Character Artist -- 3D Character Modeling + Rigging (Unity)

Client: Indie game studio.

Role Type: Full-time contractor, remote, LATAM / Eastern Europe / Asia time zones.

Compensation: $400 - $600 USD per month.

Role Summary

We are seeking a skilled Character Artist responsible for building the game's main character as a finished, game-ready, rigged asset, and subsequently, future characters and NPCs. This role operates within a real-time Unity project. The adecuado candidate will deliver clean low-poly topology within a fixed triangle budget, skin and rig to an existing Humanoid-standard skeleton with a fixed bone-naming convention, validate deformation in-engine against existing animations before texturing, and produce textures that support an agency recolor pipeline.

Core Responsibilities

- Game-ready character modeling, adhering to a 20,000 - 25,000 triangle count, with clean deformation-ready topology and full symmetry.
- Utilize a high-to-low poly workflow with baked details, optimizing to the specified budget without compromising quality.
- Perform skinning and rigging to an existing Humanoid rig, precisely matching the bone hierarchy and bone names. Deliver in T-Pose.
- Conduct in-engine validation within Unity against existing aim, cover, movement, and idle animations. Resolve all deformation issues prior to texturing.
- Create PBR textures that support a modular agency recolor pipeline.
- Maintain pipeline hygiene, including preserved editable source files, incremental backups, and organized scenes and naming conventions.

Required Experience
- Shipped or portfolio-proven real-time game characters (not cinematic / offline only).
- Strong understanding of topology and edge-flow fundamentals for animation deformation.




- Proven ability to work within a strict triangle budget using baked normal / detail maps.
- Proficiency in PBR texturing using industry-standard tools (Substance Painter or comparable).
- Comfortable exporting to Unity (FBX, scale, orientation, T-Pose, Humanoid avatar setup).

Strongly Preferred
- Demonstrated experience in skinning / rigging to a pre-existing skeleton with a fixed naming convention.
- Comfortable validating characters inside a game engine, not solely within a DCC viewport.

Bonus
- Character animation ability (aim, locomotion, cover, idle).

Minimum Bar

Even candidates focused solely on modeling must demonstrate clean, fully-symmetrical, deformation-ready topology built to a Humanoid standard, suitable for another artist to rig with zero retopology.

Disqualifiers

- Cinematic / offline / pre-rendered only experience without real-time game work.
- Inability to meet or understand a triangle budget; lack of high-to-low baking workflow experience.
- Inability or unwillingness to skin to an existing rig with fixed bone names.
- Refusal of the in-engine validation workflow before texturing.
- Lack of source-file or version control discipline.
- Refusal to work within a partly AI-assisted pipeline, or shipping raw AI output without cleanup or topology fixes.
- Candidates demanding compensation above the specified band.

Time Zone Requirement

Working hours must overlap with UTC-6 to UTC-3 (Mexico, Central America, Colombia, Peru, Argentina, Brazil, or Eastern Europe with morning overlap).

Engagement Details

- Full-time contractor through Salas Staffing.
- Start ASAP.
- Long-term engagement intended.
- Compensation: $400 - $600 USD/month, to be stated to candidates upfront.

If you are interested in this opportunity, please click on the 'Apply Now' button to submit your application.

📌 3D Character Artist (México)
🏢 Salas Staffing
📍 México