About This Role
This role is for an Artistic Director to lead a AAA cinematic project, ensuring the artistic vision meets or exceeds studio standards within production parameters. The director provides creative and qualitative input, translating the client's vision visually under the supervision of the creative director and in collaboration with the VFX Supervisor. They also monitor the overall artistic vision at key production stages with the CG Supervisor and production team.
Responsibilities
- Complete and/or rationalize the creative (Art) vision: build the artistic bible from client briefs and/or creative director input
- Supervise, guide, and validate conceptual illustrations of characters and/or environments (references, moodboards, etc.)
- Assign and follow up on tasks for Set/Props Designers/Character Designers
- Ensure, at key moments determined with the VFX Supervisor, that character and environment models, textures/shading, surfacing, lighting/compositing, and 2D special effects comply with the graphic rules defined in the bible
- Supervise/perform paintovers if necessary
Requirements
- Minimum of 8 years in artistic direction, production design, conceptual work, or illustration in the Animation field
- Excellent communication skills and high sociability for clear and concise artistic direction, both with the internal team and the client
- Strong expertise in digital painting: excellent command of colors, values, hand-painted textures, and skin tone subtleties on characters
- Mastery of a painterly style: ability to create characters and environments with a hand-painted rendering, simplified shapes, broad brushstrokes, and controlled use of light and atmospheric perspective
- Development and continuity of visual style: participate in initial lookdev, then appropriate, refine, and extend it to the entire project (characters, environments, props, DMP, lighting), while ensuring artistic consistency
- Respect for an existing visual universe: ability to adapt already established iconic characters and elements to a new artistic direction, without losing their identity
- Understanding of stylized 3D: know how to translate a painted 2D style to a 3D rendering, collaborating with lookdev, texture, shading, and lighting teams
- Hands-on approach: capable of producing high-quality concepts, paintovers, and lighting references to guide artists and improve final renderings
- Cinematic sensibility: excellent sense of composition, silhouettes, light, colors, and image readability in service of storytelling
- Involvement up to final images: actively support artists during production, provide precise feedback, and propose concrete solutions to push the visual quality of shots
- Exceptional creativity with a very keen artistic sense