Senior Lighting Artist — Hybrid Toronto Studio

Canadian Inclusion; Toronto; Hybrid; CAD 149,000 - 193,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Extended health plan

Relocation assistance

Job summary

Sledgehammer Games in Toronto, Canada, is seeking an Expert Lighting Artist to shape mood and visual fidelity for top-tier games. You will lead lighting efforts across gameplay and cutscenes, collaborating with art, environment, and tech teams to deliver breathtaking visuals.

The role is hybrid, based in our Toronto studio, with some remote work days. Competitive CAD salary range is provided with incentives and growth opportunities.

Qualifications

• Extensive experience in a Lighting role in the gaming industry (+12 years).
• Excellent working knowledge of Maya and Photoshop or equivalent.
• In-depth knowledge of physically based lighting.
• Strong understanding of advanced lighting fundamentals.
• Strong sense of lighting theory; color space, exposure, light fixtures, natural light, reflections etc.
• Proven track-record of leading and inspiring teams.
• Understanding of composition and the ability to enhance mood with lighting.
• Effectively use color grading and post effects to enhance the final image.
• Working knowledge of industry standard rendering concepts and processes.
• Experienced with Unreal, Unity, or other proprietary engines.
• Experience with PBR & HDR lighting.
• Familiarity with ray tracing/path tracing systems.
• Ability to use AI as a development tool.

Responsibilities

• Create game-play and in-game cinematic lighting based on direction from the Art Director.
• Ensure that lighting assets meet runtime and disk budgeting requirements.
• Anticipate, identify, and report any potential production problems and communicate those to the Lead.
• Work collaboratively with other departments: Character, VFX, and especially Environment Art.
• Work independently and with other leads and directors to create an optimal lighting pipeline for the product.
• Stay current with industry lighting techniques.
• Work with Rendering engineers to push our engine further.
• Creation of the sky dome and cloud assets.
• Find creative ways to set industry standards.
• Create workflows and best practices for the lighting team.
• Mentor other Lighting artists, and help build an environment of creativity, trust and excellence.

Skills

Lighting in games

Lighting theory

Color grading

Mood setting

Team leadership

Collaboration

Asset optimization

Scene composition

Art-direction collaboration

Tools

Maya

Photoshop

Unreal Engine

Unity Engine

Houdini

Ray tracing

AI tooling

Job description

Sledgehammer Games in Toronto, Canada, is seeking an Expert Lighting Artist to shape mood and visual fidelity for top-tier games. You will lead lighting efforts across gameplay and cutscenes, collaborating with art, environment, and tech teams to deliver breathtaking visuals.

The role is hybrid, based in our Toronto studio, with some remote work days. Competitive CAD salary range is provided with incentives and growth opportunities.