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Creating Better Products!
Monolith Soft Kyoto Studio
Hiring for 3DCG Positions to Strengthen Development Capabilities!
Monolith Soft Kyoto Studio, which has participated in the production of graphics for Nintendo titles such as "The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild," "Animal Crossing: New Horizons," and "Splatoon 2," plans to hire a large number of 3DCG designers over the long term to strengthen its future development capabilities.
We spoke with producer Hiroshi Uchiyama about the background of the recruitment, the innovations and ideas used to create higher quality products, and the skills required of applicants, from a variety of perspectives.
Job Information
モノリスソフト
株式会社モノリスソフトのオフィシャルサイトです。
www.monolithsoft.co.jp
Open Positions
3DCG Designer (Manager/Character/Map/Advertisement)
2D Designer (Artwork Staff)
As a Nintendo group company, supporting title development from the graphics side
CGWORLD (CGW): Could you first tell us about your profile?
Hiroshi Uchiyama (hereinafter Uchiyama): My name is Uchiyama. I am a producer at Monolith Soft Kyoto Studio. I manage multiple projects from a bird's eye view and prepare for the creation of a comfortable working environment for our employees.
CGW: I understand that Monolith Soft Kyoto Studio is currently strengthening its hiring, especially for 3DCG designers.
Uchiyama: In order to deliver our products to many customers at the right time, we believe it is essential to strengthen and speed up our development capabilities. We are recruiting for a wide range of positions from character modelers and background modelers, managers in charge of team management and liaison, graphic designers for advertising, and 2D designers in charge of creating sketches with 3D modeling in mind.
CGW: So you are striving to strengthen your asset creation capabilities with a focus on modeler positions? Once again, could you tell us about Monolith Soft Kyoto Studio's operations and features?
Uchiyama：This year marks the 11th year since our establishment as a development studio. We mainly employ designers and are engaged in graphics production in the field of home video game consoles. Based on the knowledge and expertise we have gained through our long years of development cooperation with Nintendo, we support the development of titles from the graphics side so that we can help improve the customer experience.
Our strength lies in our "flexible response and comprehensive capabilities" that enable us to provide optimal graphics that match the unique characteristics of each title we produce. Another of our characteristics is that we are raising the level of our skills through research and practical application of graphics tools that are constantly evolving in order to provide new surprises, joys, and excitement to our clients.
CGW: So "flexibility and a high level of comprehensive ability" and "research and practical use of tools" are the characteristics of your studio? Please tell us about the use of tools first. What exactly do you mean by "research and practical use of tools"?
Uchiyama：We are trying and researching the tools that are talked about in the industry and newly emerged ones, including the tools that are not used in the titles under development, with a view to their practical use. For example, when Houdini started to become a hot topic in Japan, we introduced it at the initiative of designers on site and applied it to subsequent map production and so on. Even now, I use Houdini when I want to quickly create artifacts that follow rules, such as placing shelves along a spline or creating regular objects such as stairs.
CGW：What DCC tools do you mainly use in your daily work?
Uchiyama: My main tool is Maya. I also use ZBrush, Substance Painter, Substance Designer, etc. As with Houdini, which I mentioned earlier, we basically encourage the attitude of "wanting to introduce and research new tools," and new tools are often introduced at the suggestion of the designers.
CGW: It is wonderful to see a culture where catching up with the latest technology is led by the work site. You mentioned that the Kyoto Studio's staff consists mainly of designers.
Uchiyama：We can create simple Maya custom tools in Kyoto studio by ourselves, but for more extensive development, we have an R&D department within Monolith Soft, so we consult with them and work together to develop the tools.
CGW: What is your reason for being proactive in tool development and research?
Uchiyama: It is to improve work efficiency and beyond that, to improve work-life balance.
Monolith Soft has adopted a regular working hour system. The Kyoto studio starts at 9:00 a.m. and ends at 6:00 p.m. The culture is rooted in the idea of managing man-hours well and finding out how much results can be achieved within 8 hours a day and how efficiently work can be done.
Of course, overtime work is necessary for the progress of development, but there is no deemed overtime or service overtime. On days when there is no overtime work, you can go home at the regular time, so you can have a good balance between work and private time.
In this sense, we are actively involved in the introduction, verification, and development of the latest tools to improve operational efficiency. In addition to tool development, we also have a knowledge base that all employees share, and for designers, tips on shortcuts, optimizing tool placement, etc. are updated on a regular basis. We all share ideas to avoid time loss in areas not related to creativity.
