Senior Environment Artist Texture

Sony Interactive Entertainment; Santa Monica (CA); Hybrid; USD 95,000 - 118,000; Full time

Job summary

Naughty Dog is seeking a Senior Environment Artist to create and optimize game environments. You will define complex looks with strong color and composition while collaborating across departments to push visual quality and performance.

Expect to work on AAA titles with a focus on efficient textures, UV layouts, and material creation. The role requires hands-on proficiency with Maya, Substance Painter, and ZBrush, plus a strong portfolio demonstrating high-quality environments and shader work.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of experience modeling high quality environments, with at least one AAA title shipped.
• Ability to define complex looks for challenging levels with minimal art direction.
• Expert understanding of building environments in AAA game development.
• Collaborative mindset with cross-department teams to improve the game.
• Strong art sensibilities in color, composition, and scale.
• Self-motivated to execute the level vision to completion on schedule.
• Proficient at sculpting/painting surface details and shader features for many materials.
• Solid shader construction using material editors for PBR environments.
• Ability to create efficient UV layouts and bake textures from high-res meshes.
• Strong ability to create tiling/trim texture sets and manage texture memory.
• Team player, open to feedback and proactive in sharing assets and information.
• Able to meet schedules, be flexible and proactive in adapting to project needs.
• Proficiency with Maya, Substance, ZBrush, or equivalent software.

Responsibilities

• Create and apply materials across a variety of subject matter.
• Troubleshoot and maintain levels to stay within frame rate, memory, and design specs.
• Act as point of contact to achieve design and art direction goals for building game art.

Skills

Env modeling

Shader/Materials

Art direction collaboration

Color/composition/scale

Time management

Texture baking/UVs

Maya

Substance

ZBrush

Tools

Maya

Substance

ZBrush

Job description

This position is for temporary engagement through our staffing partner, Yoh Enterprise Solutions.Candidates must be authorized to work in the United States for this position.

This is a hybrid / onsite position.

For nearly 40 years, Naughty Dog has been crafting best-selling, critically acclaimed games thatconstantly push the boundaries of narrative, gameplay, and technology. Naughty Dog recentlyreleased The Last of Us Part II Remastered as well as a current generation remake of The Lastof Us Part I for the PS5. We're also proud to say that The Last of Us Parts I & II are nowavailable for the first time on PC. Currently, we're busy at the kennel working on Intergalactic:The Heretic Prophet, and we'd love to find talented individuals to join us.Naughty Dog games have long been lauded for their evocative, character-driven stories andattention to detail. We are committed to innovation within our games and as such have curatedsome of the top creative and technically innovative minds in the industry. We welcome diversecandidates and believe that a broad range of cultural and life experiences contribute to theoverall well-being and success of the studio and the titles we craft together.

What you will do:

• Create and apply materials across a variety of subject matter
• Troubleshoot and maintain levels to stay in frame rate, memory, and design spec
• Act as point of contact to achieve design and art direction goals as it pertains to buildinggame art

What skills you will use:

• 5+ years experience modeling high quality environments. Likely at least one shippedAAA title
• Strong ability to define complex looks for the most challenging levels with minimalconcept art and direction
• Expert understanding of how to build environments in AAA game development
• Collaborative mindset while working closely with other departments to find and proposesolutions for the betterment of the game
• Strong art sensibilities related to color, composition and scale
• Self-motivated-can execute the vision for the level until completion in a timely and efficient manner.
• Proficient at sculpting/painting surface details and controlling shader features thatrepresent a wide variety of material types
• Full understanding of shader construction using a material editor for rendering physicallybased game environments
• Able to create efficient UV layouts and bake textures from high res meshes
• Strong ability to create tiling and trim texture sets
• Manage texture memory and Shader performance
• Great team-player-willing to seek help and feedback from others and give it in return.Being extremely proactive in sharing info and assets. Open to direction and iteration.
• Able to meet schedules, be flexible and proactive, communicating evolving project needs
• Proficiency using Maya, Substance, ZBrush, or equivalent software

#LI-AB1

As a part of the Naughty Dog application process, candidates will be expected to provide aportfolio or demo reel of their work and may be asked to complete an art test, in addition to aphone screen.

Sony is an Equal Opportunity Employer. All persons will receive consideration for employmentwithout regard to gender (including gender identity, gender expression, and genderreassignment), race (including color, nationality, ethnic, national origin), religion or belief, maritalor civil partnership status, disability, age, sexual orientation, pregnancy or maternity, trade unionmembership or membership in any other legally protected category.

We strive to create an inclusive environment, empower employees, and embrace diversity. Weencourage everyone to respond.

At SIE, working with our partners, 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 individual base pay range may vary based on job-related factors which may include knowledge, skills, experience, and location.

In addition, this role is eligible for benefit offerings that include medical, dental, and vision. Click here to learn more.

The estimated base pay range for this role is listed below, this is an hourly rate.

$69.09 - $86.35 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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