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Environment Director

Environment Director

EA Create is a collective of content production teams partnering with EA Studios game teams to bring outstanding visuals, audio, and technology to life. Our teams are comprised of artists, engineers, technicians, designers, and development directors. Worldwide, we combine our teams to form a global group of extraordinary individuals fueled by imagination and a unified passion for creating amazing visuals, sound, and experiences. We are a diverse team, unified through collaboration, culture, and craft.

The Environment Director is a creative role and part of our Art Leadership team - working with the Art Directors, Development Directors, Tech Leads and other Department Leads to define & execute the artistic vision for the game.

By leading our team of environment artists, you will oversee visual quality for the content and experiences you will help create.

As Environment Director 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 Level Design Leads, to help develop both the visual and gameplay experiences – according to the goals of each.

Responsibilities

• Lead a large team of artists across different project areas. (e.g. cinematics, venues, specific modes).
• Act as a leadership figure within the project, working closely with Artists, Technical Artists, Project Managers, Producers and Art Directors.
• Oversee and deliver large scale productions with a diverse team of internal and external artists.
• Work with multiple Art Directors and leads to understand the content vision, direction, and quality expectations.
• Direct and drive strategic solutions and project- based initiatives with an eye for quality and innovation.
• Oversee and help create high-quality visual targets and benchmark content, from individual assets to entire levels, sets or stadiums/arenas.
• Clearly communicate and anticipate production risks, driving mitigation measures.
• Proactively drive adoption and improvement of best practices, tools, workflows and tech.
• Partner with Project leadership to continually assess scope, capacity and team needs in alignment with production plans.
• Act as a leadership figure across the project, fostering a positive team culture and a sense of belonging to the domain
• Lead innovation within craft and be an active part of the craft leadership team
• Mentor junior/intermediate artists.

Qualifications

• 10 or more years of production experience with asset creation and overseeing entire levels.
• 5 or more years of experience leading diverse teams and tackling complex ambiguous tasks.
• Expert knowledge of Maya, Max, or similar 3D modeling software.
• Exceptional asset creation abilities (hard surface, architecture and/or organic assets).
• Experience 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.
• Convey a sense of ‘story’ through scene composition and set dressing – either to support, or enhance to the game design.
• Experienced in managing and directing a team of artists in delivering Environments content to final quality.
• Well versed 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).
• Experience collaborating with designers, engineers, and tech artists to evolve workflows, pipelines, and to problem-solve.
• Experience with photogrammetry, ZBrush and Substance Designer is a plus.
• Experience working with outsource vendors is a plus.

Portfolio Requirements

• Examples of levels and assets that were created/owned from start to finish.
• Sets, assets and environments that demonstrate an understanding of composition, architectural construction, material properties, and organic wear and tear.
• Work examples that demonstrate effective world building processes, including modular construction.
• Examples of high fidelity modelled assets, painted using 3D paint software, e.g. Substance Painter.