Lead Environment Artist

Job Description

Insomniac Games is looking for a talented, organized, and motivated lead Environment Artist. This candidate will work with the Art Director to establish and execute the creative vision for environments, as well as leading and mentoring a highly talented and creative team of artists. This lead will also be familiar with industry standard art pipelines, can collaborate with designers on layouts and game design, and has a firm understanding of optimization and performance.

The Lead Environment Artist will be responsible for maintaining established quality and artistic consistency of environment art, by high visual standards and project style as defined by Art Director. Lead Artist sets the example by the creation of art assets, a mastery of technology and tool and departmental production dependencies. Understands memory and frame budgets, production schedule and project goals, programming and design concerns, is an expert in, and sets best practices for bug fixing. Lead Artist helps implement new production methods to improve performance and efficiency of team.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities:
• Works closely with Art Director to keep quality and style consistent across all environments
• Provides direction to environment artists for aesthetic and technical considerations
• Works with Art Director and Outsourcing Manager to identify and schedule assets for external development
• Demonstrable expertise with PBR, lighting, and material authoring
• Works with Project Management to prioritize work and maintain a clear and consistent schedule
• Works closely with the design team to construct level layout roughs
• Works closely with the Tools and Engine team to develop new or improve upon old technologies to improve character model quality
• Participates in the planning for project environments
• Works with other departments to ensure that assets are delivered in a timely manner
• Works with concept team to insure concepts are at proper production quality
• Supervise bug distribution and verify bug fixes
• Responsible for creating environment art components that may include:
• Design roughs, visual prototype levels, low detail (greymesh) geometry, medium detail (asset) geometry, high detail (normal map generation) geometry, instance placement and organization, UV setups, PBR texture maps/shader networks, surfaces, post process settings, initial collision to support gameplay programming
• Other duties may apply

Supervisory Responsibilities:
• The Environment Lead schedules the team, reviews work for quality, and carries out supervisory responsibilities in accordance with the organization's policies and applicable laws.
• Responsibilities include interviewing, hiring, and training employees; planning, assigning, and directing work; weekly one to one meetings with each employee; appraising performance; rewarding and disciplining employees; addressing complaints and resolving problems.

Education and/or Experience:
• Fifth year college or university program certificate; or seven to ten years related experience and/or training; or equivalent combination of education and experience. Has shipped one or more AAA titles as a Lead Environment Artist preferred.
• Expert understanding of Photoshop, Substance Painter and Maya.
• Expert understanding of current gen game engine limitations as it refers to memory, gpu and cpu performance.
• Advanced understanding of ZBrush and high to low poly pipeline.
• Advanced understanding of Substance Designer.
• Understanding of Perforce.
Other Skills:
• Excellent foundations skills, including composition, design, and color theory.
• The ability to work with detailed concept art or reference art/ materials.
• Strong traditional painting skills in both stylized and photorealistic styles.
• Strong leadership and mentoring abilities and interpersonal skills.
• Ability to find creative solutions for technically challenging tasks.

If this sounds like a great opportunity for you, please submit your application below. We look forward to hearing from you.

Thanks!

Jobcode: Reference SBJ-rj6vwe-3-145-94-251-42 in your application.