Lighting Intern- Undergraduate

Sony Interactive Entertainment Inc. (Japan); Burbank (CA); On-site; USD 41,000 - 59,000; Full time

Job summary

Insomniac Games in the United States seeks a Lighting Artist Intern to assist environments, cinematics, and characters with lighting and rendering. You'll learn workflows alongside seasoned artists and contribute to an AAA production, with potential game credits on your resume.

You will gain hands-on experience, mentorship, and work within a collaborative lighting team to deliver polished content under project timelines.

Qualifications

• Pursuing a relevant art degree or 6–12 months related experience.
• Solid understanding of lighting principles and artistic fundamentals.
• Ability to work well in a collaborative, creative team.

Responsibilities

• Prepare content and document lighting workflows to support game production.
• Create and refine lighting for environments, cinematics, and characters.
• Polish and optimize lighting to improve visual quality and performance.
• Collaborate with the lighting team to meet project timelines.
• Learn rendering techniques and workflows from senior artists.
• Contribute to game projects while developing artistic and technical skills.

Skills

Foundational art skills

Lighting principles

Team collaboration

Self-motivated learning

Passion for games

Education

Pursuing B.F.A. in Computer Art / Illustration / Game Design / Product Design

Tools

Maya

Unreal

Job description

Role Summary:

Join the lighting department at Insomniac Games and gain hands‑on experience contributing to a large-scale AAA video game production. As a Lighting Artist Intern, you’ll work alongside experienced artists to create and improve lighting for environments, cinematics, and characters. You’ll help bring game worlds to life through lighting and rendering while learning the techniques and workflows used in professional game development. Throughout the internship, you’ll receive mentorship from senior lighting team members, develop your technical and artistic skills, and contribute to a game production. You’ll also have the opportunity to earn an AAA game credit for your resume.

What You'll Be Doing:

• Prepare content and document lighting workflows to support game production.
• Create and refine lighting for environments, cinematics, and characters to meet AAA quality standards.
• Polish and optimize existing lighting to improve visual quality and performance.
• Collaborate with the lighting department to deliver polished content within established project timelines.
• Learn and apply game industry rendering techniques and workflows while working alongside experienced lighting artists.
• Contribute to assigned game development projects while strengthening your artistic, technical, and collaborative skills.

What We're Looking For:

• Currently pursuing a B.F.A. in Computer Art, Illustration, Game Design, Product Design, or have six to twelve months of related experience and/or training.
• Strong foundational art skills and an understanding of lighting principles.
• Proficiency in lighting and rendering using Maya or other similar game engine packages such as Unreal.
• Strong communication and collaboration skills, with the ability to work effectively in a creative team environment.
• A self‑motivated, responsible approach to learning and completing assigned projects.
• Passion for video games and art, with an interest in lighting and rendering techniques used in game development.

Eligibility:

• Students with expected graduation between May 2026 and December 2029 from an accredited university. Undergraduate
• Able to work during one of the following periods: May 17th - August 6th or June 14th - September 3rd. Relocation assistance is available for eligible candidates.
• Must be available for the entire 12-week internship period.

At this time, SIE will only consider applicants who are authorized to work for any employer in the United States and who will not require work visa sponsorship from SIE now or in the future to maintain their authorization to work in the United States.

Our intern positions offer a fixed hourly pay rate. Please note that the pay rate is exclusive to the internship period and may not reflect what pay may look like following the completion of an internship.

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.

Intern Pay Range

$36.50 - $36.50 USD

Please note, Sony Interactive Entertainment conducts background checks at the offer stage for all new employees (which may include criminal background checks for some roles) and will need to process personal information to support these checks.

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