VFX Artist - GameSim - Talent Pipeline

VFX Artist

Liquid Development is hiring on behalf of GameSim, a Keywords Studio. This position will support GameSim production teams.

GameSim is a game development studio that partners with clients to build games across PC/console and a range of art styles. We care about craftsmanship, collaboration, and shipping work we're proud to put our names on. If you love building environments and believable spaces we'd like to meet you. Our headquarters is based in Orlando, FL!

Liquid Development was founded in 2000 and is the largest outsourcing art studio in North America. We offer a fun and cooperative work atmosphere, where collaboration is encouraged among a diversely talented team to remain on the cutting edge of content creation. Everyday Liquid Development is producing work at the forefront of modern game production and the demands for our services continue to grow. Our team has contributed to AAA titles within the Halo, Mass Effect, Borderlands, and Call of Duty franchises - Liquid Development is the team these titles turn to when they need the best.

Talent Pipeline Posting Notice Please note that this posting is not tied to an immediate vacancy. We are proactively building a pipeline of qualified candidates in anticipation of potential hiring needs over the coming months. Applications will be reviewed and retained for future consideration as opportunities arise.

We are looking for a VFX Artist with strong real-time effects skills, solid technical judgment, and the potential to grow into broader lead responsibilities over time.

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.

Because our projects can vary widely in style, scope, platform, and client needs, we are looking for an adaptable VFX artist with 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.

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.