About the role
Location
Eindhoven; Germany; Netherlands; Remote; United Kingdom
Employment Type
Full time
Location Type
Remote
Department
Art
Company Overview
Abstraction is a Dutch game co-development studio aiming to deliver cutting-edge game experiences. Specializing in technically demanding projects, they have collaborated on renowned IPs like Halo, Dune, Mass Effect, and Baldur’s Gate. With a portfolio of over 60 titles, the company partners with industry giants such as BioWare/EA, 343/Microsoft, Funcom, and Sega.
Role Overview
The Lead Character Artist will oversee the artistic vision of co-development projects from concept to final delivery. This role involves creating key assets, overseeing planning, coordination, and production delivery. As a creative contributor, the lead will execute and drive iconic visuals, collaborate with leadership across disciplines and clients, and provide high-level guidance while ensuring artistic vision is met within schedule and scope.
Impact
- Cultivate Collaboration: Enhance team culture through active participation and open communication.
- Ignite Innovation: Bring fresh, creative ideas that challenge conventional thinking.
- Embody Our Values: Live core values and inspire others by example.
- Encourage Growth: Share knowledge, fostering both individual and team development.
- Champion Positive Change: Help steer the company towards impactful, industry-leading initiatives.
Responsibilities
- Translate concept art and key art into high-quality, production-ready character and creature assets, including high-poly sculpts, game-ready meshes, UVs, and PBR textures.
- Create key character assets that set the quality bar and visual benchmark for the character team.
- Work closely with the client-side Art Director and concept artists to faithfully interpret visual direction and style, raising feasibility concerns early.
- Work under ambiguity with a proactive, problem-solving mindset and sound artistic judgment.
- Implement character assets in Unreal Engine, including material and shader setup, LODs, and asset configuration.
- Guide and support the character art team through regular reviews, clear feedback, and hands-on help.
- Collaborate with tech art, rigging, and animation to ensure assets meet technical specifications and deform well.
- Establish and maintain character art workflows, best practices, and documentation.
- Provide task estimates and progress updates to Production for character art deliverables.
- Support character team recruitment, including portfolio reviews and art tests.
Knowledge & Experience
- 7+ years of experience as a Character Artist in game development, including experience in a Lead or Senior role on shipped AAA titles.
- Outstanding portfolio demonstrating realistic human anatomy and creature work, with a strong grasp of form, proportion, and surface detail.
- Proven ability to take a concept from 2D to a finished, game-ready 3D asset while staying true to the original design.
- Expert knowledge of sculpting, modelling, and texturing tools such as ZBrush, Maya, Blender or 3ds Max, and Substance 3D Painter.
- Strong understanding of real-time character pipelines, including retopology, UVs, baking, PBR texturing, and optimisation for performance.
- Solid experience implementing and setting up character assets in Unreal Engine.
- Strong communication skills and the ability to give and receive constructive feedback.
- Familiarity with Jira, Confluence, or similar tools.
Bonus Skills
- Versatility across other styles (stylized, cartoony).
- Ability to concept and ideate through rough sculpting and 2D techniques.
- Knowledge of clothing, hair, and scan-based workflows (e.g., Marvellous Designer, hair cards or grooms, Wrap).
What We Offer
- An autonomous job within a professional and informally organised company.
- A competitive salary.
- Room for personal development and ownership.
- Possibility to work hybrid/onsite, or fully remote.
- Employment contract if residing in the Netherlands, Germany, or the UK; freelancer contract for other approved countries.
- Note: Abstraction cannot currently hire remote freelance contractors from Germany, Spain, Italy, France, or the USA.