Sr Character FX Artist

General Summary 

 The Sr Character FX Artist is responsible for creating high-quality character-related simulations and deformations, including hair, fur, cloth, muscles, and skin, to support the artistic vision of the production. Working closely with the animation, rigging, and lighting teams, the Sr Character FX Artist ensures believable and stylized character motion that enhances performance and storytelling. 

Job Functions 

• Develop and run simulations for cloth, hair, fur, muscles, skin, etc. that align with the artistic direction of the film.
• Collaborate with animation and rigging to ensure seamless integration of CFX work into character performances.
• Troubleshoot and optimize CFX rigs and simulations for efficiency while maintaining quality.
• Work with the groom, lighting, and compositing teams to ensure simulations render correctly and meet established style.
• Maintain clear communication with supervisors, leads, and other departments to anticipate and solve technical and creative challenges.
• Document and share workflows, tools, and techniques to support team-wide consistency.
• Collaborate with technical directors to develop CFX pipelines and tools when needed.
• Support the Lead CFX Artist by mentoring and helping train junior members of the team. 

Qualifications 

• 10+ years of feature film, VFX, or high-end animation production experience.
• Strong knowledge of Maya (nCloth) and Houdini (Vellum).
• Advanced knowledge of photo-realistic cloth and hair simulation.
• Solid understanding of anatomy, cloth behavior, hair dynamics, and physical motion.
• Experience creating and maintaining sim templates in collaboration with rigging, modeling, and groom departments.
• Excellent communication and collaboration skills.
• Familiarity with rendering workflows (i.e., RenderMan) a plus.
• Knowledge of scripting (Python, MEL, VEX, or similar) a plus. 

Physical Demands and Work Environment 

The physical demands and work environment characteristics described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions. 

• Physical demands: While performing the duties of this job, the employee is required to walk; stand; sit; use hands to operate standard office equipment; reach with hands and arms; balance; stoop; talk or hear both in person and by telephone. The employee must lift and/or move up to 15 pounds. Vision abilities include close vision, distance vision, and the ability to adjust focus.
• Work environment: While performing the duties of this job, the employee works under typical office conditions and is exposed to variable indoor temperatures. The noise level is usually quiet or moderate.  

Location

On-site in Hillsboro, OR, and eligible for remote work (in OR, CA, or WA only).

Salary

Salary is commensurate with skills and experience. 

Laika, LLC (stylized as LAIKA) is an American production company specializing in stop-motion animation and forthcoming live-action feature films, commercial content for all media, music videos, and short films. The studio is best known for its stop-motion feature films Corpse Bride, Coraline, ParaNorman, The Boxtrolls, Kubo and the Two Strings, and Missing Link. It is owned by Nike co-founder Phil Knight and is located in Hillsboro, Oregon, part of the Portland metropolitan area. Knight's son, Travis Knight, acts as Laika's president and CEO.