About the role
Overview
Dirk Interactive is hiring for an unannounced PC game currently in development with Unreal Engine 5. The project is an action-oriented hybrid-genre game with a strong emphasis on gameplay, atmosphere, and visual storytelling.
Art Director - Unreal Engine 5 Art
Role Details
- Type: Remote, Contract
- Commitment: Up to 30 hours/week
- Compensation: CAD $45 – $65 / hour (Full-time equivalent: CAD $93,600 – $135,200 / year)
- Duration: Initial engagement of 3–4 months, with the possibility of extension
- Requirements: NDA and contractor agreement required; must maintain reliable working overlap with Pacific Time.
Responsibilities
- Define a bold and recognizable visual identity for an unannounced PC game.
- Establish the visual principles that distinguish the project from generic genre conventions.
- Develop a coherent language across environments, characters, animation, VFX, lighting, materials, colour, cinematics, interface presentation, and promotional art.
- Create hands-on visual-development work, including paintovers, style frames, key art, reference boards, and lighting studies.
- Translate artistic direction into practical standards that production artists can execute without flattening the original vision.
- Evaluate the current game and identify the changes with the greatest artistic and presentational impact.
- Work directly in Unreal Engine 5 to shape composition, lighting, atmosphere, materials, scale, and final presentation.
- Direct the visual development of in-game spaces, gameplay moments, cinematics, and representative imagery.
- Review work from concept, environment, character, animation, VFX, and other contributors.
- Help determine the lean combination of internal and contract talent needed to realize the direction.
- Define clear creative briefs and acceptance criteria for commissioned and fixed-bid work.
- Guide visual quality through implementation, capture, colour grading, and final presentation.
- Protect the clarity and individuality of the visual direction as the project grows.
- Handle confidential project materials with care and follow NDA requirements.
Mandatory Qualifications
- Professional experience as an Art Director, Associate Art Director, Lead Artist, or equivalent senior visual-development leader.
- A strong artistic vision and a clearly identifiable creative voice.
- Professional Unreal Engine 5 experience.
- Experience shaping visual direction through direct in-engine evaluation.
- A portfolio demonstrating authorship, taste, and high-quality production work.
- Evidence that your direction materially influenced the identity of a finished project.
- Expert understanding of composition, lighting, colour, form, materials, atmosphere, and visual storytelling.
- Ability to move between high-level artistic intent and concrete production decisions.
- Ability to critique work precisely while preserving and strengthening the artist’s contribution.
- Clear written and verbal communication.
- At least one shipped commercial title, published cinematic project, or equivalent professional production credit.
- Willingness to sign an NDA before receiving confidential project materials.
Nice to Have
- Exceptional concept-art, paintover, or visual-development skills.
- A portfolio showing original visual languages rather than adherence to established genre templates.
- Experience with action-oriented or hybrid-genre games.
- Experience directing realistic, stylized-realistic, or visually unconventional projects.
- Strong Unreal Engine lighting and look-development experience.
- Experience with Sequencer, Movie Render Queue, Niagara, or real-time cinematics.
- Experience creating a consistent identity across gameplay, cinematic, and promotional work.
- Experience establishing visual direction for a small or distributed team.
- Resourcefulness in combining original art, procedural workflows, licensed assets, and selective custom production.
Concept Artist - Games and Visual Development Art
Role Details
- Type: Remote, Commission-based contract
- Duration: Work is anticipated over an initial period of 3–4 months, with the possibility of further commissions.
- Requirements: NDA and contractor agreement required; must be available for occasional discussions during Pacific Time working hours.
Responsibilities
- Explore visual ideas through sketches, thumbnails, studies, and alternative designs.
- Develop selected ideas into clear concepts that communicate form, colour, materials, atmosphere, and character.
- Contribute original ideas while responding thoughtfully to the game’s direction.
- Work with the Art Director and Game Director to refine concepts through discussion and feedback.
- Produce supporting views, details, or callouts when needed for production.
- Create paintovers, mood pieces, or promotional illustrations where appropriate to your strengths and the agreed brief.
- Deliver organized source files and communicate clearly about progress and scope.
Mandatory Qualifications
- A portfolio demonstrating professional concept-art work and a distinct artistic voice.
