Cinematic Character Artist (Photorealistic Characters)

Description

The project centers on training machine learning networks to assist artists and game developers in enhancing rendering performance and quality. The team creates a diverse array of photorealistic 3D human characters at film and cinematic quality, rendered using offline path tracers such as Arnold, RenderMan, and Cycles, and adapts them for real-time engines when necessary. The work encompasses the entire cinematic character pipeline, including sculpting, topology, texturing, and look development of skin, hair, and cloth, as well as facial expressions, grooming, and rigging. The project also engages with emerging rendering standards like MaterialX, OpenPBR, and UE5 Substrate. The training process covers a broad range of complex scenarios involving advanced shading, lighting, motion, post-processing, upscaling, and antialiasing. Each scenario requires high-quality ground truth data that accurately meets production standards for cinematic CGI and game development. Artists involved in the project utilize a variety of modern, industry-standard technologies and software. The primary rendering engines include Blender Cycles, Unreal Engine, and custom renderers based on GLTF, USD, and MaterialX data.

What we offer

• Global Relocation - (Relocation options; Experience in an international environment; Cross-cultural experience)

• Recognition and Evaluation - (Feedback culture; Regular appraisals)

• Time Off - (Annual holiday - 20 or 26 days. The duration of the leave depends on the overall seniority; Occasional leave - 1 or 2 days/ depending on the circumstances; Child care leave - 2 days or 16 hours per year; Absence due to force majeure - 2 days or 16 hours per year; Maternity Leave - 20 weeks; Parental Leave - 41 weeks; Paternity Leave - 14 days)

• Luxoft Training Center - (Expert-led tech courses covering basic to advanced topics; Internal instructor-led soft skills courses; Comprehensive in-house self-learning resources for both soft and hard skills; Access to external self-learning libraries like ProQuest eBook and Udemy for Business; Cloud Programs: MS Cloud Academy, AWS Partner Academy, Google Cloud Academy; Custom Learning Programs: upskilling, reskilling, technical mentorship; Leadership Programs for Managers)

• Well-being and Work-life Balance - (Multisport card; Possibility to order Multisport card at the corporate rate for family members; LuxGood Program: wellbeing seminars, contests, relaxation sessions, yoga sessions, etc.; One Team Program: Buddy for each New Joiner; seminars, meeting and workplace space to support integration with local community and culture; “Hire me” workshops for partners; Preferential banking offer; Preferential car leasing offer; Cafeteria program discounts for shops, cinema tickets, holiday offers; Luxoft Social Benefit Fund: sport and recreation benefits, the possibility to receive financial support)

• Health Care - (Private Healthcare Insurance with unlimited access to specialists; Full dental support; Travel Insurance; Possibility to add private healthcare coverage for family members at the corporate rate; Life insurance at the corporate rate for employees and family members, including payment of the basic package for the employee by the employer; Reimbursement for corrective glasses)

• Company Events and Friendly Environment - (Many fun social activities organized by the Luxoft team offline in your city; Online entertainment events for whole company and local team events; A workplace where you’re treated with respect within a multicultural team)

• Internal Mobility - (Rotation between projects and accounts; New career opportunities)

• Self-Learning Library

• CSR Projects

Other

• Languages: English: B2 Upper Intermediate

• Seniority: Senior

Requirements

• 3+ years in a cinematic, film/VFX or high-end character art pipeline

• Production experience with offline renderers: Arnold, RenderMan, Cycles

• Proven ability to create a photorealistic human from scratch via sculpting (ZBrush or Blender) and polymodeling, with animation-ready topology and facial morphs

• Strong look development skills: skin SSS, translucency, wrinkle maps, cloth and hair shading, PBR material composition

• Experience with strand-based grooming (XGen, Yeti, Blender hair curves or similar)

• Texturing in Substance Painter / Mari, including procedural approaches

• Portfolio with photorealistic characters and breakdowns is mandatory: material/shader graphs, topology, UVs, grooms, facial morphs, rigging

• Unreal Engine 5: character setup, Groom, Path Tracer, Substrate materials

• Game-ready character optimization (LODs, card-based hair, real-time shading)

• Reallusion Character Creator (CC5) and/or MetaHuman workflows

• Rigging and animation: skeleton edits, UE5 retargeting, mocap and motion matching data

• MaterialX and OpenPBR standards

Responsibilities

• Create photorealistic human characters from scratch and using Character Creator 5 (sculpting, animation-ready topology, UVs, texturing) following a cinematic character art pipeline

• Build characters to specific technical descriptions, prioritizing model and material accuracy over stylistic choices

• Perform look development in Arnold, RenderMan and Cycles: skin with SSS and translucency, wrinkle maps, cloth and hair shading

• Create groomed hair systems (strand/curve-based) and upgrade card-based hair to grooms

• Set up facial expressions, blendshapes/morphs, poses and clothing

• Adapt existing assets for cinematic quality or real-time performance as the task requires

• Export and set up characters with materials across offline renderers and, when needed, Unreal Engine 5

• Occasionally adjust skeletons and rigs, retarget animation and mocap data