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Senior Vista Artist
2 years ago
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 we have 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 are also excited to be the latest recipient of the Canadian Studio of the Year award. 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 a Senior 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 the Art Director and be a champion when it comes to using solid artistic principles to compose vistas that have storytelling and depth. These vistas may include sprawling urban environments, snow-capped Mountains, or even subterranean lairs
- Create and implement art assets (3d assets, foliage, materials, etc) using multiple software tools at your disposal.
- Leverage your experience to find creative solutions that don't blow our perf budget.
- Never settle for last year's processes. Always looking to make things better, faster, and more awesome
- Mentor other artists on technique and process
- 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 or vista 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
- Understanding of color theory, and be able to create balanced & appealing color palettes through lighting, texturing, and material work
- 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.
- Ability to work within a style and effectively communicate to the rest of the team
- 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
- Ability to create 2d concepts and paintovers
- 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 is authorized to do business in many, but not all, of the states in the US and the Canadian provinces. If you are not located in or able to work from a state where Certain Affinity is registered, you will not be eligible for employment. Please speak with your recruiter to learn more about where we are registered.
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