Senior VFX Art Specialist
Madison Square Garden Entertainment Corp. (MSG Entertainment) is a leader in live entertainment, delivering unforgettable experiences while forging deep connections with diverse and passionate audiences. The Company’s portfolio includes a collection of world-renowned venues – New York’s Madison Square Garden, The Theater at Madison Square Garden, Radio City Music Hall, and Beacon Theatre; and The Chicago Theatre – that showcase a broad array of sporting events, concerts, family shows, and special events for millions of guests annually. In addition, the Company features the original production, the Christmas Spectacular Starring the Radio City Rockettes, which has been a holiday tradition for 90 years. More information is available at www.msgentertainment.com.
Who are we hiring?
The Sphere venue is one-of-a-kind, driven by multiple clusters of 25+ nodes to produce a single frame of seamless imagery on the 16k display that runs at 60FPS.
As a Senior VFX Art Specialist at Sphere Entertainment Company, you will be instrumental in inventing and executing state-of-the-art techniques in computer graphics. You will develop vfx and dynamic systems on unique displays to enable real-time and offline scenarios.
As an ideal candidate you bring a solid artistic foundation in 3D and 2D art and a broad range of skills including gameplay, props and real-time and standard production art pipelines. You have a passion for gaming, and have the ability to create immersive, exciting work.
What will you do?
- Brainstorm, R&D, and help implement pipeline workflow.
- Work closely with the Art Director and others to maintain stunning visual style and quality.
- Create photo-real particle systems for game environments and scripted moments.
- Work closely with other departments to bring levels and features to life.
- Design and simulate realistic fire, smoke, explosions, debris, clouds, etc. that meet all technical and aesthetic standards for the project.
- Promote and enforce structure, such as naming conventions and documentation.
- Set dress levels with ambient atmospheric effects that produce spectacular photo-realistic game moments.
- Create textures and/or meshes to use in particle effects with various 2D and 3D applications.
- Create destructible assets and coinciding particle system.
- Provide in-depth research, reference material, and develop conceptual ideas.
- Animate and implement sequences in engine.
- Ideal candidates have an appetite for creative execution and are forward thinking, technologically inclined and have interest in being a part of an ambitious, innovative project requiring collaboration and teamwork.
- This role is part of a production artist group exploring and developing a unique language for Sphere, in collaboration with a creative development team.
What do you need to succeed?
- Highly proficient with the Unreal Engine including Niagara and the material editor.
- Create concepts and assets from scratch.
- Passion for fluid dynamics
- Embergen knowledge a plus
- Traditional illustration skills in multiple medias, excellent drawing skills, and matte painting experience.
- Experience with simulation and VFX software like FumeFX, Houdini, Maya, Max, etc.
- Experience with post process effects and how to create them.
- Passion for pushing fidelity and refining techniques as technology changes.
- Excellent texture creation skills
- Ability to interpret and transform abstract ideas and concepts into compelling work.
- Ability to perform rigid body and soft body simulations/animations.
- Aware of memory and technical constraints while working and can balance visual quality with performance.
- Must be passionate for games.
Special Requirements
- Cover Letter (optional)
- Portfolio demonstrating relevant skills.
- Only digital artwork submissions such a website, blog, or online album will be accepted.
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