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Senior Environment Artist (SkyBox focused)

Would you like to work on some of the greatest franchises in gaming history? What about working on our new original IP? Certain Affinity is the largest independent developer in Texas, based out of Austin, and a growing presence in Toronto, Canada. Our culture reflects the values and the vibrant nature of the cities we call home. This includes a commitment to evolution, diversity, excellence, and work-life balance. We're best known for co-developing numerous AAA FPS games, though now we are creating compelling new games of our own. We're always on the lookout for amazing talent to join our team.

Certain Affinity is looking for an Environment Artist that loves focusing on the "big picture." We want you to not only move mountains but create beautiful vistas and scenes for AAA games. You will have the opportunity to make both your right brain and left brain very happy by combining your love of art with exciting pipelines, tools, and modern ways to author beautiful vistas. Someone passionate about generating the vista content and setting up the compositions with support from the Art Director will be right at home in this role.

You'll have opportunities to set the quality bar for our internal team by creating and visually perfecting an environment by fine-tuning all elements, including skybox, set dressing, materials, and composition.

Responsibilities

• Work with Art Director and other artists to define, build, and integrate 3D assets, materials, decorators, and skybox elements into a visually consistent and highly immersive world. These vistas may include sprawling urban environments, snow-capped Mountains, or even subterranean lairs
• Lead/direct activities and implementation of environment art assets using multiple software tools at your disposal with a focus on procedural content creation
• Mentor other artists on technique and process
• Ensure that the performance of the vistas doesn't blow our perf budget.
• Never settle for last year's processes. Always looking to make things better, faster, and more awesome
• When needed, be able to contribute to worldbuilding and set dressing within the play space

Requirements

• 6+ years' experience in the game industry, specifically modeling and texturing environments
• Experience establishing and driving new workflows for content creation
• Shipped 2+ titles as an environment artist
• Expert-level knowledge of Max/Maya or other 3D software packages
• Knowledge of material creation software such as Substance Designer and Substance Painter
• Proficient with Z-Brush or other high-resolution sculpting tools
• Solid grasp of performance requirements and constraints of the current-generation console and PC development
• Knowledge of PBR material pipeline
• Excellent understanding of art pipelines and workflow
• Strong foundation knowledge in traditional arts, including but not limited to graphic design or illustration, life drawing, environmental and/or architectural illustration, or similar
• Solid understanding of color theory, and be able to create balanced & appealing color palettes through lighting, texturing, and material work
• Demonstrated grasp of scale, proportion lighting, and form
• Solid understanding of the aesthetics of environment, function vs. form relationships, and how this can enhance gameplay
• Team player with the drive and initiative to deliver extremely high-quality work within performance and time restrictions.
• Excellent collaboration and communication skills to bridge the gap between art, design, and tech.
• Ability to work within a style and effectively communicate to the rest of the team
• Must be punctual, diligent, articulate, and organized
• Easily manages time constraints and multiple priorities
• Can initiate visual direction without a specific concept or design
• A desire to work in a diverse and inclusive environment

Extra Credit

• Applicable knowledge in Houdini and or other procedural pipelines
• Experience using UE4 and proprietary software and tools
• Being excited to dive into proprietary engines occasionally
• Ability and desire to lead a small team
• Shipped 1+ AAA title in last three years

Certain Affinity or its partners or affiliates run background checks on candidates or employees with the written authorization from the candidates or employees. These may be done for the purposes of offering employment or determining eligibility to work on a specific project. Multiple searches may be required.

Certain Affinity does not accept unsolicited referrals or resumes from any source other than directly from candidates.