Principal VFX Artist

2 days ago

Canada, CA People Can Fly Studio Full time

People Can Fly is one of the leading independent AAA games development studios with an international team of hundreds of talented individuals working from offices located in Poland, UK, US, and Canada, and from all over the world thanks to our remote work programs.

Founded in 2002, we made our mark on the shooter genre with titles such as Painkiller, Bulletstorm, Gears of War: Judgment, and Outriders. We are one of the most experienced Unreal Engine studios in the industry and we are expanding it with in-house solutions called PCF Framework.

Our creative teams are currently working on several exciting titles: Gemini is our new project being developed with Square Enix; Maverick is a Triple-A game developed in collaboration with Microsoft Corporation; Bifrost & Victoria are projects we're growing in the self-publishing model. We are also busy working on a VR and undisclosed projects, more information on those to come later.

With over 20 years of experience, PCF sets out to explore new horizons. We aim to combine our expertise with creativity of the best and most forward-thinking talents in the industry to work together on the new generation of action games for the global gaming community.

If you decide to accompany us on this journey, you’ll have a chance to perfect your craft and expand your knowledge, working alongside leaders in the industry on bringing a brand-new unique experience to the players worldwide.

Project Victoria is a yet unannounced AAA action-adventure game developed by our North American team supported by PCF’s European studios.


Job Description

We are looking for a Principal VFX Artist to join our team and craft captivating visual effects that elevate the player experience. In this role, you will design and deliver visually impressive VFX assets that align with the project’s concept, positively impact gameplay, and enhance player immersion and engagement.

Responsibilities

Artistic Direction and Quality

  • Maintain the artistic direction and quality standards throughout the project.
  • Produce high-quality VFX assets that align both technically and artistically with the project's universe and visual style.
  • Collaborate with the Art Director and Lead to define and uphold the artistic vision and style, ensuring consistency across the entire development pipeline.
  • Translate concept art and game design documents into prototypes and implement them as real-time VFX in the game under the supervision of the Lead.
  • Create ambient environmental effects that enhance mood, convey narratives, and bring the game world to life.

Production and Deadline Management

  • Deliver work that adheres to specifications while maintaining workflow pipelines and meeting deadlines.
  • Address bugs and document R&D case studies in the knowledge base.
  • Understand and implement established asset organizational structures and naming conventions to ensure coherence within the VFX pipeline.

Feedback and Quality Improvement

  • Participate in review sessions, professionally adapting to and implementing feedback from leads and peers.
  • Provide constructive feedback to enhance visual quality.
  • Create gameplay effects that invigorate the game world and provide players with essential gameplay feedback.

Collaboration and Communication

  • Share knowledge and collaborate with Technical Art and Leads on R&D initiatives, exploring new techniques and improving workflows while documenting processes with technical and user documentation.
  • Work alongside developers from various disciplines to ensure seamless integration of VFX into the game build.
  • Collaborate with designers to develop effects for scripted events and narrative moments.
  • Partner with the lighting department to enhance atmosphere, depth, and reinforce the color palette.
  • Occasionally assist Leads and HR in recruitment efforts.
  • Support new hires during the onboarding process as needed.

Additional Artistic Responsibilities

  • Create high-fidelity effects for cinematics and marketing materials.
  • Innovate new techniques for next-gen hardware, collaborating with engineers and technical artists to expand the VFX toolkit.
  • Possess a strong understanding of the technical challenges associated with content creation in this field.
  • Analyze scenes for performance issues and ensure that all effects are optimized for efficiency.
  • Utilize a variety of tools, including traditional particles, pixel shaders, vertex shaders for animated materials, baked physics simulations, and stock animations, to create compelling effects.
  • Stay updated on industry best practices to influence the direction of the VFX pipeline.


Qualifications

  • Minimum 7 years of experience in AAA console/PC game development, including over 5 years with Unreal Engine.
  • Strong portfolio showcasing examples of AAA-quality real-time VFX work.
  • Excellent knowledge of industry-standard software packages for modeling and high-poly sculpting (Maya, Max, ZBrush, Photoshop, or equivalents).
  • Deep understanding of the principles of animation.
  • Critical eye and strong sense of the motion of real-world objects and VFX.
  • Solid understanding of the constraints of real-time VFX.
  • Ability to artistically interpret concepts or creatively push beyond initial ideas.
  • Excellent understanding of art fundamentals (shape, form, texture, value, and color) and anatomical knowledge of both bipedal and quadrupedal forms.
  • Solid experience with a variety of techniques and tools for creating VFX animation (standard particle systems, fluid sims, physics sims, etc.).
  • Proven skills in creating all source art needed for VFX (textures, geometry, flipbooks, normal maps, vector field textures, etc.).
  • Strong experience with UE5 tools for VFX creation (or similar tools from other engines).
  • Solid experience in creating complex pixel and vertex shaders.
  • Strong experience in scripting (visual or otherwise) and mathematics within the context of VFX.
  • Adaptive with the ability to develop specific art styles, techniques, and workflows with minimal guidance.
  • Strong mentoring skills.
  • Ability to collaborate with department leads and different teams to solve artistic and technical challenges.
  • Strong verbal and written communication skills in English.

Nice to Have Qualifications

  • Experience in HLSL shader creation.
  • Knowledge of Houdini.

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