Environment Artist - EA Sports

Job Description

About the Organization: EA is one of the most iconic brands in entertainment with nearly 30 years of innovation, passion, and connection of millions of players across the globe to their favorite video games IP. We are assembling a team with the purpose of constructing a novel and immersive experience. This is your opportunity to join this new team that will shape the future of interactive entertainment.

About our team: We are starting a new team composed of a mixture of experienced EA/EA SPORTS and new talent from across industries. With some of the most valuable IP in the world, and the resources EA has to offer, we have access to the capabilities needed to deliver amazing new experiences for an expanded audience of players worldwide.

About the role: Building sections of environments, populating them with buildings, roads, trees and props - the Worlds team has the ultimate goal of creating fun, interactive and exciting worlds for our players to experience. As an Environment Artist you will work with both internal and external teams of the Worlds/Environments domain, to achieve diverse and engaging worlds and gameplay levels for our players. You will collaborate closely with Art Direction and EA SPORTS Leads, to help develop both the visual and gameplay experiences – according to the goals of each.

Your Responsibilities:
• Creating high-quality benchmark content, from individual assets to levels, sets, or stadiums/arenas.
• Set dress locations, conveying depth and storytelling in the way assets are composed – going beyond the immediate needs of game design.
• Deconstruct concept art, reference imagery, and style guides into efficient asset lists, taking into account opportunities for reuse and modular construction.
• Be involved in the level building process, from initial grey-block rapid layout, through to final assets.
• Breakdown tasks, assemble reference material and oversee the work of internal and external artists.
• Maintain team best practices.
• Be involved in visual targets and prototypes of environment development.
• Troubleshooting and creating workflows and documentation.
• Provide feedback and critiques to junior team members.
• Collaborate with other Artists, Tech Artists and Leads.
• Integrate assets into the game ensuring they fit seamlessly into the design and style.

Your Qualifications:
• 3+ years of production experience with organic and hard-surface asset level creation.
• You have advanced knowledge of Maya, Max, or similar 3D modeling software.
• Experience with photogrammetry, ZBrush and Substance Designer is a plus.
• High fidelity modeling skills, along with ability to paint photorealistic surfaces using industry-standard physically-based 3D paint software (ideally Substance Painter).
• Strong asset creation abilities (hard surface, architecture and/or organic assets)
• Strong knowledge of breaking down complex scenes into efficient asset sets and components.
• Experienced working methodically, from initial grey-block through to final assets, iterating with low-fidelity content to determine the optimal approach, before building final assets.
• A strong sense of proportion, scene composition, and lighting.
• Some experience in managing and leading a small subset of artists in delivering Environments content to final quality.
• Some knowledge in assessing scope, making recommendations, providing solid estimates, and delivering on time and to quality.
• Experience working with content-driven game engines (e.g. Unreal, Frostbite, Unity).
• Some experience collaborating with designers, engineers, and tech artists to evolve workflows, pipelines, and to problem-solve.
• Knowledge of the latest industry-standard tools, workflows, and techniques including physically based rendering.
• Attention to detail and ability to follow artistic direction and bringing ideas and solutions to the table.
• Experience working with outsource vendors is a plus.

BC COMPENSATION AND BENEFITS

The base salary ranges listed below are for the defined geographic market pay zones in these locations. If you reside outside of these locations, a recruiter will advise on the base salary range and benefits for your specific location.

EA has listed the base salary ranges it in good faith expects to pay applicants for this role in the locations listed, as of the time of this posting. Salary offered will be determined based on numerous relevant business and candidate factors including, for example, education, qualifications, certifications, experience, skills, geographic location, and business or organizational needs.

BASE SALARY RANGES
• British Columbia (depending on location e.g. Vancouver vs. Victoria):
º $89,300 - $123,000 CAN Annually

Base salary is just one part of the overall compensation at EA. We also offer a package of benefits including vacation (3 weeks per year to start), 10 days per year of sick time, and extended health/dental/vision coverage and basic life insurance.'

Jobcode: Reference SBJ-g4742y-3-145-108-9-42 in your application.