Studio: PlayStation Global
Job Opening: Senior Staff Shader Artist
Location: Bend, Oregon, United States
Type: Full-Time
Responsibilities:
- Conceptualize and create a plan for building texture sets based on written design descriptions and concept art. Responsible for combining disparate parts and pieces into a visually unified whole, including organic and inorganic terrain, props, architecture and vista elements.
- Contribute to the development of the artistic techniques and processes utilized to define and achieve a product’s visual style and encourage artistic evolution within the studio. This entails expanding methods to improve the production pipelines, tools, processes, and visual integrity.
- Independently undertakes research and information gathering prior to the commencement of a new task to ensure game design needs, reference materials, artistic direction, and technological considerations are effectively managed to meet the defined goals.
- Actively advances skill set, abilities and then shares this knowledge by keeping aware of industry trends and techniques, evaluating competitive products, learning new software packages and traditional art methods.
- Possess strong time management and prioritization skills. This entails collaborating with the production group to manage responsibilities to ensure set goals will be met from a scope, schedule, and artistic perspective.
- Push the envelope of what is possible within real time technical limitations.
- Participation in creating shaders and shading validation tools as well as defining artistic and technical shading standards.
- Research and develop innovative approaches to technical and creative challenges.
Qualifications & Skills:
- Highly proficient in the use of Photoshop to manipulate photo source and create realistic, tillable, textures that match the artistic style of the defined art direction. This requires mastery of 2D art skills like composition, drawing, painting, and color theory. The ability to analyze photo source or concept art and turn them into real-time renderable assets.
- Proficient in the use of 3D modeling software to texture models within the defined specs and guidelines. This requires extensive knowledge of UV tools and methods.
- Proficient in the use of Z-Brush or Mud box to create normal maps, heights maps and displacement maps when necessary to achieve the desired visual depth.
- Experience with physically based shader texture sets and pipelines.
- Preferred Experience with Unreal 3 or Unreal 4
- Strong reading and comprehension skills to have a complete understanding of complex process documents, design documents, and written assignments. The ability to communicate complex processes effectively either individually with team members, or within group settings. The ability to write short reports and process documents when needed in a clear and concise manner.
- Strong time management skills, with the ability to break down tasks and assignments and prioritize them into workable pieces on a daily, weekly, and project length basis. Works independently and conscientiously with minimal supervision. Able to manage long-term projects, creating and following a comprehensive schedule for the creation of complex assets for game levels, and other game related assets. Able to complete tasks and assignments quickly with limited need for revision rework.
- Strong data management skills, with the ability to manage and track large amounts of data as they go through the art pipeline with attention to naming conventions, directory structures, and other processes.
- Able to train, tutor, and mentor multiple artists, help assess their needs for growth and learning, able to document, report, and help review their work when needed.
- Extensive portfolio with examples of current hands-on work, including shaders, textures, and texture mapped assets and fully rendered scenes.
- 2+ years of experience as a Shader/Materials Artist in the video game industry
- One or two years of post-high school education or training
