Senior Technical Artist

Santa Monica Studio is seeking an experienced Technical Artist for the development of a new unannounced title!

You are into games – you love playing them and you love making them. You want to use your skills to create bigger and more impressive worlds and are full of ideas how to do so. And you’re half coder and half artist – you get both, you help each understand the other, and you can translate from art to tech and back again, so everyone gets the most out of the tools and knows what to ask for to get awesome art up onto the screen.

Responsibilities

• Research, define, improve, and maintain artist pipelines, tools, and workflows

• Ability to develop a comprehensive knowledge of the art production pipeline and all engine features, tools and systems associated with the creation of art assets

• Participate in art asset reviews to help identify technical concerns or risks

• Interface with stakeholders. Liaise between team members; drive collaborative projects

• Troubleshoot issues; resolve them: invent or build robust, quality technical implementations

• Mentor and guide team members in areas of expertise; instill best practices

Requirements

• 5+ years of professional experience in computer-generated art

• Intimate knowledge of Maya and computer graphics

• Familiarity with video game product development including, but not limited to workflow, tools, lighting, high and low poly modeling, texture painting, particle systems, UV layout, in-game animation, material and PBR principles, layout, SFX and engine parameters/optimizations

• Proficient scripting/programming experience with Python, PyQT/PySide

• Experience with HLSL, GLSL or similar shader languages

• Ability to write clean, maintainable and extensible code with attention to reusability

• Knowledge of software architecture and design

• Enthusiasm and initiative

• Excellent spoken and written communication

• Able and motivated to work with other team members

Preferred Experience

• Industry experience working on or shipping AAA titles

• Knowledge or experience in procedural asset creation like Houdini, Substance

• Good understanding of modern lighting and rendering techniques

• Good understanding of algorithm design and of their complexity

• Solid understanding of 3D math

• Experience with OpenMaya and Maya plugin development

• Experience with C++

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• Seniority level Mid-Senior level

• Employment type Full-time

• Job function Art/Creative and Information Technology

• Industries Entertainment Providers and Computer Games