Experienced 3D Character Artist

Electronic Arts; Kuala Lumpur; On-site; MYR 100,000 - 150,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading gaming company is seeking an Experienced Character Artist to create high-quality 3D models for console and PC games in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The role involves sculpting, modeling, and optimizing assets while ensuring adherence to artistic and technical standards. Ideal candidates have over 5 years of professional experience and a strong portfolio, along with excellent collaboration and time management skills. This is a unique opportunity to thrive in a creative environment with opportunities for growth and mentorship.

Benefits

Healthcare coverage

Mental well-being support

Retirement savings

Paid time off

Complimentary games

Qualifications

• 5+ years of professional experience in 3D character art for games.
• Portfolio demonstrates strong artistic sensibility and production quality character work.
• Comfortable working collaboratively within a character team and with internal and external stakeholders.
• Strong time management skills with ability to prioritize tasks.
• Self-motivated, reliable, and able to work to agreed milestones.

Responsibilities

• Produce high quality 3D character models from concept art.
• Sculpt, model, and optimize assets for game engines.
• Maintain consistency with art direction and style guides.
• Collaborate with the character art team to meet production targets.
• Participate in art reviews, offering insights and feedback.

Skills

3D character aesthetics

Human anatomy understanding

Proficient in ZBrush

Proficient in Maya

Proficient in 3ds Max

Proficient in Substance Painter

Proficient in Photoshop

Technical problem solving

Collaboration skills

Organization skills

Job description

Electronic Arts creates next-level entertainment experiences that inspire players and fans around the world. Here, everyone is part of the story. Part of a community that connects across the globe. A place where creativity thrives, new perspectives are invited, and ideas matter. A team where everyone makes play happen.

We’re looking for an Experienced Character Artist to join our team and create high-quality, visually striking characters for console and PC games. You’ll focus on characters, costumes, and accessories that meet both artistic and technical standards while performing seamlessly in game.

Your technical and artistic skills in character production, combined with a strong understanding of game art pipelines and industry practices, will ensure the characters you create meet the highest artistic and technical standards. You will apply your knowledge of human anatomy, form, and stylization to develop characters that are both visually compelling and gameplay ready. While your role is centered on asset creation, you may also contribute to team mentorship under the guidance of senior staff.

Responsibilities

• Produce high quality 3D character models, costumes, and accessories from concept art, photo reference, and scan data.
• Sculpt, model, retopologize, UV, texture, and optimize assets so they are game engine ready.
• Ensure assets meet technical requirements (polygon counts, LODs, texture budgets) and integrate them cleanly into the engine.
• Maintain consistency with art direction, style guides, and project technical standards.
• Collaborate closely within the character art team to meet production milestones and quality targets set.
• Effectively manage communication with external and internal stakeholders as well as the team via different required channels in a timely manner.
• Participate in art reviews, offering insights and feedback to improve team output and art quality.
• Assist in documenting and improving pipelines, workflows, and best practices.
• Troubleshoot and resolve technical issues related to character assets, under guidance from senior or technical artists.
• Support onboarding and mentoring junior artists, providing guidance, reviews, and training.
• Create and maintain clear documentation of workflows and specifications for team use.
• Help uphold final asset quality standards and coordinate with other departments (concept art, animation, rigging).

Skills & Expertise

• A strong grasp of stylized character aesthetics and the ability to balance appeal with gameplay function.
• Deep understanding of human anatomy, clothing construction, proportion, silhouette, topology and texturing and shading.
• Proficient in ZBrush, Maya or 3ds Max, Substance Painter, Photoshop.
• Able to solve technical problems independently.
• Awareness of how rigging, animation, facial animation, and blend shapes impact character models.
• Skilled at translating 2D concepts and images into polished, textured 3D assets.
• Experienced in creating optimized production assets.
• Strong communication and collaboration skills, with the ability to work effectively across disciplines including artists, technical artists, engineers, and riggers, while providing constructive feedback and following direction.
• Experienced in assisting with art direction and participating in art reviews.
• Good organization, time management, and the ability to prioritize across multiple tasks and balance between production and team guidance, if required.
• Aware of the latest tools, workflows, and techniques standard in the industry.
• Capable of documenting workflows for the use of the team.
• Adept at following the leadership of senior team members to implement best practices within the artist team, contributing to a collaborative team culture.

Requirements

• 5+ years of professional experience in 3D character art for games.
• Portfolio demonstrates strong artistic sensibility and production quality character work.
• Comfortable working collaboratively within a character team and with internal and external stakeholders, following direction from senior staff and stakeholders as needed.
• Strong time management skills, with the ability to prioritize tasks effectively and consistently deliver high quality work within the scheduled timeframe and to specification.
• Self-motivated, reliable, and able to work to agreed milestones and quality targets.
• Familiarity with current industry tools, pipelines, and best practices.
• Experience mentoring or guiding junior artists.

Nice to have / Bonus

• Experience with hyper realistic facial likeness sculpting.
• Experienced in creating realistic strand-based hair.
• Experienced in using Marvelous Designer.
• Familiarity with engine integration (Unreal/Unity) or scripting to help automate parts of the pipeline.

About Electronic Arts

We’re proud to have an extensive portfolio of games and experiences, locations around the world, and opportunities across EA. We value adaptability, resilience, creativity, and curiosity. From leadership that brings out your potential, to creating space for learning and experimenting, we empower you to do great work and pursue opportunities for growth.

We adopt a holistic approach to our benefits programs, emphasizing physical, emotional, financial, career, and community wellness to support a balanced life. Our packages are tailored to meet local needs and may include healthcare coverage, mental well-being support, retirement savings, paid time off, family leaves, complimentary games, and more. We nurture environments where our teams can always bring their best to what they do.

Electronic Arts is an equal opportunity employer. All employment decisions are made without regard to race, color, national origin, ancestry, sex, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, age, genetic information, religion, disability, medical condition, pregnancy, marital status, family status, veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law. We will also consider employment qualified applicants with criminal records in accordance with applicable law. EA also makes workplace accommodations for qualified individuals with disabilities as required by applicable law.