Job Description

We're an early-stage horror game prototype in Unreal Engine 5 looking for a senior freelance 3D character artist to build our central characters. The project leans toward psychological and domestic horror — closer in tone to Hereditary or The Babadook than to creature-feature horror — and we're looking for an artist whose work reflects restraint, anatomical truth, and emotional weight over shock or spectacle.

Time Commitment: Ad hoc, project-based.

About the Project

The game centers on a relationship between characters where ambiguity and intimate familiarity drive the core experience. Character work has to support that - faces need to read as deeply human and specific, with topology and shading that hold up at close range. We're looking for an artist who thinks about character through anatomy, performance, and deformation, not just surface detail.

What You'll Deliver

• High-poly sculpts and game-ready low-poly meshes for central characters
• Clean, animation-ready topology with edge flow that supports facial deformation and morph targets
• Authored facial morph target / blendshape stacks (jaw, mouth, eyes, brow, cheek deformations) for both performance animation and specific narrative beats
• UVs, texture sets, and PBR materials authored for Unreal Engine 5
• Hair, clothing, and accessory work as needed (groom or card-based hair both acceptable depending on approach)
• Final assets imported and validated in UE5, including morph target verification and material setup

Key Responsibilities

• Translate concept art and written direction into game-ready 3D characters
• Author topology specifically to support a stack of facial morph targets, with edge loops laid out for clean deformation through extreme expressions
• Iterate on likeness, expression, and silhouette based on creative direction
• Collaborate with our design and tech leads on rigging handoff and engine integration
• Maintain a cohesive visual language across the cast

Required Qualifications

• Strong portfolio of game-ready 3D character work, ideally with realistic or grounded human figures
• Excellent anatomy, especially facial anatomy and how it deforms through expression
• Demonstrated experience authoring morph targets / blendshapes on identical topology
• Fluent in ZBrush or Blender for sculpting; Maya, Blender, or equivalent for retopo and UVs
• Substance Painter or equivalent for PBR texturing
• Direct experience importing and configuring characters in Unreal Engine 5, including morph target import and material setup
• Clear communicator who works well from loose direction, hits milestones, and handles iteration

Preferred Qualifications

• Shipped characters in horror, dramatic, or narrative-driven games
• Sensibility for domestic, psychological, or folk horror over creature or action horror
• Familiarity with UE5 grooms, or strong card-based hair work
• Awareness of how character assets handoff to rigging and animation

How to Apply

Please send your portfolio with specific examples of:

• Realistic or grounded human character work (faces especially)
• Any morph target / blendshape work you've authored
• Characters you've taken into Unreal Engine

A brief note on what draws you to horror as a genre is welcome. We're especially interested in artists whose work suggests unease through subtlety rather than spectacle.

Please send portfolio and resume to  [email protected]

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