This job might no longer be available.
Senior Technical Environment Artist
1 year ago
Why PlayStation?
PlayStation isn’t just the Best Place to Play — it’s also the Best Place to Work. Today, we’re recognized as a global leader in entertainment producing The PlayStation family of products and services including PlayStation®5, PlayStation®4, PlayStation®VR, PlayStation®Plus, acclaimed PlayStation software titles from PlayStation Studios, and more.
PlayStation also strives to create an inclusive environment that empowers employees and embraces diversity. We welcome and encourage everyone who has a passion and curiosity for innovation, technology, and play to explore our open positions and join our growing global team.
The PlayStation brand falls under Sony Interactive Entertainment, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Sony Corporation.
Senior Technical Environment Artist
Remote, USA
PlayStation Studios Visual Arts provides the highest quality artistic support to first-party Sony game teams as well as other teams developing titles for the PS5. We offer dozens of services including asset scanning, actor scanning, body motion capture, facial motion capture, motion edit, animation, facial tracking and solving, and lighting. As a service group we have the privilege of working with multiple game developers on a variety of titles. The Technical Art team works directly with clients to replicate and maintain their work environments in the studio and guarantee the quality of the final delivery.
We are looking for a Senior Technical Environment Artist to join our San Diego, California development team. The role requires experience and understanding of visual effects pipelines, experience with Autodesk Maya software, and python programming skills. Technical artists at PSVA are responsible for setting up and maintaining the technical pipeline on all projects, writing tools for artists for a variety of software packages and needs, troubleshooting all technical issues that arise, and ensuring the quality of the final product. Technical artist work with both our art teams and our engineering team and help provide communication and cohesion between these two groups.
Responsibilities:
- Understanding and maintaining project workflows, primarily Maya art and animation, and game engine integration pipelines.
- Learning and supporting varying client working environments, assets, and tools.
- Writing, maintaining, and customizing internal tools for production team.
- Troubleshooting problems in pipeline and for individuals on as-needed basis.
- Creating and maintaining technical documentation.
- Share work for feedback and offer productive opinions while assisting all team members.
- Keep communication steady with other leads on the project to provide consistency
- Lead by example and communicate with supervisors, management and overall teams.
- Audit game performance by analyzing GPU CPU and Memory metrics per frame-time goals
Desired Experience:
- BS degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Graphic Art, or a related field, or equivalent experience.
- At least 8+ years in some branch of visual effects (film, game dev, tv, etc.).
- 1+ year in a leadership role.
- Strong leadership, mentoring and teaching abilities.
- Excellent knowledge of Maya and Python and experience developing python tools for Maya.
- Excellent troubleshooting skills and the ability to problem solve creatively.
- PyQt/PySide experience.
- Ability to work in a team and communicate well.
- Ability to mentor junior technical artists.
- Experience with game proprietary engines, or off the shelf engines such as Unreal, or Unity.
- Experience with environment art modeling and a strong understanding of topology
- Strong understanding of PBR material response using BRDF shading model
- Experience with material application process and UV mapping for consistent texel density
- Experience with runtime and baked lighting pipelines
- Experience navigating complex scene hierarchy and ability to identify locations of assets based on file paths and nested inheritance
Nice to Have:
- General knowledge of Maya rigging.
- Experience with other programming languages, especially C++.
- Experience developing or maintaining system environments.
- Experiencing developing or maintaining project pipeline tools.
- Experience with perforce and/or git.
- Experience with project management and tracking software (such as Shotgun and Jira).
- Experience working with real-time particle systems, water rendering, and post processing.
- Knowledge of Houdini pipelines and their integration with other applications via Houdini Engine
- Experience with real-time dynamics and physics driven by Havok or similar physics engines
- Experience with Linux based operating systems
#LI-REINE
At SIE, we consider several factors when setting each role’s base pay range, including the competitive benchmarking data for the market and geographic location.
Please note that the base pay range may vary in line with our hybrid working policy and individual base pay will be determined based on job-related factors which may include knowledge, skills, experience, and location.
In addition, this role is eligible for SIE’s top-tier benefits package that includes medical, dental, vision, matching 401(k), paid time off, wellness program and coveted employee discounts for Sony products. This role also may be eligible for a bonus package. Click here to learn more.
This is a flexible role that can be remote, with varying pay ranges based on geographic location. For example, if you are based out of Seattle, the estimated base pay range for this role is listed below.
$88,700 — $133,100 USD
Equal Opportunity Statement:
Sony is an Equal Opportunity Employer. All persons will receive consideration for employment without regard to gender (including gender identity, gender expression and gender reassignment), race (including colour, nationality, ethnic or national origin), religion or belief, marital or civil partnership status, disability, age, sexual orientation, pregnancy or maternity, trade union membership or membership in any other legally protected category.
We strive to create an inclusive environment, empower employees and embrace diversity. We encourage everyone to respond.
PlayStation is a Fair Chance employer and qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records will be considered for employment.
Create Your Profile — Game companies can contact you with their relevant job openings.