Lead Cinematic Artist

Keywords Studios Australia; Melbourne; Hybrid; AUD 90,000 - 130,000; Full time

Job summary

Keywords Studios Melbourne is seeking a Leadership & Cinematic Artist to guide an international art team in creating high-quality real-time cinematics for multi-platform games. You will translate scripts into visuals, set up camera work, and collaborate with Art Director to maintain the studio's creative vision.

The role requires deep experience with Unreal Engine 5, storytelling, and the ability to drive pipelines across disciplines.

Qualifications

• Experience leading art teams and projects.
• Exceptional leadership and communication skills with the ability to inspire a team toward goals.
• Keen eye for detail and strong observation skills.
• Extensive experience as a Cinematic Artist in the video game industry with a strong portfolio.
• Extensive knowledge of Unreal Engine 5, Sequencer, cameras and rendering pipelines.
• Strong understanding of lighting, composition, colour theory, pacing and visual storytelling.
• Extensive knowledge of game development pipelines and adaptable artistic styles for multiple platforms.

Responsibilities

• Lead and mentor art teams across geographies to maintain quality and development.
• Translate storyboards into real-time cinematics for game production.
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams to maintain art direction.
• Optimize cinematics for performance and memory across platforms.
• Contribute to pipeline improvements and workflow efficiency.

Skills

Leadership

Communication

Cinematic Art

Unreal Engine 5

Lighting & Color

Storytelling

Game Pipelines

Tools

Unreal Engine 5

Sequencer

Cameras

Job description

Leadership & Team Management

• Managing dedicated art teams across geographies or studios, emphasizing overall quality, productivity, and continuous team development.
• Lead and mentor a diverse team of artists, fostering their professional growth and artistic development.
• Conduct regular performance evaluations, providing constructive feedback and facilitating skill-building opportunities.
• Identify skill gaps within the team and implement training programs to enhance capabilities and artistic techniques.

Cinematic Creation

• Create high-quality, visually compelling real-time cinematics.
• Translate storyboards and scripts into compelling visual sequences
• Set up cameras, composition, timing and pacing to support storytelling.
• Develop cinematics optimized for real-time game engines.
• Troubleshoot and resolve creative and technical challenges

Collaboration & Production

• Work closely with the Art Director to maintain the overall art direction.
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams throughout the production pipeline to ensure artistic consistency and quality.
• Participate in reviews, feedback sessions, and iterative development processes.

Technical Art & Optimisation

• Ensure cinematics and cutscenes meets performance, memory, and platform-specific requirements across a variety of platforms.
• Collaborate closely with animation, environment, VFX and technical art teams to integrate assets and pipelines
• Apply strong understanding of cinematics for real-time performance.
• Maintain consistency in quality while adhering to technical constraints and engine limitations.
• Troubleshoot and resolve creative and technical challenges.

Innovation & Continuous Improvement

• Stay current with industry trends, emerging technologies, tools, and workflows.
• Contribute ideas and improvements to pipelines and production processes.
• Continuously push the visual quality and innovation of game art production.

Required Skills and experience

• Experience leading art teams and projects.
• Exceptional leadership and communication skills, with the ability to inspire and guide a team towards achieving project goals.
• A keen eye for detail and strong observation skills.
• Extensive experience as a Cinematic Artist within the video game industry, with a strong portfolio showcasing high-quality real-time game cinematics and cutscenes.
• Extensive knowledge of Unreal Engine 5, including Sequencer, cameras and rendering pipelines.
• Strong understanding of lighting, composition, colour theory, pacing and visual storytelling.
• Extensive knowledge of game development pipelines and the ability to adapt artistic styles to suit various game genres and target platforms.

Desirable skills and experience

• Passion for gaming and a strong understanding of market trends, player expectations, and gaming cultures cross platforms.
• Experience successfully guiding and communicating with other art teams to ensure artistic vision and asset quality are maintained from concept through to final in-game implementation.

If you'd like to know more about Keywords Studios we recommend visiting our corporate site HERE

PERSONAL DATA PROTECTION POLICY

Keywords Studios is strongly committed to protecting your personal information. By sending your CV/Resume, you are agreeing to our terms and conditions and consent to your data being managed and retained in accordance with our data privacy and retention policy https://www.keywordsstudios.com/en/applicant-privacy-notice/

Role Information: EN

Studio: Keywords Studios

Location: Asia Pacific, Australia

Area of Work: Art

Service: Create

Employment Type: Full Time, Permanent

Working Pattern: Hybrid

PERSONAL DATA PROTECTION POLICY

Keywords Studios is strongly committed to protecting your personal information. By sending your CV/Resume, you are agreeing to our terms and conditions and consent to your data being managed and retained in accordance with our data privacy and retention policy https://www.keywordsstudios.com/en/applicant-privacy-notice/.