Senior Vad

The Virtual Art Department is one of only a few of its kind in the world. Our small and talented team of generalists deliver real-time assets for Mocap, Previs and Animation using the unique Weta proprietary pipeline and contribute to the successful delivery of shows. In VAD we value our diverse culture and professional backgrounds, and we encourage an atmosphere of learning and teamwork.

Collaboration, efficiency and learning are our core values. Our mission statement is “Working closely with Art, Animation, Layout, Mocap and Onset to build a usable, real-time virtual world for the director to visualize the creative process of film making.”

This role is for a Maya 3D Generalist with strong modelling, texturing and layout skills who is also competent in lighting concepts. You’ll be providing high quality, efficient, accurate, flexible assets for real-time rendering, within a fast turnaround.

To thrive in this role, you’ll have excellent communication skills and interdisciplinary thinking and you'll understand how to effectively collaborate with the team to achieve the best outcome possible.

**Your responsibilities will include**:

- Conducting regularly scheduled rounds, overseeing and supporting VAD on your team
- Representing the VAD team at meetings such as show dailies etc.
- Adopting appropriate methodologies to provide assets for Real-time
- Motivating and providing effective guidance, experience and support to artists at varying skill levels
- Assisting Show and Dept Supervision/Management when scheduling work
- Effectively communicating with artists, supervisors and Production daily to raise concerns and discuss potential solutions
- Balancing and maintaining an overview across multiple shows while monitoring quality and productivity

**We are looking for artists with the following attributes**:

- A reel demonstrating a wide range of organic and hard surface models with clean and efficient topology (preferably with wireframe stills)
- Quick & efficient UV & texture skills for texturing assets using Mari, Photoshop, Quixel, Substance Painter/Designer
- Be able to work under pressure and to tight deadlines, taking direction and addressing written and verbal notes with quick turnarounds
- Experience with Game Engines (Unreal or Unity)
- Professional applicable experience in games, VR, VFX/commercial related industries (4+ years) of Maya 3d
- Thorough research skills - you’ll be able to interpret architectural plans and scan data, with a strong understanding of scale, so that what is built is accurate to the real world
- Flexibility to perform in a constantly changing work environment, able to compromise and take critique well
- The ability to model as part of a team, provide constructive feedback, work to a high standard and quality check your own and other's work
- The ability to take initiative and work effectively under own direction

At Wētā FX we celebrate our diversity and believe in creating an environment where all our crew feel welcomed, respected, supported and appreciated. We define ourselves by the quality of our work, and we’re striving to build a workplace experience that’s second to none. Here at Wētā FX we value open minds and encourage our crew to be themselves.

Location: Wellington, New Zealand.