CGW: What kind of training do you provide to your employees?
Uchiyama: For new graduate employees, an educator is assigned to them and they undergo training for about three months. They learn everything from drawing training to improve their observation and basic drawing skills to how to use DCC tools.
The reason why we ask our trainees to start from drawing in the training is because our company's strength lies in the above-mentioned "flexible response capability" and we emphasize comprehensive skills as an artist such as three-dimensional grasp, texture description and color design. You will actually convert your own 2D sketches into 3D models and set them up. In this process, we determine what new employees are capable of and what they are not, and build a follow-up system. For experienced employees, there are individual differences in skills, so we sometimes have them start working on a project right away, and other times we have them go through a certain training period.
▲Newly graduated employees are assigned an educator, who provides them with a full range of training, from drawing training to how to use DCC tools.
CGW: So you are saying that the fact that everyone has mastered everything from accurate sketching to model making and setup is a factor that supports a "studio with high overall strength. I understand that the look of Nintendo's products vary greatly from title to title, so how exactly do you go about creating them?
Uchiyama：For the first month or so, we spend time to learn the taste of the title. Taste can be paraphrased as the part related to the look, but there is always a period of time to tune the look while touching the actual data. We set aside time to share and discuss the data we receive with the members of the team.
CGW：Do you not only produce assets whose specifications have been finalized to some extent, but also make design proposals?
Uchiyama: Of course we do. For "Animal Crossing: New Horizons," we are consulted from costume design proposals. For example, when we receive a request for a sleeveless dress or a jacket, we gather references, create a design and make a proposal. There are so many types of assets for this title, so we start by asking, "What kind of things do you want to make? I often participated from the stage of coming up with ideas for the project. Not only for costumes, but also for furniture and other items.
CGW: So you are involved in the process from the "what to make" stage?
Uchiyama: Yes. In addition, I think that many parts of the stage design for "Splatoon 2" were left to us. We had prepared materials on the shape and look of the stage, but we actively proposed designs to bring out the charm of the stage, from the various assets on the stage to the details such as the graffiti design on the walls.
The Kyoto Studio page on Monolith Soft's official website features interviews with the designers involved in "Animal Crossing: New Horizons". They talk about the cooperative relationship with Nintendo and how rewarding the work is, so please check it out.
京都スタジオデザイナー大募集｜モノリスソフト
京都スタジオの採用情報やスタッフインタビューをご紹介
www.monolithsoft.co.jp
Daily input" supports the "attention to detail" that lies in every detail
CGW: Could you tell us more about the job opportunities here? Monolith Soft Kyoto Studio is mainly looking for 3DCG designers.
Uchiyama：Yes, of course, we would like to work with people who have worked in the game industry before, but we would also like to work with people who have no experience in the industry, as long as they have potential, and after a period of training, we would like to have them work in the field.
In fact, we have a wide range of people from various fields working at our Kyoto studio. Some are close to the video industry, and some are former art teachers. One of our art teachers brought a sculpted model to the studio as part of her portfolio. Tools can be free software such as Blender or non-full version tools such as ZBrush Core. We can learn the tools we use in our work later, so it doesn't matter what tools are your main focus at the time of application.
CGW: In this sense, I can say that the openings are very wide. Changing the topic slightly, please tell us about Monolith Soft's unique production style and the qualities you are looking for in your work.
Uchiyama：We are in a position to develop the visual aspect of the game, but in the first place, the job of a game developer is to provide enjoyment to customers. For this purpose, our staff themselves should be people who know or can discover many fun things. We want to keep a playful spirit in our daily life.
When we start production, we want to create something that would make our customers happy when they were our customers, something that would make them say, "I didn't know they put so much into this! I would like to include such attention to detail throughout the design that people would be surprised.
CGW: It is true that when I play a game, I am pleased when I discover "attention to detail. How do you cultivate or learn to be particular and playful?
Uchiyama：This is completely my personal view, but when you start game development as a profession, a large amount of output is required as a daily job. In the beginning, you will produce outputs by feeding on the inputs you have cultivated since childhood, but actually, I think these will be used up in a few years.
I feel that people who are able to continue working in this industry for a long time are more likely to naturally input without consciously thinking about it after they start working, in other words, people who are constantly searching for something interesting are stronger.
CGW: So curiosity and inquisitiveness are important. Do you think that Monolith Soft's commitment to its products is due to the qualities of the individual artists, or is it something that is a staple of the company?
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