Principal Character Artist / Sr. Principal Character Artist

Lakshya, a Keywords Studios company, in India is headquartered in Gurgaon and has a team of over 700 employees spread across studio facilities in Gurgaon, Pune and Seattle, and sales offices in San Diego and Tokyo. Setup in 2004, Lakshya has, over the last 20 years, created a reputation in the game development industry for being a highly talented and dependable game art studio. During this time, Lakshya has created art for over a hundred game titles, including hugely successful global hits such as Bloodborne, Dark Souls II, Just Cause 3, WWE 2K16, Uncharted 2, Farmville and Cityville. Lakshya’s senior team, which comprises of top-notch International and Indian talent, has a huge amount of experience of creating art for different game platforms and genres. Lakshya blends artistic creativity with strong process orientation in order to deliver best in class services. Lakshya works closely with NASSCOM to help in the growth of the game development eco-system in India.

For more info, please refer to https://lakshyadigital.com/

Job Overview

The Principal Character Artist is responsible for creating high-quality, game-ready 3D characters and assets that meet client specifications and project timelines. The role involves handling complex assets, establishing quality benchmarks, mentoring and supervising artists, reviewing and polishing artwork, and ensuring efficient production workflows with consistent quality and minimal revisions.

Benefits
• We offer the opportunity to work on some of the best-known game titles in the world.
• We offer competitive salaries and annual performance-based bonuses.
• Experienced artists may get the opportunity to work remotely
• We offer generous paid time off. You get 26 Annual leaves and additional paid time off at the year-end (from 25th December to 1st January).
• We cover Term Insurance and Personal accidental insurance for you.
• Benefit from our free Employee Assistance Program (EAP) for mental and emotional wellbeing.
• You can also avail our Special Education Assistance Scheme to further develop your career.
• … And a lot more!

Role Information: ENStudio: Lakshya Location: Asia Pacific, India, HaryanaArea of Work: Art ServicesService: CreateEmployment Type: Full TimeWorking Pattern: Hybrid

Experience & Requirements

A. Skills, Knowledge and Experience
1. Good knowledge of industry standard software such as Maya, 3D Studio Max, ZBrush and Photoshop. Expert knowledge software – Like Substance Painter, Marvelous designer – as well as knowledge of how to create assets for / export assets to game engines such as Unreal Engine or other game engines.
2. Good knowledge of 3D game Character creation process. Hands-on knowledge of how to effectively model and texture 3D Character under production conditions (within deadlines, confirming to client’s requirements etc.) Knowledge of Organic and Inorganic Modeling.
3. Ability to effectively estimate, plan and supervise game art asset creation work.
4. At least 3+ years of experience in a 3D game or game art services company in a Senior Artist role.

B. Behaviors and Abilities
1. Self-Management a. Professional and friendly in daily conduct.

b. Able to create, track and maintain realistic and meaningful daily goals for self and complete the planned work for the day on time every day.

c. Able to plan work-days and leaves in advance, after consultation with the PM and Lead, keeping the project requirements in mind.

d. Able to create a self-development plan in consultation with the Reporting Manager, and to work on the same diligently. e. Stays up-to-date with knowledge/understanding of the latest developments in tools and technologies related to game art production.

f. Able to take timely and correct decisions on how an asset should be created. Consults with Art Director/ Art leads to validate the course of action.

2. Communication a. Regularly communicates with Lead and PM to inform on:

i. Completion status of work allocated ii. Completion status of work allocated to artists they are supervising, if applicable iii. Leaves planned iv. Any problems or issues that might impact the timely completion of work.

v. Potential solutions to project problems.

b. Effectively communicates the following (makes an attempt to do so in English):

i. Questions related to any aspect of the project ii. Asset delivery notes and explanations iii. Work status iv. Comments and explanations to be added to Feedback Tracker c. Verbally communicates complex problems and issues, whether project or people related, with ease and simplicity, keeping the recipient’s comprehension level in mind.

d. Confidently and effectively communicates in English with non-Indian team members.

e. Is able to clearly understand the actual message that the speaker wants to communicate.

f. Shows clear ability and intent to understand and care about the concerns or feelings of others, and to communicate such awareness emphatically to others.

3. Team / Personal Credibility a. May need to work as Polishing artist and mentor on projects, if required. Must command respect from the team.

b. Consistently delivers assigned assets within timelines and as per quality in order to come across as a reliable, responsible and trustworthy team member.

c. Shows commitment to support the success of the project through delivery, stretching or going the extra mile if required, and highlighting and solving project related issues.

d. Shows initiative by volunteering and taking on tasks important to the successful execution of the project.

e. Is open to feedback and willingly owns mistakes to work towards positive contribution.

f. Sets a personal example for the team, especially for those who are junior to them, through their conduct and professional behavior – treating people well, coming to work on time, not wasting time etc.

RESPONSIBILITIES
1. Work closely with the Lead to scope the project effectively to correctly and completely establish the client’s requirements and specifications. Provide a list of queries to the Lead to seek clarification on the project assets, if required.
2. Ensure that there is no ambiguity or confusion regarding any aspect (specifications, timelines etc.) of the task in hand. Should not make any unwarranted assumptions. Should red flag to the Lead/sub-Lead any confusion or ambiguity.
3. Before commencing work on the asset, ensure that there is clear identification of the approach to be taken to create the asset as well as daily work completion targets and the same have been discussed with the Lead/sub-Lead before finalization. 4. Collect adequate and appropriate references before commencing work.
5. Model and texture assets efficiently, ensuring that the assets conform to the set process and specifications.
6. Demonstrate an ability to work on the most complex assets in the project and create benchmark quality for the project.
7. When required, take on the role of a “polishing artist” and help to take the work of junior artists to completion.
8. If required, carry out any post-production processes that may be required. This could include activities such as making assets game-engine ready and check them in the engine.
9. Effectively analyze all information to arrive at efficient work break-down and competitive effort estimates.
10. Maintain and improve productivity of the project by - a. Managing own productivity by completing work within the time allocated. This includes creating art assets from scratch or taking assets partially created assets by juniors and taking them to completion / polishing them. b. Helping artists on their project to complete their work on time using the most effective method, tools and processes.
11. Deliver high quality work which requires minimal iteration for finalization and has zero QC errors.
12. Help the Lead by guiding / supervising the work of artists. Does the first level review of assets, if required.