VFX Artist III

Title: VFX Artist III
Location: Los Angeles, CA (hybrid schedule)
Duration: 3 to 6+ month contract (expected end 12/2026)
Compensation: $69.26 - $85.41/hour

Summary:
As a Senior Real-Time VFX Artist, you will work closely with animators, artists, and designers to create exceptional action and combat experiences. Leveraging your expertise, you will craft astounding effects that captivate players, enhance immersion, and elevate the overall gameplay experience. Your work will balance artistic excellence with clear visual communication, adding depth and atmosphere while conveying critical gameplay information.

As a VFX Artist III on an unpublished R&D product, you will report to the Animation Lead. You will be responsible for defining VFX pipelines and implementing VFX at high efficiency with little guidance. You will raise or redefine the bar for the project''s VFX needs. Working closely with designers, you will refine the feel, impact, and readability of gameplay moments, ensuring both enhanced player experience and gameplay clarity.

Responsibilities:

• Work alongside Animators, Tech Artists, and Game Designers, to create stylized VFX for action combat
• Design real-time VFX that look both incredible and provide clarity within a complex combat environment.
• Be able to quickly concept, prototype, and implement VFX solutions in a fast paced R&D environment.
• Flex your mastery of 2D and 3D workflows to enhance your in-engine work.
• Be comfortable thinking creatively and outside the box to propose solutions to difficult gameplay problems as they arise.
• Playtest and iterate often. Amass a deep understanding of the game''s fundamentals in order to focus your work towards improving the player''s experience.
• Foster a healthy working relationship with multiple disciplines, balancing the team''s needs alongside Art priorities.
• Create style guides and frameworks around shape language, contrast, and clarity, and help your team understand those constraints

• 5+ years of experience creating real-time VFX for games.
• Unity, Unreal, or equivalent game engine VFX tools
• Professional experience developing for mobile or console platforms
• An understanding of optimization and best practices workflows for real-time games
• Strong understanding of visual hierarchy, readability, and prioritization in complex gameplay spaces.

• Tools experience: have worked with and guided the creation of tools, pipelines, and game engines.
• Experience building VFX direction for early-stage projects
• Experience giving direction and delivering clear, constructive feedback to vendors