- Strong fundamentals in drawing, composition, perspective, form, colour, and lighting.
- Evidence of your design process, including how you explore and resolve an idea.
- Professional client or studio experience, with a clear explanation of your contribution.
- Ability to create designs that support a larger visual identity.
- Ability to interpret feedback, explain creative decisions, and work independently.
- Reliable communication and delivery.
Nice to Have
- Strength in environment, character, prop, or other relevant design disciplines.
- Experience translating concepts into useful references for 3D artists.
- Strong paintover and visual-storytelling skills.
- Experience combining 2D and 3D tools during concept development.
- Familiarity with Unreal Engine or real-time game production.
- Experience developing both production concepts and finished promotional artwork.
3D Generalist Artist - Unreal Engine 5 Art
Role Details
- Type: Remote, Commission-based contract
- Duration: Work is anticipated over an initial period of 3–4 months, with the possibility of further commissions.
- Requirements: NDA and contractor agreement required; must be available for occasional discussions during Pacific Time working hours.
Responsibilities
- Create props, equipment, and other 3D assets from approved concepts and references.
- Develop textures and materials that support the game’s visual language.
- Assemble and dress scenes with attention to composition, scale, and visual storytelling.
- Integrate assets into Unreal Engine 5 and refine their appearance in context.
- Adapt existing or licensed assets to fit the approved direction.
- Prepare topology, UVs, textures, and materials appropriate to each asset’s use.
- Collaborate with the Art Director and other artists to resolve visual and production needs.
- Deliver organized source files and assets ready for use in the project.
Mandatory Qualifications
- A portfolio demonstrating professional 3D work across several production tasks.
- Strong understanding of form, proportion, composition, colour, and materials.
- Professional experience creating assets for real-time games.
- Practical Unreal Engine 5 experience, including asset integration and material setup.
- Ability to carry work from an initial brief through to a finished in-engine result.
- Resourcefulness in choosing when to create, adapt, or reuse assets.
- Ability to interpret creative direction and contribute thoughtful visual decisions.
- Reliable communication, realistic estimates, and the ability to work independently.
- Professional client or studio experience, with a clear explanation of your contribution.
Nice to Have
- Strong prop and hard-surface modelling skills.
- Experience with scene assembly, set dressing, and lighting.
- Familiarity with modular assets and reusable material workflows.
- Experience supporting animation or VFX artists with the assets they need.
- Ability to maintain a consistent look across assets from different sources.
- Experience preparing work for both gameplay and close-up presentation.
3D Character Artist - Unreal Engine 5 Art
Role Details
- Type: Remote, Commission-based contract
- Duration: Work is anticipated over an initial period of 3–4 months, with the possibility of further commissions.
- Requirements: NDA and contractor agreement required; must be available for occasional discussions during Pacific Time working hours.
Responsibilities
- Develop character models, clothing, and equipment from approved concepts and references.
- Contribute artistic judgment when translating a design into three dimensions.
- Refine form, proportion, silhouette, and surface detail in collaboration with the Art Director.
- Create topology, UVs, textures, and materials suited to real-time production.
- Prepare characters for the agreed rigging and animation pipeline.
- Integrate and review character assets in Unreal Engine 5.
- Create or adapt character assets according to the needs of each brief.
- Deliver organized source files and finished assets ready for production.
Mandatory Qualifications
- A portfolio demonstrating professional character-art work.
- Strong understanding of anatomy, proportion, clothing, and silhouette.
- High-quality modelling, sculpting, texturing, and material skills.
- Professional experience creating characters for real-time games.
- Practical Unreal Engine 5 experience.
- Understanding of topology and how character construction supports deformation.
- Ability to interpret artistic direction while contributing thoughtful design decisions.
- Reliable communication, realistic estimates, and the ability to work independently.
- Professional client or studio experience, with a clear explanation of your contribution.
Nice to Have
- Experience carrying a character from concept through to finished in-engine presentation.
- Strong clothing, equipment, and hard-surface accessory work.
- Experience adapting characters to existing rigs and animation systems.
- Familiarity with modular character construction.
- Ability to preserve a character’s identity across gameplay and close-up presentation.
- Rigging expertise is welcome, but the rigging responsibilities for each assignment will be agreed as part of its scope.