Grooming Artist

Job Description

Are you a Grooming Artist interested in working with us in our Vancouver studio?! The Grooming Artist will be responsible for giving models the visual surface qualities that make them appear believable. Grooming is part of the Surfacing department. All Surfacing Artists are expected to produce high quality digital texture/surfacing work. This is a fulltime, contract role that reports to the Surfacing Supervisor and Artist Management.

What you'll get to do:
• Create detailed hair and fur grooms rigs for a wide variety of assets using proprietary tools and/or Houdini
• Create guide hairs and styling for character grooms, while adhering to technical and organisation standards
• Create procedural grooms as required for the project, which may include cloth and/or instancing
• Take direction from the Surfacing Lead and Supervisor, and present solutions or questions to creative or technical issues
• Participate in reviews as required; be willing to show and discuss work in progress
• Pro-actively escalate technical issues to Lead, Supervisor or TD's
• Assume responsibility for ensuring assigned work is produced to appropriate standard quality within the scheduled timeframe and deadline
• Provide leadership through example – has team spirit, highly motivated, takes initiative, is pro-active, and inspires the same in others
• Assist with project clean up and archiving on an ongoing basis
• Follow all department guidelines and common practices
• Stay up-to-date on technology and the entertainment industry
• May be asked to create photo-realistic textures, either hand painted or procedural, or sculpting, and UV layout
• May be asked to build shading networks for photo-realistic (physically plausible) shading

What you bring:
• 5+ years' experience on feature films, TV and/or animated feature working on high quality Surfacing with a focus on Grooming (preferably on photo-realistic assets)
• Proficiency demonstrated through past project work and/or reel/portfolio
• Production experience with grooming, hair/fur or instancing tools – preferably in Houdini
• Knowledge of node-based procedural grooming
• Excellent attention to detail
• Production experience in Maya and preferably Mari
• Experience in a modern raytracing package
• A passion for making beautiful looking photo-realistic hard surface cg objects by combining strong visual and technical skills
• Strong written and verbal English language skills
• Strong communication skills and the ability to efficiently organise and prioritise work across multiple areas
• Excellence in problem solving and balancing quick turnaround with long term quality
• Ability to work solo as well as collaboratively within a team environment
• Ability to take direction and feedback and apply this to assets or shots

The following would be considered a bonus:
• Experience in shading, texturing and look dev
• Production experience with node-based procedural shading
• Production experience with Substance Designer/Painter
• An understanding of lighting and colour theory in feature film production
• Sculpting experience – preferably with Mudbox
• Experience scripting in Python
• Experience with Nuke and Houdini
• Completed education in a relevant field

What we offer you:
• The opportunity to join a growing, independently owned and operated, award-winning studio.
• A chance to contribute to the success of ground-breaking animated feature films
• Exposure to a USD pipeline
• A dedicated Learning and Development and Artist Management team focused on your personal career growth
• Paid 'Volunteer' days to support those causes close to your heart!
• A world-renowned working environment packed with social clubs, activities and events
• A variety of employee benefits including employee discounts, breakfast, free use of barista coffee machines and snacks galore!

Jobcode: Reference SBJ-rb87mk-18-188-40-207-42 in your application.