionate, collaborative, organized, not driven by ego
• Successful experience managing other artists. Strong communication skills; able to motivate team members while being self-directed, and staying on task. Capable of giving and receiving constructive feedback on asset development and pipeline
• Proven experience maintaining and/or improving character art pipelines at a production level.
• Experience creating believable (not only realistic - there is a difference) stylized characters based on a solid grasp of fundamentals and the ability to push them to hit the art vision
• Solid understanding of appeal, silhouette, proportion, form, balance, contrast, shape language, weight, posture. Great foundations in human and animal anatomy and ability to execute this in 3D with intentional stylized contrast between straights and curves.
• Thorough knowledge of drapery and character costuming. Ability to sculpt appealing fabric folds in a stylized manner with angularity
• Deep understanding of value, color harmony, light, saturation.
• Proficiency with Maya, Zbrush, Substance Painter, Photoshop, Unreal Engine, Perforce or similar version control
• 6+ years of experience in games development with at least one shipped title as lead
• Experience creating lookdev (materials and textures) in a physically based rendering environment (PBR) and how to utilize PBR techniques/pipeline for more stylized goals.

Everything sound exciting so far? Then apply now with your resume! It would definitely help if you include a portfolio and/or work samples.

Compensation & Benefits

💲 Salary: In the United States, the standard base pay range for this role we have estimated is $100,000.00 - $150,000.00 Annual. This base pay range is for the U.S. and is not applicable to locations outside of the U.S. Actual amounts will vary depending on experience, performance and location. In addition to base pay, employees in this role may be eligible for incentive compensation. Incentive compensation is not guaranteed.

💸 Benefits:

• Competitive pay through bonus structures
• Medical, dental, and vision coverage
• 401k
• Flex PTO policy and 10 Federal holidays annually
• Paid parental leave

🌐 Location Flexibility: Work remotely or from the studio or Hybrid

⏲️ Full Time with Flexible Hours: Most staff maintain hours around 9a-6p PST. So long as you get the work done and are there for the meetings you are needed in, we trust you to manage your own time however makes sense to you.