Principal 3D Character Artist - Unpublished R&D Product

Riot Games; Los Angeles (CA); On-site; USD 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Paid time off policy

Medical, dental, and life insurance

Parental leave

401k with company match

Job summary

Riot Games seeks a Principal 3D Character Artist to bring iconic characters and cosmetics to life for a new unpublished AAA title. You’ll work with the Research & Development team and partner with multiple departments to achieve a unique visual style and player‑centred experiences.

You will mentor junior artists and contribute to style guides. Applicants should have a deep knowledge of anatomy, a strong portfolio across character styles, and extensive UE5 experience.

Qualifications

• 8+ years of character modeling experience as a Senior or Principal Artist in the gaming industry.
• Strong experience with modeling, sculpting and texturing in Maya, ZBrush, and Substance Painter.
• Extensive Unreal Engine 5+ experience.
• Deep knowledge of human anatomy, form, and color theory.
• Proactively stay up-to-date with industry trends and new processes.
• Proven ability to set quality bars and provide actionable craft feedback to other artists.
• A portfolio showing a range of character styles and fidelities.
• Experience collaborating across disciplines to solve visual, technical, and production challenges.

Responsibilities

• Produce the look and feel of high fidelity 3D characters and cosmetic assets
• Understand project requirements to influence and create in-game assets that are optimized, performant, and animation friendly
• Interpret and push concept designs to the next level while accounting for technical and design constraints
• Collaborate with various other disciplines to ensure all assets perform and are in line with project vision, style guides, and ready to scale through a cosmetics pipeline
• Document and communicate processes to others and mentor junior members of the team

Skills

Character modeling

Sculpting

Texturing

Anatomy & form

Color theory

Mentorship

Collaboration across disciplines

Tools

Maya

ZBrush

Substance Painter

Unreal Engine 5

Job description

As aPrincipal 3D Character Artistat Riot, you will bring characters to life by crafting and texturing high fidelity models. You will help build some of the most iconic characters and cosmetics in the world of gaming. Your sculpting and texturing skills, artistic eye, and understanding of anatomy, form, and color will make you one of our key style advocates for the game you’re working on. Working within both technical and design constraints, you will use your knowledge of proportions, anatomy and readability to ensure models are optimized in game. You'll be self-guided and help raise the bar for character art at Riot. You will be a mentor to other character artists and support the upholding and sometimes creation of style guides. Your craft expertise and high-level execution will enrich the player’s immersive experience.

As aPrincipal 3D Character Artist within the Research & Development team, you’ll work on a new unpublished AAA game. As a Principal Character Artist you’ll partner with all the other departments to execute our unique visual style and ultimately create new and satisfying experiences for players.

Responsibilities:

• Produce the look and feel of high fidelity 3D characters and cosmetic assets
• Understand project requirements to influence and create in-game assets that are optimized, performant, and animation friendly
• Interpret and push concept designs to the next level while accounting for technical and design constraints
• Collaborate with various other disciplines to ensure all assets perform and are in line with project vision, style guides, and ready to scale through a cosmetics pipeline
• Document and communicate processes to others and mentor junior members of the team

Required Qualifications:

• 8+ years of character modeling experience as a Senior or Principal Artist in the gaming industry
• Strong experience working with modeling, sculpting and texturing programs such as Maya, Zbrush, and Substance Painter
• Extensive Unreal Engine 5+ experience
• Deep knowledge of human anatomy, form, and color theory
• Proactively stay up-to-date with industry trends and new processes
• Proven ability to set quality bars and provide actionable craft feedback to other artists
• A portfolio that shows a range of character styles and fidelities
• Experience collaborating across disciplines to solve visual, technical, and production challenges

Desired Qualifications:

• Experience working on cosmetic pipelines for live service game operations
• Experience shipping multiple games and/or content for multiple live games

For this role, you'll find success through craft expertise, a collaborative spirit, and decision‑making that prioritizes the delight of players. We will be looking at your past studies, experience, and your personal relationship with games. If you embody player empathy and care about players' experiences, this could be your role!

Our Perks:

Riot focuses on work/life balance, shown by our open paid time off policy and other perks such as flexible work schedules. We offer medical, dental, and life insurance, parental leave for you, your spouse/domestic partner, and children, and a 401k with company match. Check out our benefits pages for more information.

At Riot Games, we put players first. That mission drives every decision in our quest to create games and experiences that make it better to be a player. Whether you’re working directly on a new player‑facing experience or you’re supporting the company as a whole, everyone at Riot is part of our mission. And just like in our games, we’re better when we work together. Our goal is to create collaborative teams where you are empowered to bring your unique perspective everyday. If that sounds like the kind of place you want to work, we’re looking forward to your application.

It’s our policy to provide equal employment opportunity for all applicants and members of Riot Games, Inc. Riot Games makes reasonable accommodations for handicapped and disabled Rioters and does not unlawfully discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, national origin, age, handicap, veteran status, marital status, criminal history, or any other category protected by applicable federal and state law. We consider for employment all qualified applicants, including those with criminal histories, in a manner consistent with applicable federal, state and local law, including the California Fair Chance Act, the City of Los Angeles Fair Chance Initiative for Hiring Ordinance, the Los Angeles County Fair Chance Ordinance for Employers, the SanFrancisco Fair Chance Ordinance, and the Washington Fair Chance Act.

Per the Los Angeles County Fair Chance Ordinance, the following core duties may create a basis for disqualifying candidates with relevant criminal histories:

• Safeguarding confidential and sensitive Company data
• Communication with others, including Rioters and third parties such as vendors, and/or players, including minors
• Accessing Company assets, secure digital systems, and networks
• Ensuring a safe interactive environment for players and other Rioters

These duties are directly related to essential operations, safety, trust, and compliance obligations within our organization. Please note that job duties may evolve based on business needs and additional responsibilities may be assigned as necessary to maintain operational efficiency and security.