Do you think great grooming is invisible when it’s done right - and unforgettable when it isn’t?
We are looking for a Groom Artist to join our team on a short-term contract, supporting character and creature work for an active production. This role is suited to an experienced groom artist who can work independently, deliver high-quality grooms efficiently, and integrate smoothly into an established pipeline.
The initial contract is 5 weeks, with the possibility of extending for a further few weeks depending on production needs.
Key Responsibilities
- Create high-quality hair and fur grooms for characters and creatures, supporting both realistic and stylised designs.
- Build complex hairstyles and fur systems that hold up across shot requirements, including close-up work where needed.
- Develop creature fur grooms that reflect anatomy, species-specific behaviour, and design intent.
- Use procedural and expression-based approaches to create art-directable grooms that allow for efficient iteration.
- Construct and manage advanced modifier stacks to achieve natural hair breakup, clumping, variation, and believable movement.
- Create specific styled looks such as wet hair, wind-affected styles, or period-driven grooming when required.
- Optimise grooms for performance, including implementing LOD strategies and curve reduction where appropriate.
- Prepare grooms for simulation, including guide setup and collaboration with FX on dynamics requirements.
- Work closely with lookdev, shading, and lighting teams to achieve the desired hair and fur appearance.
- Ensure grooms function reliably through the full production pipeline, from asset build to final render.
- Troubleshoot and resolve technical or artistic grooming challenges efficiently and proactively.
- Communicate clearly with supervisors and production, flagging risks, limitations, or improvements where relevant.
What You'll Bring
- Strong experience creating production-ready hair and fur grooms for characters and creatures.
- Solid understanding of procedural grooming workflows and art-directable systems.
- Proven ability to balance visual quality with performance and pipeline constraints.
- Comfortable working independently and delivering to short production timelines.
- Strong problem-solving skills and a collaborative mindset.
- Proficiency with industry-standard software such as Houdini, Nuke, and production tracking tools (e.g. ShotGrid).
- Ability to work remotely, with a preference for availability that aligns reasonably with Tokyo studio hours of 10:00am to 7:00pm Monday to Friday.
Why Megalis?
You’ll join a studio where technology and artistry are seen as equal partners, and where your work directly enables world-class storytelling. We value initiative, collaboration, and continuous learning. Whether you’re in Tokyo or working remotely, you’ll be part of a global team united by craft and curiosity.
If you take pride in creating grooms that elevate characters and quietly make everyone else’s work better, we’d love to hear from you.