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Character Setup Artist Jobs (NOW HIRING)

Lookdev Artist

Los Angeles, CA · On-site

$60 - $80/hr

Lookdev'ing in a single light setup * Comparing to artstation instead of physical reference ... Becoming the bottleneck on every hero character * Building shaders only you can read * Treating ...

... as arts and crafts, bingo, board games, etc... * Responsible for all aspects of Character ... After a brief application, all qualified applicants will be immediately invited to setup an ...

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Character Setup Artist information

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$104.5K

$120.5K

$128.5K

How much do character setup artist jobs pay per year?

As of Sep 6, 2026, the average yearly pay for character setup artist in the United States is $120,531.00, according to ZipRecruiter salary data. Most workers in this role earn between $121,000.00 and $127,000.00 per year, depending on experience, location, and employer.

What is a character setup artist?

A Character Setup Artist is responsible for preparing 3D character models for animation by creating rigs, skinning, and implementing deformation systems. They ensure characters move naturally by setting up joints, controls, and constraints that animators use to bring them to life. This role requires proficiency in rigging tools, scripting, and character anatomy to create efficient and flexible character rigs. Character Setup Artists work closely with modelers and animators to ensure seamless animation performance in films, games, and other media.

What are the typical daily responsibilities of a character setup artist?

As a Character Setup Artist, your typical day involves creating and refining digital rigs for character models, which includes building skeletons, setting up controls, and ensuring characters deform correctly during animation. You’ll collaborate closely with modelers, animators, and technical directors to troubleshoot and optimize rigs for both performance and ease of use. Your work may also include developing custom rigging tools, performing quality checks, and sometimes skinning characters to ensure seamless movement. This dynamic role combines technical expertise with artistic sensibility to bring characters to life in animated productions or video games.

What are the key skills and qualifications needed to thrive in the character setup artist position, and why are they important?

To thrive as a Character Setup Artist, you need a solid understanding of character rigging, anatomy, and animation principles, usually backed by a degree in art, animation, or a related field. Mastery of industry-standard 3D software such as Autodesk Maya, Blender, or 3ds Max, and familiarity with scripting languages like Python or MEL, are highly valued. Strong problem-solving skills, attention to detail, and effective communication make an individual stand out in this position. These abilities ensure characters are properly rigged and function seamlessly, fostering smooth collaboration across animation and production teams.

More about Character Setup Artist jobs

What are the most commonly searched types of Character Setup Artist jobs?

The most popular types of Character Setup Artist jobs are:

What states have the most Character Setup Artist jobs?

States with the most job openings for Character Setup Artist jobs include:

What job categories do people searching Character Setup Artist jobs look for?

The top searched job categories for Character Setup Artist jobs are:

Infographic showing various Character Setup Artist job openings in the United States as of August 2026, with employment types broken down into 83% Full Time, and 17% Contract. Highlights an 33% In-person, and 67% Remote job distribution, with an average salary of $120,531 per year, or $57.9 per hour.

Senior Technical Artist - Rendering & Shaders

Snail Games USA

Beverly Hills, CA • On-site, Remote

$146K - $175K/yr

Full-time

Medical, Dental, Vision, Life, Retirement, PTO

Posted 15 days ago


Job description

Senior Technical Artist - Rendering & Shaders 

Job Type: Full-Time

Location: Remote - Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Maine, Missouri, New Jersey, Nevada, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas, Washington, and Wyoming   (Los Angeles area preferred)

About Snail Games USA

Snail Games strives to create the new high bar for gameplay experience in online gaming. We have been a global developer and publisher of digital entertainment since 2009 and are committed to pushing the boundaries of the industry.

About the Role

Snail Games USA is seeking a Senior Technical Artist to join our Art Center and provide hands-on technical art support across multiple Unreal Engine projects.

This is a broad production-focused Technical Artist role working between art and engineering to solve technical problems, improve workflows, and help teams deliver high-quality game content efficiently. The role will have a particular emphasis on Unreal Engine rendering, materials, and shaders, but responsibilities may shift based on project and production needs.

The ideal candidate has strong technical-art fundamentals and enough breadth to work across asset integration, optimization, tooling, pipelines, troubleshooting, and visual systems. They should be comfortable investigating ambiguous problems, collaborating directly with artists and engineers, and carrying solutions through implementation and validation.

Responsibilities
  • Provide hands-on technical art support across a range of game development and production needs.

  • Develop, maintain, and optimize Unreal Engine materials, shaders, and rendering workflows.

  • Investigate and resolve visual, technical, performance, and asset integration problems.

  • Integrate art assets and ensure they meet visual, technical, and runtime requirements.

  • Profile and optimize content for rendering performance, memory use, shader complexity, and scalability.

  • Establish and maintain practical standards for assets, materials, textures, meshes, LODs, collision, naming, and project organization.

  • Develop or improve tools and workflows that increase artist efficiency and reduce repetitive production work.

  • Support artists with technical setup, debugging, implementation, and optimization.

  • Work with Art, Engineering, Design, Animation, Lighting, and other disciplines to solve cross-discipline production problems.

  • Evaluate workflows and identify technical risks or production bottlenecks before they become larger problems.

  • Review assets and implementation for technical quality, consistency, and performance.

  • Create documentation, examples, and reusable best practices for distributed development teams.

  • Adapt to different technical-art needs as project priorities and production requirements change.

  • Take ownership of technical-art problems from investigation through implementation, testing, and validation.

Minimum Requirements
  • Professional Technical Artist experience in game development.

  • Strong Unreal Engine experience, preferably UE5.

  • Strong general knowledge of real-time game art pipelines and technical-art production.

  • Strong experience with Unreal materials, shaders, rendering, or related visual systems.

  • Understanding of real-time rendering, profiling, optimization, and performance constraints.

  • Experience with game asset pipelines including meshes, textures, materials, LODs, collision, and asset organization.

  • Experience integrating and troubleshooting production assets in-engine.

  • Demonstrated ability to solve problems spanning both artistic and technical concerns.

  • Ability to independently investigate unfamiliar problems and develop practical production solutions.

  • Strong communication skills and experience collaborating directly with artists and engineers.

  • Ability to balance visual quality, production efficiency, technical constraints, and runtime performance.

Nice to Have
  • Python scripting or pipeline automation experience.

  • Unreal Blueprint experience.

  • HLSL or custom shader development experience.

  • Experience with procedural tools such as Houdini.

  • Experience with environment, character, vegetation, VFX, lighting, or procedural content pipelines.

  • Experience building reusable tools or workflows for artists.

  • Experience with DCC pipeline integration such as Maya, Blender, Substance, or similar tools.

  • Experience shipping PC or console titles using Unreal Engine.

  • Experience supporting multiple projects or production teams.

Salary Range

100,000-130,000 annually

Compensation within the range will depend on experience, technical breadth, demonstrated production ownership, and location.

Why Join the Snail Games USA Team?
  • True focus on work/life balance

  • Paid company holidays, vacation, and separate sick leave

  • Medical, dental, vision, and Life/LTD

  • 401k with company match

Additional Information

As part of the Company's activities in video game development, publishing, and short-form video content creation, certain projects, discussions, or creative materials may include themes, visuals, language, or subject matter that some individuals could find mature, violent, sexual, graphic, or otherwise sensitive in nature ("Mature Content").

Examples may include, but are not limited to, depictions or descriptions of combat, violence, adult themes or relationships, suggestive or satirical humor, or strong language. Employees are expected to engage with such material in a professional and creative context as part of their job duties.