We build ground-breaking games and content for some of the world’s biggest publishers including Microsoft, Sony, Apple and Sega. Sumo Nottingham became part of the Sumo Digital family in March of 2016 and is a community of diverse, game-loving people ranging from industry veterans to talented graduates.
It’s an exciting time to be part of Sumo, winners of the Develop: Star Awards 2019 Best Studio; big things are on the horizon and we want you to be part of our continued journey. Join us!
The role @ Sumo
Sumo Nottingham is looking to expand our core teams experience and has a fantastic opportunity for a Senior VFX artist.
As a candidate you must be passionate about all aspects of VFX design and implementation, with the ability to create dazzling effects, within technical restrictions and that aid in gameplay immersion.
The ideal candidate will have a history of demonstrating an exceptional eye for detail, creative flair, stylistic versatility and the ability to effectively communicate and collaborate on artistic and technical aspects with other team disciplines.
If you can produce VFX from the magical to the mundane, from the stylistic to the realistic, from the current gen to the next gen, we have the right team, the right opportunity and a wide variety of game genres for you to work in.
Within this role you will:
- Use your command over aesthetics and physics to create real world VFX;
- Collaborate with designers, artists and coders to design and implement those VFX;
- Take ownership and responsibility of your output;
- Willingness to muck-in, and will support other team members;
- Optimize your VFX to budget, test, measure and strive to improve performance;
- Contribute to new techniques and workflows;
- Work under direction to create stunning VFX, optimised per platform, across multiple titles
- Create protoypes and pre-visualisation concepts to help establish visual effects direction and workflows
- Collaborate with level design and gameplay teams to create visual effects that support gameplay requirements
- Be up to date on current and emerging visual effect trends and technology
- Create clear and accurate technical documentation regarding VFX production and implementation procedures
- Work with the Graphical Rendering team/Technical Art team in the development and improvement of workflows and technologies to improve visual effect quality and performance.
- Work through all aspects of the VFX pipeline, which includes creating content from concept to final polished result
We need you to have:
- A minimum of 5+ years’ experience in Real Time VFX for Video Games
- Expert understanding of real-time VFX authoring tools
- Experience with 3D packages for creating 3D assets
- Strong knowledge of Photoshop and After Effects
- Strong and demonstrable understanding of the Principles of Real Time VFX
- Understanding of VFX impact on console performance
- Highly passionate and self-motivated to create high quality VFX
- Shipped at least 1 AAA title
- Ability to communicate and mentor other VFX artists in the team
- The ability to work with various styles of art on multiple projects
- Demo reel required
- Experience with UE4 (Cascade and Niagara)
We'd also ideally like you to have (although it's not a deal breaker):
- Very strong problem-solving skills for technically challenging tasks
- Experience in Unity (Shuriken), PopcornFX and other game engines for creating real time VFX
- Experience with fluid dynamics simulation software, such as Houdini and FumeFX, for fire, smoke, fluid and soft/rigid body dynamics
What we Offer:
Sumo Digital is one of the UK's most prolific game developers, enjoying over fifteen years of stability and growth. We have UK studios in Sheffield, Newcastle, Nottingham, Leamington Spa, The Chinese Room in Brighton and Red Kite Games in Leeds, along with Sumo Video Games in Pune, India.
We offer a superb benefits package including generous holidays and flexi-time. We care about our people, with an emphasis on the work/life balance and out of office events such as our legendary annual Sumo ‘Big Day Out’, plus epic Christmas parties and much more! Our regular studio Game Jams are a highlight - winning concepts can go on to commercial release, so far including Snake Pass and the upcoming Spyder for Apple Arcade.
We are proud to be in Nottingham, which benefits from a wealth of attractions, including world-famous history, a huge choice of bars and restaurants, art galleries and a wide variety of cultural events. Our new state-of-the-art studio is in the Castle Marina area of the City – ten minutes’ walk from the City Centre and served by excellent bus, train, tram and cycle links as well as good access to the North and South via the M1 motorway.
Our environment is relaxed, friendly and built on every team member having the opportunity to shine and have real, meaningful input into the games that we create. We pride ourselves on our positive atmosphere and sociable team who regularly partake in shared interest groups, lunchtime and after-work clubs, and charity fundraising events.