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Lead Environment Artist

Crystal Dynamics, a part of the Square Enix family and the studio behind Marvel’s Avengers and the award-winning Tomb Raider game franchise, is constantly on the hunt for top-tier gaming talent worldwide. We pride ourselves on attracting and developing the best talent available to concept, create, and contribute to the most exciting projects in gaming. Our 25-plus years of game development experience, as well as our combined AAA games industry pedigree, has established us as one of best studios to work for today.

Benefits for this full-time position include a competitive salary, 100% employer-paid medical, dental, and vision insurance options and plenty of days of paid time-off.

Position Summary

Come be a part of the future of Tomb Raider! Crystal Dynamics is seeking a Lead Environment Artist for our growing team. In this role you will inspire, mentor, and lead a team of artists tasked with creation of high-quality 3D worlds. You'll collaborate closely with other art and design leads, directors, writers, and producers to craft an unforgettable world that facilitates gameplay and leaves players in awe, produced on schedule. The successful Lead Environment Artist is collaborative and strategic, with demonstrated excellence in environment modeling, texturing, world building, and lighting with previous experience leading a team on at least one AAA project.

Essential Duties & Responsibilities

• Work in tandem with Design Leads, Art Manager, and Art Director to build worlds from initial concept to complete, polished form
• Responsible for the look and artistic integrity of the environment art across the game
• Research cutting edge development techniques to drive the most efficient and visually stunning environments possible

• Be a gatekeeper in ensuring the project is performant and efficient, while maintaining consistent quality
• Collaborate with all departments to ensure all aspects of the game blend seamlessly together
• Create and maintain documentation with assistance from your team.
• Work with the Art Manager, Design Leads, and internal art team to create outsourcing asset lists to provide to external developers
• Work with the Art Manager, Design Leads, and Production to define team goals, action plans, and schedules for the project
• Lead, task, and mentor your art team; including completing annual reviews for all direct reports
• Conduct one-to-one meetings with your Environment Artists
• Be a champion of best practices and spearhead advancements in tools and processes alongside Tech Art

Essential Requirements

• Experience as a Lead Environment Artist on at least one AAA project
• Advanced understanding of PBR texturing and materials
• Strong spatial sense and an eye for good composition
• Strong sense of narrative set decoration
• Excellent communication and coordination skills

• Maya, ZBrush (preferred), Substance Painter and Photoshop experience
• Experience with physically based rendered art pipelines and related tools (Quixel, Substance, etc)
• Able to showcase a professional, highly realistic portfolio
• Solid understanding of optimization for memory and framerate

Nice to Haves

• Strong technical ability
• Traditional art background
• Familiarity with Photogrammetry software
• Experience with modern engine technologies

SPECIAL NOTE: ** A portfolio submission is required for this position. Please focus this portfolio on personal contributions to your professional projects. Please include a shot breakdown specifying what you were directly responsible for creating. Considered portfolios should include the following:

• 10-15 best examples of your work (Maya renders in addition to in-game screen shots and video)
• 3-5 Mesh shots (that show efficiency & good work process)
• 3-5 Texture Sheets including albedo, spec and normal maps (that shows correct use of maps, efficient use of UV space, pbr compliant materials and artistic skill)
• Example of lighting

Crystal Dynamics is an EOE and M/F/D/V Employer