2D Lead Artist

The primary responsibility of the Lead Artist is to guide the artists assigned to a project maintaining the vision set by the Art Director (AD) during pre-production. They Interact with the artists on the project daily to review assets and maintain quality to expectations. The Lead Artist also works closely with the Project Leadership team, UX, Marketing, and other project disciplines to ensure smooth communications with the PDS Art team.

The Lead Artist should have extensive experience and an interest in driving and pushing the development of our 2D art, involving mentoring our 2D artists (general, UI and concept) in their artistic growth.

Overview

At the start of the project during pre-production the Lead Artist works with the Art Director, to help establish the style, assisting the AD in figuring out what the direction, focus and graphical features should be.

The Lead Artist should know and understand the design of the game, coordinate between design and art, and ensure that game design features are visually communicated.

The Lead Artist will also coordinate with the Art Producer on the planning of asset production, and ensure that the project can smoothly transition into bulk production of assets.

The Lead Artist will keep the AD up to date on the progress of the production, and include them in bigger decisions. Changes and expansions of style and direction is done in cooperation with an AD.

Responsibilities

• Responsible for maintaining the art style of the game set by the Art Director
• Make sure art produced is consistent and on quality, by approving and keeping track of the artwork made in the art team
• Work with the Art Producer to make and sanity-check time estimates
• Conveying expectations in terms of quality and content to the graphics team and, if needed, to freelancers / external studios
• Making sure the project has a good Peer Review environment
• Hold regular 1:1 meetings with artists on the project team to mentor them in their artistic growth
• Know and understand the features of the projects
• Make graphical features requests for the art team

Info about the role as Lead Artist

• Lead Artists of different disciplines will share the responsibility between them. As such, there may be more than one Lead Artist per project.
• A certain amount of time will be set apart for each Lead Artist, to drive R&D and innovative work/projects within and between departments.
• It is not required for an Lead Artist to create art for the art-led project, rather when time allows they can assist in the creation of art if all their core responsibilities are met
• The Lead Artist can be changed but it is desired for a game to stay with the same art lead over a long time. A suitable time to change Lead Artist is when a game is released.
• Responsibility during the development of a full-game is expected to take more time from a Lead Artist than for expansions