As a Principal 3D Character Artist at Riot, you will bring champions to life by crafting and texturing high and low poly models. You will help build some of the most iconic characters and skins in the world of gaming. Your sculpting skills, artistic eye and understanding of anatomy, form, and color will lead the way in character and skin creation. Working within both technical and design constraints, you will use your knowledge of proportions, anatomy and readability to ensure models are optimized in game. You'll be self-guided and help raise the bar for character art at Riot. You will be a mentor to other character artists and support the upholding and sometimes creation of style guides. Your craft expertise and high-level execution will enrich the player’s immersive experience.

As a Principal 3D Character Artist within the Research & Development team, you’ll work on a brand new unpublished AAA game. You’ll partner with the Art Lead and several concept artists to execute the visual style of unique character skins and ultimately create new and satisfying experiences for players.

Responsibilities:

• Produce the look and feel of high-quality 3D character skin assets 
• Understand project requirements to influence and create low poly assets that are optimized for deformation and animation
• Interpret and push concept designs to the next level while accounting for technical and design constraints, such as poly counts, texture memory limits, and topology
• Collaborate with various other disciplines to ensure all assets perform and are in line with project vision and thematic
• Document and communicate processes to others and mentor junior members of the team

Required Qualifications:

• 8+ years of character modeling experience in the gaming industry
• Strong experience working with modeling, sculpting and texturing programs such as Maya, Zbrush, Substance Painter, and Photoshop
• Unreal Engine 4 or Unreal Engine 5 experience
• Deep knowledge of human anatomy, form, and color theory
• Ability to create stylized characters through past professional or personal work samples

Desired Qualifications:

• Experience working on cosmetic pipelines for live service game operations
• Experience shipping multiple games and/or content for multiple live games

When submitting your application, please provide a portfolio of your high-quality character art - including stylized artwork.

For this role, you'll find success through craft expertise, a collaborative spirit, and decision-making that prioritizes the delight of players. We will be looking at your past studies, experience, and your personal relationship with games. If you embody player empathy and care about players' experiences, this could be your role!

Our Perks:

Riot focuses on work/life balance, shown by our open paid time off policy and other perks such as flexible work schedules. We offer medical, dental, and life insurance, parental leave for you, your spouse/domestic partner, and children, and a 401k with company match. Check out our benefits pages for more information.

Riot Games fosters a player and workplace experience that values teamwork embodied by the Summoner's Code and Community Code. Our culture embraces differences as a strength, and our values are the guiding principles for how we approach work. We are committed to putting diversity and inclusion (D&I) at the center of everything we do, and promoting a fair and collaborative culture where Rioters treat one another with dignity and respect. We encourage you to read more about our value of thriving together and our ongoing work to build the most inclusive company in Gaming.

It’s our policy to provide equal employment opportunity for all applicants and members of Riot Games, Inc. Riot Games makes reasonable accommodations for handicapped and disabled Rioters and does not unlawfully discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, national origin, age, handicap, veteran status, marital status, criminal history, or any other category protected by applicable federal and state law. We consider for employment all qualified applicants, including those with criminal histories, in a manner consistent with applicable federal, state and local law, including the California Fair Chance Act, the City of Los Angeles Fair Chance Initiative for Hiring Ordinance, the Los Angeles County Fair Chance Ordinance for Employers, the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, and the Washington Fair Chance Act.

Per the Los Angeles County Fair Chance Ordinance, the following core duties may create a basis for disqualifying candidates with relevant criminal histories:

• Safeguarding confidential and sensitive Company data
• Communication with others, including Rioters and third parties such as vendors, and/or players, including minors
• Accessing Company assets, secure digital systems, and networks
• Ensuring a safe interactive environment for players and other Rioters

These duties are directly related to essential operations, safety, trust, and compliance obligations within our organization. Please note that job duties may evolve based on business needs and additional responsibilities may be assigned as necessary to maintain operational efficiency and security.