Art Lead

Purpose

Manage a team of Artists and bring the artistic vision into reality by balancing the creative and visual requirements within schedule and staff limitations.

Primary Duties and Responsibilities

• Provide art direction within a franchise.
• Partner with the Producer and Art Director to clearly understand the game design and the artistic vision for the game. Once the art vision has been established, develop, refine, and communicate the artistic style for the game to their team.
• Continue to support the Producer in ensuring the smooth progress of the project by providing their artistic expertise.
• Manage and mentor the Artists on their respective team; conduct milestone and annual performance assessments with each Artist.
• Ensure company art practices are followed within their team.
• Excel as a team member and strive to maximize team and departmental performance.
• Create an open, creative, learning environment where team members are encouraged to generate and follow through on their ideas.
• Identify problematic situations before they occur and offer solutions.
• Lead and oversee the art path and other technical art development efforts within the project.
• Organize and conduct meetings with their art team on a regular basis to resolve artistic or technical issues expediently.
• Strategically contribute to the investigation of techniques and methodologies to continually improve the quality and productivity of art resources.
• Contribute to the creative, feature, and technical documentation process.
• Schedule the project in liaison with the Producer, Art Director, Senior Artists and Software Engineers; ensure their team stays on schedule.
• Work with the Producer and Art Director to determine the number of artists needed for the duration of the project.
• Ensure the upkeep of the project blog for SRED application.

Key Results

• High quality projects are delivered on time and within budget.
• Good relationships are maintained at all times.
• High morale is maintained within the team.

Essential Skills, Knowledge and Experience

• 4 or more years of experience in game development required
• College degree in a related art field
• Experience in Photoshop/Illustrator
• Expertise in Maya, XSI, and/or other 3D Software
• Excellent management and communication skills
• High attention to detail

Contacts and Interfaces

• Art Director
• Producer
• External service providers
• Artists
• Other team members
• Third party groups