VFX Artist - GameSim - Talent Pipeline

Keywords Studios

1d•CA$65,000 - CA$70,000•Hybrid

About The Position

GameSim is seeking a VFX Artist with strong real-time effects skills, solid technical judgment, and the potential to grow into broader lead responsibilities. This role is ideal for someone who enjoys creating high-quality visual effects while also helping teams stay aligned, organized, and efficient. Depending on the project, this person may contribute directly to hands-on VFX production, in-engine implementation, feedback, task breakdowns, optimization, workflow documentation, and cross-discipline collaboration. The ideal candidate is adaptable, has strong fundamentals, a practical production mindset, and the ability to translate creative or design direction into clear, executable effects work. This is a hands-on production role with opportunities to support small pods or strike teams, guide VFX quality, mentor other artists, and grow toward lead-level responsibilities. This role offers flexible work options, including remote, hybrid or in-office arrangements.

Requirements

Resume + portfolio link required.
An art test may be required as part of the process.
Candidates must reside in Ontario or British Columbia, Canada.

Responsibilities

Create custom real-time visual effects and implement them in-engine using Unreal Engine 5, Unity, or proprietary tools.
Build high-quality effects for gameplay, environments, cinematics, atmosphere, combat, interaction, destruction, UI/game feedback, and other project needs.
Create all necessary textures, flipbooks, materials, meshes, simulations, and supporting assets for real-time VFX.
Maintain clean, readable, well-structured material graphs, Niagara systems, parameters, naming conventions, and reusable effect setups.
Use tools such as Photoshop, Substance Designer, Blender, Houdini, Maya, EmberGen, or other software as needed to support effect creation.
Work with complex material setups, Blueprints, scripting hooks, animation events, gameplay triggers, or engine-specific implementation needs.
Troubleshoot VFX issues in partnership with Technical Art, Engineering, Design, Animation, Audio, and other disciplines.
Own VFX optimization fundamentals, including particle counts, overdraw, shader cost, texture memory, spawn rates, scalability settings, and platform performance constraints.
Help ensure effects are readable, performant, and aligned with gameplay needs, art direction, timing, mood, and player feedback.
Review work from internal artists, partner studios, or external vendors and provide clear, constructive, actionable feedback.
Help maintain a consistent quality bar across a set of effects, a feature, a level, or a small team pod.
Support short-term planning by helping break down VFX requests into clear tasks, priorities, dependencies, risks, and definitions of done.
Proactively identify production risks, including missing gameplay hooks, performance spikes, unclear direction, pipeline gaps, dependency issues, or inconsistent style execution.
Collaborate closely with Designers, Concept Artists, Art Directors, Technical Artists, Engineers, Animators, Audio Designers, and Producers.
Support client-facing communication when needed by clarifying requirements, sharing WIP, explaining constraints, and aligning on expected outcomes.
Contribute to VFX workflow improvements, reusable templates, documentation, libraries, naming standards, or scalability rules when appropriate.