Sony PlayStation®: Art Director

Description

Title: Art Director
Location: Bend, OR
Reference #: 02151

The Studio Art Director is responsible for inspiring, leading and driving the artistic vision and development of AAA products utilizing a combination of traditional fine art skills and advanced artistic knowledge.

The individual is also responsible for setting and maintaining the creative vision and quality bar for the product at a level that is amongst the top tier within the industry. They must also collaborate at a high level with a wide-range of development team members outside of direct discipline such as Directors, Designers, Technical Artist, and Programmers to achieve the highest artistic goals and fastest implementation as they relate to game design and technological considerations.

Responsibilities:
• Drive the development of the artistic techniques and processes utilized to define and achieve a product's visual style and encourage artistic evolution within the studio to the highest standards. This entails expanding methods to improve the production pipeline, tools, art processes, and visual quality.
• Creates and manages artistic goals and vision through all phases of the game development cycle from pre-production through final product release. This entails ensuring all art assets are of the highest artistic quality and uphold the integrity of the games design and artistic vision of the game as a whole.
• Has a leadership role within the art team. This includes working with the production manager and contributing to schedule management needs, providing guidance to support the diplomatic resolution of complex artistic problems that enhance the gameplay experience, providing input on team performance reviews, facilitating career coaching etc. Tracks and reviews large amounts of data as they go through the art pipeline,
• Trains and mentors the art dept in developing advanced artistic skills and abilities.
• Responsible for directing the lighting and color palette throughout the game. This is integral to the entire game, and includes lighting the environments, characters, and cinematics. Developing color palettes that match the emotional intention of the game design and story beats.
• Responsible for directing the look and feel of all Special FX throughout the game including particles (water, splashes, fire, smoke, etc.) This is integral to making the environments feel alive during game play. This also includes additional in game special FX such as environment settings and screen FX elements like motion blur, and depth of field etc.
• Responsible for visual development of all game worlds and locations, working with the Creative Director to conceptualize world building, creating fictional consistency and a visual langue that helps tell the story and reflect the game play moments. This also includes incorporating vistas throughout the game providing opportunities for moments of pure visual splendor.
• Responsible for directing the look and feel of the graphic interface, and anything that is 2D, or a 3D graphic element in the game.
• New IP visual explorations for the future game titles, which includes developing multiple artistic styles and options to choose from during pre-production.
• Responsible for directing and creating all studio promotional materials, PowerPoint backgrounds, development of presentation materials, logo design, ad mockups, art books, etc. Preparing and presenting at company meetings, production meetings, and producer visits.
• Keeps aware of industry trends and techniques, evaluates competitive products, and determines areas to improve or innovate in to best the competition, communicates artistic innovations in a convincing way, and collaborates with the leadership team to develop plans for implementation.
• Represent the Studio Art Team in Worldwide Studios information exchanges. Maintain a visible presence in the computer graphics and game industries, representing Worldwide Studios interests with a high degree of professionalism.