Hard Surface Artist (Contract)

Bladework Games LLC; United States; On-site; USD 85,000 - 120,000; Full time

Job summary

Bladework Games LLC is seeking a Hard Surface Artist to craft high-quality armor, weapons, and game assets for a brand-new PC-first ARPG. You will create stylized, mechanically plausible hard-surface assets that read well in real-time engines and contribute to a bold, action-packed visual identity.

The role requires strong Maya, ZBrush, Substance Painter/Designer skills, and experience with Unreal Engine. Collaboration with the art team to deliver polished, engine-ready models is essential.

Qualifications

• 3+ years in the game industry with at least one shipped title.
• Strong high and low poly modeling skills with baked textures.
• Excellent communication and the ability to work collaboratively.

Responsibilities

• Create clean, stylized, precise box modeling hard surface shapes.
• Very strong foundation of 3D modeling for hard surface focusing on hero props, weapons, and vehicles.
• Build game-ready low-poly meshes, proper UV layouts, and LOD assets for real-time engines (Unreal focus).
• Deep understanding of topology, baking, rig-ready, game-optimized meshes.
• Use Maya, ZBrush, Substance Painter, and Unreal for asset creation.
• Texture and shade with a strong PBR focus; author materials from scratch in Substance Painter/Designer.
• Follow optimized pipelines with Production-ready workflows.

Skills

Maya

ZBrush

Substance Painter/Designer

Unreal Engine

PBR materials

Texture baking

Communication

Tools

Maya

ZBrush

Substance Painter/Designer

Unreal Engine

Job description

Bladework Games is a new game studio building a brand new living, online, IP for the PC first and cross platform future. We're creating a new take on the ARPG genre, focusing on exciting combat, multiplayer mayhem, and the creation of a truly fun gameplay experience. We're looking for a hard surface artist, who will create aesthetically pleasing character armor and weapons/items. As a Hard Surface Artist, you will be responsible for creating high-quality characters, weapons, and other related assets and in doing so, help bring our Characters and their arsenal to life. You would be a great fit if you love visceral action games and enjoy creating stylized art that stands out from the crowd. If this sounds appealing to you, we'd love to chat.

Responsibilities

• Create clean, stylized, precise box modeling hard surface shapes.
• Very strong foundation of 3D modeling for hard surface focusing on hero props, weapons, and vehicles.
• Build game-ready low-poly meshes, proper and efficient UV layouts, (LOD) assets that run smoothly in real-time engines. (Unreal focus)
• Deep understanding of proper topology, baking, rig ready, game optimized meshes.
• Experienced in game art asset creation tooling in a variety of software packages including Maya, Zbrush, Substance Painter, and Unreal.
• Exceptional texturing and shading (PBR focus) ability. Ability to author materials from scratch in substance painter and or designer
• Strong background with P4V and optimized game ready pipelines.

Requirements

• Highly proficient with Maya, ZBrush, and Substance Designer & Painter
• 3+ years in the game industry with at least one shipped title
• Strong high and low poly modeling skills, with demonstrated skill in quality baking of textures
• Awareness of architecture, engineering fundamentals, PBR materials and lighting
• Excellent communication skills and the ability to work collaboratively

Pluses

• Experience with Unreal Engine
• Strong concept development skills
• Knowledge of basic color theory
• Understand the principles of good composition
• Ability to be resourceful and come up with creative solutions

Portfolio Requirements

• A web portfolio that demonstrates a range of high quality 3D rendered samples and 2D texture art
• Examples of lit interiors/exteriors
• A range of hard surface and organic models
• Samples from previous industry work

Portfolio Pluses

• Architectural rendering samples
• Environment art concept samples
• Complex material examples in Unreal Engine

Originally posted on Himalayas