Senior Environment Artist [Remote]

Job Summary

We are seeking a creative and experienced Senior Environment Artist to join our team and help shape a AAA developed experience featuring a world recognized IP. This full-time remote position offers an opportunity to create a variety of biomes and locations, a pipeline that fosters modular environment creation, work with an experienced and talented team of industry professionals, and collaborate in environment creation and processes.

(Photoshop/Maya/Zbrush/Substance/Unity 6) (e.g., Jira, Confluence, Miro), and repository tools (e.g., git, perforce, etc)

Key Responsibilities

• Collaborate with other Leads, Directors, Art Director(s) and Producers to build environments that align to the strategic goals of the 3D Environment Art team.
• Deliver excellent translations of designs for environments and objects following the overall game vision under supervision of the Art Director(s).
• Collaborate with other disciplines such as Level Design, Lighting, VFX and Tech Art in crafting a variety of biomes, night/day cycles, and weather conditions.
• Create standalone and modular Environment assets varying in scale and complexity.
• Develop high-quality 3D game assets utilizing a variety of techniques including high-to-low poly workflows, hard surface, slightly stylized modeling, and organic sculpting.
• Verify the quality of objects in the game, and making improvements where necessary to fit technical constraints, performance targets, and artistic direction.
• Contribute in team discussions, critiques, and reviews to ensure the timely completion of assets on style and at the desired quality bar.
• Assist in the review and setup of outsource assets to ensure/maintain quality and final delivery of outsourced assets.
• Demonstrate high levels of proficiency in all toolchains, a master of your craft. Maya/zbrush/substance/high/low/hardsurface/material/Unity 6 (preferred)
• Identifying efficiency improvements in workflows and articulating the scope to stakeholders.

Requirements

• Submission of a High-quality portfolio of gamedev-relevant 3D Environment Art and Level Art work (AAA).
• Able to interpret and follow concepts and reference material to create clean, detailed, and accurate 3D environments and sets.
• Owner of environment gray-boxing layout, responsible for build-out/world-building, and composition of levels while following input from Design/Art Directors/Narrative.
• An excellent understanding of game mechanics (3RD person action/melee/shooting) related to characters, objects, and environments.
• Understanding of technical constraints and model budgets for cross-platform production
• Experience integrating 3D assets into industry-leading game engines such as Unity or Unreal.
• Authoring of node graphs to create materials and textures at AAA standards.
• Excellent knowledge of modeling programs such as Maya, Zbrush, and texture/material authoring tools such as Photoshop and Substance suite.
• Understanding of realtime lighting principles/best practices (including post-process/grading/probes).
• Attention to detail for both aesthetic and technical quality.
• A strong understanding of shape, form, and composition.
• A keen eye for landscape, cityscapes, town planning, and geography.
• Excellent proactive communication skills with the ability to effectively coordinate with every department of a game development team.
• Comfortable with inheriting and expanding environment kits to expand or optimize for world building workflows.
• Excellent problem-solving and decision-making skills, with a focus on results and driving projects forward.
• Ability to be resourceful and come up with creative solutions.
• Educated on industry key players/games and have a strong perspective on how they relate to our current and future projects.
• Ability to adhere to level design build metrics, and game-play focused awareness for 3rd person cameras.
• Ability to think about modular construction of assets/environments. Comfortable with grid authoring of block-outs and building standards for env team/outsourcing.
• Ability to generate art without use of AI tools/generators.
• Outstanding verbal and written communication skills.
• Strong organizational and time management skills.
• Unwavering commitment to creating a positive and inclusive work environment.

Nice-to-Have Qualifications

• Experience with Houdini

Compensation and Benefits:

Salary range: $110,000 - $150,000 USD

• Unlimited PTO (used responsibly and subject to business needs)
• Medical, dental, and vision coverage
• 401(k) with company match
• Fully remote work

Smile Break is an equal opportunity employer. We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees. Employment decisions are made without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, veteran status, age, or any other legally protected characteristic.

Candidates must be legally authorized to work in the country in which they reside. Visa sponsorship is not currently available for this position.