A lead artist's primary responsibility is to guide the artists on a project in order to maintain the vision and quality set by the art director during pre-production.
Lead artists handle the technical aspects of the art team such as art processes, tools, geometric budgets, texture budgets, task definitions, and scheduling of tasks. They also communicate with the lead programmer and the producer to identify risk in the production pipeline. The lead takes the burden of artist management and protects the art team from counter-productivity. Qualifications for the position include a high school diploma or a GED along with experience in a related field. However, individuals with a bachelor's degree or a master's degree in fine arts or a related field may be given preference. Essential skills include interpersonal, organizational, creativity, and communication.
The average hourly salary for the position is $53.34, which equates to $110,940 annually. The career is expected to grow in the near future and create new job opportunities across the United States.
There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a Lead Artist. For example, did you know that they make an average of $46.69 an hour? That's $97,123 a year!
Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 4% and produce 3,000 job opportunities across the U.S.
There are certain skills that many Lead Artists have in order to accomplish their responsibilities. By taking a look through resumes, we were able to narrow down the most common skills for a person in this position. We discovered that a lot of resumes listed Artistic talent, Communication skills and Computer skills.
If you're interested in becoming a Lead Artist, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 73.6% of Lead Artists have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 5.3% of Lead Artists have master's degrees. Even though most Lead Artists have a college degree, it's possible to become one with only a high school degree or GED.
Choosing the right major is always an important step when researching how to become a Lead Artist. When we researched the most common majors for a Lead Artist, we found that they most commonly earn Bachelor's Degree degrees or Associate Degree degrees. Other degrees that we often see on Lead Artist resumes include Master's Degree degrees or High School Diploma degrees.
You may find that experience in other jobs will help you become a Lead Artist. In fact, many Lead Artist jobs require experience in a role such as Artist. Meanwhile, many Lead Artists also have previous career experience in roles such as 3D Artist or Senior Artist.