Team Lead Concept Designer

As a Lead Concept Designer you will be instrumental in guiding and leading the design team on an animated CG series. You will champion the visuals and design of environments, key frames, set concepts, character, prop and vehicle designs taken from the script. You will work in conjunction with the Director to push the concept team to new limits to help transform ideas into inspiring concepts and production imagery for use in a Netflix Original 3D CG animated series.

You are expected to have a broad skill-set ranging from character design to environment concepts as well as an understanding of the demands of creating designs that can be translated into a 3D CG environment for use on an animated series. Your knowledge should include experience and understanding of the various pipeline steps from working on previous animation productions.

You have the ability to take blue sky concepts and to break down the process of turning them into working drawings for environments. This requires an eye for how 2D artwork can be translated into 3D environment drawings, as well as how a 3D artist might interpret 2D elements of the design and where they might need additional detail and information. This also translates into understanding the general complexity of different assets in terms of how they would translate into 3D and being able to allocate and bid for these accordingly.

The Lead Concept Designer will coordinate and manage the workflow of the other designers in the department in order to meet production deadlines. You will be responsible for creating individual briefs for each designer after consultation with the Director in order to establish direction and workflow for the team and in turn you will ultimately be responsible for creating design packs for onward delivery to our animation studio.

The successful candidate will be a self motivated designer with a passion for animation and an understanding of how to design worlds with an interest and familiarity of anime graphic novels and animation who is capable of working on both a conceptual as well as a practical level.

Duties and Responsibilities

Research and develop and create conceptual and practical designs and illustrations from exploratory sketches through to polished final designs, complete with supporting reference material, to enable the completion of Episode Design Packs, Model Packs, Texture Packs, Lighting, Scripts, Concept Art, Layouts, Character Design and any other such artwork required of you in the development of the show based on the Director's brief.

Reference the Episodic Scripts to create detailed design briefs for the design team and artists in order for them to develop yours and the directors ideas.

Brief the designers on a regular basis and, working with the Producer and Production Manager, create a design schedule for your team based on the design and art demands of the script. You will allocate tasks to your team in liaison with the production team to stay on deadline. This is in addition to your own design workflow. You will keep the Director and Production Team updated at all times.

Be able to carry an idea from the conceptual phase to finished illustration, complete with any notes or call outs that might be required by your team and any third party 3D modellers/artists.

Develop with your team environment mood paintings, lighting studies, episodic light keys, colour keys and colour scripts complete with supporting reference material.

Have strong interpersonal skills with the ability to brief, guide and discuss design direction with team members of different disciplines.

Create and maintain clear and concise documentation for all the mechanics, schematics, plans and articulation for all your concept designs in order for the animation studio to understand how to translate your designs into a 3D build in a 3D environment.

Create and design 2D backgrounds and matte paintings of a high standard which can be utilised in final-picture in production of the show.

Partner with internal and external artists and designers to collaborate on large creatively complex assignments.

About You

You will have at least 3 years minimum demonstrable experience with supporting portfolio, of working within a 3D pipeline for either games or animation.

You will have at least 1-2 years experience of managing a design team as a Lead Designer or Art Director.

You will have experience of having worked on CG animated series and will understand the demands of an animation pipeline and how that impacts on assets created and the design schedule for you and your team

You are self-motivated with good communication skills and a team player.

Excellent illustration skills based on a deep understanding of traditional art theory including composition, anatomy, colour theory, values, form, shape language and silhouette.

The ability to carry an idea from the conceptual phase to the final polished illustration and to produce a full and detailed analysis of the research and processes employed by you in order to complete the task..

Your Skills

Exceptional ability in creating traditional 2D art and the understanding of when to work faster in order to generate conceptual ideas and when to slow down and polish an image for official submission to third parties and marketing.

The ability to time manage your team including yourself effectively and take direction.

You are an expert with shape design and silhouette and structure, as well as colour and composition.

Exceptional understanding of human and creature anatomy with the ability to stylize the to create compelling, memorable and emotive characters.

You have a great deal of experience in working with other artists and are capable of taking the lead on team projects and creating a vision with a thorough understanding of what it takes to be part of a team of visionaries.

Strong diverse portfolio.

Formal design training from a College or University.

Professional and advanced level usage of digital creation software including but not limited to Adobe Photoshop, Painter and Illustrator.

Additional pluses

Experience working with Production Planning Software such as Shotgun or FTrack.

Strong foundation in the traditional arts including but not limited to, figure drawing, landscape painting and illustration.

An art test may be required to demonstrate your understanding of our style if your portfolio does not reveal an adequate ability to match our desired artistic requirement.

About Us
Full Time Contract
Normal working hours 9am - 6pm
Based in Central London
Starting Immediately
Salary competitive based on experience.

How to apply
Please email your CV/Resume along with a link to your portfolio in the first instance putting Team Lead Designer in the subject.
As part of the interview process you may be required to complete an art test.
KidsCave is committed to providing a fair and equitable work environment and encourages applications from qualified women, men and minorities.
Internal candidates must meet eligibility requirements before they can apply for an internal position at KidsCave, which includes being in their current role for at least 12 months. They must also indicate they are internal in the subject line.