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Technical Artist, Shaders/Materials

Do you have experience in game development and a particular interest in shader and material creation? Insomniac Games is looking for a Technical Artist to join its Core Technology department and focus on the development of new shader and material content with one of our technical art teams, in partnership with our rendering programmers. Candidates may be considered at higher seniority levels.

This job is primarily individual contribution, with support, peer mentoring, and planning responsibilities as appropriate. You'll be developing ownership over an area of Insomniac's material pipeline, creating forward-looking and cutting-edge material features to support the needs of the production teams building games such as Marvel's Spider-Man and Ratchet & Clank. Others in this role have recently been involved in projects like re-crafting our material system for performance and flexibility, evolving our system for windowed building interiors, creating automated workflows in Substance, designing unique one-off Spider-Man suit effects, and more.

The Core Technology department at Insomniac includes programmers and technical artists who are scheduled separately from game teams, offering an amount of independence and self-management to individuals on the team. They maintain close communication with the game production teams, ensuring that the engine team has a direct relationship with the people using their tools and tech to make our games.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities include the following:

• Design and develop improved material pipelines, processes, and workflows
• Develop specific shader and material effects for unique per-game situations
• Provide documentation and mentor the game teams to fully take advantage of our tools and technology
• Create sample content to prove out new workflows and demonstrate visual improvements
• Provide support to content creators for tools and pipelines owned by the department
• Respond to bug reports, feature requests, and questions related to our tools
• Maintain current knowledge of technological developments in the game industry
• Other duties may be assigned

Qualifications:

• Strong verbal and written communication
• Strong knowledge of rendering basics and shader programming in HLSL
• Strong Python programming abilities
• Knowledge of the game engine landscape and modern engine feature sets, especially as it pertains to materials and shaders
• Knowledge of Substance Designer, Substance Painter, and other material content tools
• Experience with technical art, programming, or a related field
• Experience with C++ is a bonus