Outsource Lead Artist – 6 months to permanent – AAA Games Studio – Stockholm

Our client is looking for a passionate and a Senior Outsource Artist to join a top-tier, experienced team to help craft cutting-edge game worlds for their next AAA game title. In this role you will work with a collection of key personnel to establish and maintain the art oursource effort for the project with main focus on strategy and execution.

Outsourcing Strategy:

• Establish strategy together with Art Leads of what content can and will be outsourced.
• Creates and maintains comprehensive brief templates and best practice documentation throughout production. 
• Works closely with the Outsourcing Manager, providing insight on vendor estimates; communicating instances of pipeline congestion, internal or external; relaying insight on quality, timeliness and professionalism of vendors work; and maintaining an efficient, navigable task tracking platform that enables easy use for developers not invested in the daily outsourcing process.

Outsourcing Execution:

• Manages day to day communication with outsourcers on behalf of Lead Artists, seeking clarification from Leads when necessary. This includes kickoffs, updates, inquiries and feedback.
• Accountable for the OS packages sent to external Vendors. Ensures briefs are executed to the established standards and includes the correct supplementary content such as: greybox models, reference imagery and concept art is provided.
• Acts as gatekeeper of content quality, making sure content is delivered at specification and meets creation guidelines. Responsible for first pass evaluations of outsourced assets on behalf of lead artists.
• When content passes first evaluation, works with the lead to distribute deliveries to the right people for feedback.
• Acts as gatekeeper of feedback quality, making sure that  feedback to vendors is consistent and adheres to set standards.
• Accountable for delivering actionable feedback to vendors in a timely manner at key stages of asset creation, such as: Low poly, high poly/sculpt, material bake and final delivery phases.

Content Knowledge:

• Helps direct vendor work on multiple asset types including but not limited to hard surface, organic, vegetation, vehicles, materials, under guidance and direction from the Art Director, and Lead Artists.
• Can coordinate optimization and polishing of assets after external delivery including UVs, baking, material and texture adjustments and optimization.
• Maintains up to date experience and knowledge of content creation and quality bars across multiple asset types.

Required Qualifications

• Extensive AAA experience and with at least one shipped title
• Experience in game art asset creation in a variety of software packages including Maya, Zbrush, Substance and Photoshop
• Comprehensive experience working directly with outsource studios
• Clear and concise communications and people skills
• Must be highly organized, self-driven, customer focused
• Experience creating style guides and briefs to be used by external vendors
• Complete understanding of game production process, end to end
• Developed communication skills, able to work with a range of stakeholders
• Team player able to work with and without direction
• Comfortable providing art feedback
• Passion for playing and making games

Desired Qualifications

• Experience working on Open-world games
• Experience across multiple Art Departments such as Props, Structures, Organic, Hard Surface and Vegetation.
• Strong understanding of physical based rendering and texturing pipelines

Tagged as: Art Director