Special Effects Artist

As a Special Effects Artist at Ubisoft Montreal, you will create and integrate high-quality special effects, in keeping with the creative direction, technological constraints and production deadlines.  

What you'll do (Tasks)

• Understand the game design documents and artistic direction to comprehend the creative direction and have an overall idea of the sign off features; 
• Find reference images and videos of the intended effects and validate these references with the artistic director; 
• See with the graphic design TD if the intended special effects can be created in the engine and suggest alternatives or development options (ex: tools) whenever necessary;  
• Collaborate with the DT to adapt the pipeline to ensure that it fosters the production of the special effects and determine memory and performance budgets; 
• Work in collaboration with programmers to develop adapted tools to meet special effects requirements; 
• Use available tools (particle systems, modelling, texturing, etc.) to create the special effects requested by the artistic team and integrate these effects into the engine; 
• Validate the quality of the effects once they are imported into the game and make any necessary changes in an effort to maximize the user experience; 
• Optimize the special effects on an ongoing basis and account for modifications and technological constraints throughout the project to ensure that the special effects remain of high quality; 
• Foster game accessibility by adapting the various special effects based on comments from the game design team before, during and after the creation of the special effects; 
• Fix the bugs entered by testers and other working units; 
• Communicate with other working units to help members integrate special effects by providing reference documents and other types of support; 
• Carry out all other related tasks. 

What you bring to the team (Skills and Knowledge)

• Attention to detail; 
• Sense of initiative and proactivity; 
• Ability to accept feedback and adapt to change; 
• Ability to work under pressure; 
• Originality and resourcefulness in problem-solving; 
• Knowledge and interest in programming languages an asset (e.g. Max Script); 
• Knowledge of game editors (e.g. Unreal); 
• Knowledge of compositionning software (e.g. After Effects, Illustrator, Houdini, Toxic, etc.). 

Training

• College diploma in a video game-related field, bachelor’s degree in special effects/film or any other relevant training. 

Relevant Experience

• Minimum 5 years’ experience in creating special effects for video games, including the design, integration, and optimization of real-time effects within a game engine.