Material Artist

Different Technologies Pty Ltd.; Cambridge; Remote; GBP 40,000 - 60,000; Full time

Job summary

World Makers is seeking a Senior Material Artist for a contract role in Cambridge, offering a unique opportunity to create high-quality materials for immersive gaming experiences. In this role, you'll work with Unreal Engine 5 to develop and optimize materials that contribute to the visual fidelity of the game. Ideal candidates will have strong experience with PBR materials and a thorough understanding of advanced texturing techniques. Join us to impact the gaming world with your craftsmanship and creativity.

Qualifications

• Shipped-title experience as a Material or Environment/Texture Artist.
• Strong portfolio showcasing outstanding PBR material and surface detail work.
• Expert knowledge of Substance Designer & Painter.

Responsibilities

• Build and maintain modular material libraries in UE5.
• Prototype and optimize smart materials in Substance Designer.
• Ensure material fidelity and optimize performance on consoles.

Skills

PBR material creation

Node-based procedural texturing

Shader techniques

Game-development pipelines

Tools

Substance Designer

Substance Painter

Unreal Engine 5

Job description

Contract in Cambridge, GB Remote (any location) - Senior - Art

As a Material Artist at World Makers you will craft the high-quality, physically based materials that give our projects their distinctive, immersive look. Working in Unreal Engine 5, you’ll collaborate closely with our art and technical teams to author and optimise a library of high quality smart materials and bespoke shaders that elevate every asset in-game.

This contract is for an initial period of 3 months, with potential opportunities for extension.

Responsibilities

• Build and maintain modular material libraries and master-material setups in UE5, including layered material and vertex-blend workflows.
• Prototype and iterate smart materials and procedural texturing setups in Substance Designer / Painter to maximise reuse and efficiency.
• Work with artists to ensure material fidelity, scale and texel density are consistent across levels.
• Optimise materials and shader complexity to meet performance budgets on current-gen consoles and modern PCs, profiling and fixing issues as needed.
• Partner with lighting, VFX and tech-art to achieve cohesive surface response under all lighting conditions and gameplay scenarios.
• Document material guidelines and best practices for internal and external collaborators.
  
  

Skills & Requirements

• Shipped-title experience as a Material or Environment/Texture Artist, with a portfolio showcasing outstanding PBR material creation and surface detail work.
• Expert knowledge of Substance Designer & Painter (or equivalent), with strong node-based procedural texturing skills.
• Deep understanding of physically based rendering theory, real-world surface properties and advanced shader techniques (parallax or virtual height mapping, subsurface scattering, etc.).
• Experience setting up and profiling materials in Unreal Engine 5 (Material Editor, Material Functions, Nanite & Lumen considerations).
• Solid grasp of game-development pipelines, optimisation strategies and cross-disciplinary collaboration.
• Comfortable working core hours in the United Kingdom time zone (BST) and communicating professionally in English.