Get a job: Sony Santa Monica seeks a Technical Art Director

Feb. 23, 2016
protect

The Gamasutra Job Board is the most diverse, active and established board of its kind for the video game industry!

Here is just one of the many, many positions being advertised right now.

Technical Art Director, Sony Santa Monica

Location: Santa Monica, CA

Sony Santa Monica is seeking a technical art director to join the team behind the critically acclaimed God of War games. This role leads the creation, growth, and direction of studio technical art, focusing primarily on titles in development.   Customers include not only tech artists, but also environment and character artists, programmers, managers and directors, and discipline leads who need to understand tech art goals. 

Of primary importance is the ability to communicate clearly and effectively to all, regardless of artistic ability or engineering skill.   A requirement of the role is to maintain an open dialog with customers, inviting feedback, and identifying areas requiring attention or elucidation.

We value talent, self-motivation, and team spirit.  In turn, we provide an environment with a large degree of freedom and autonomy.

Responsibilities

  • Guide the development team to attain the strongest possible union of technology and artistic quality.

  • Facilitate the use of technology to expand the creativity and productivity of the internal art team.

  • Establish and maintain technical art design and vision, primarily for titles currently in development, but also for specific hardware targets, future products, and wider studio needs.

  • Exhibit pragmatic long view of systems and methods, with an eye to driving necessary improvements.

  • Develop and communicate technical art standards, best practices, and techniques.

  • Work directly with individual tech artists, artists, and programmers as needed to ensure soundness of direction and implementation.

  • Mentor, guide, and lead less experienced tech artists.

  • Actively partner with management in recruiting and career development efforts.

  • Attend cross-disciplinary meetings to communicate the tech art perspective, to provide visibility of the tech art plans and objectives, and to discuss best uses of methods and systems.

  • Partner with senior leadership ensure alignment of tech art plans and project design requirements.

  • Advise on project-based purchases of development tools.

Requirements

  • Minimum ten years of professional experience in computer-generated art, including proficiency in lighting and FX.

  • Intimate knowledge of Maya and expertise in MEL/Python/HLSL.

  • Strong technical artist with good artistic eye.

  • Solid understanding of 3D math and related concepts.

  • Exceptional leadership and team management skills.

  • Strong personal interest in video games and knowledge of industry trends and innovations.

  • Commitment to quality, documentation, and sound testing procedures.

  • Minimum of four console titles shipped, from concept to final.

JikGuard.com, a high-tech security service provider focusing on game protection and anti-cheat, is committed to helping game companies solve the problem of cheats and hacks, and providing deeply integrated encryption protection solutions for games.

Read More>>