Technical Artist

Summary:  

At Naughty Dog, Technical Artists are critical in developing visual features and driving the look of the game. Candidates are half-artist and half-programmer, with enough programming and math experience to write clean code, but with an artist’s eye for visual polish.

Responsibilities: 

• Develop the team’s shader tech. Implement high-level features (example: cloth, wetness, mud packages). Also maintain low-level shader code organization and optimization
• Develop high-level lighting and post processing features (example: film grain, health effects, underwater rendering)
• Write well-architected code that can be built upon for years to come
• Work with the engineering team on the development of low-level rendering features
• Work with the Art Director to identify project-specific rendering needs and to develop an implementation plan
• Support the content team in debugging issues with tools, assets, or framerate
• Work between all art departments (environment, characters, VFX, etc.) on shared technology
• Create art assets that require high technical skill or specialist knowledge (example: a sniper scope lens, post processing tuning)
• Additional responsibilities may be assigned as needed

Requirements & Skills: 

• Strong experience with HLSL or GLSL shading languages. Intermediate experience with C++
• Ability to write robust code, both from a functional and architectural standpoint
• Strong artistic background and content development skills (can be texturing, lighting, vfx, or any other area where you have experience, but a strong artistic eye is a necessity!)
• Excellent problem-solving skills and the ability to work with minimal supervision
• Familiarity with content creation and game development pipelines
• Good oral and written skills
• 5+ years of production experience in VFX or video games

Bonus Skills: 

• Experience in Maya/Python programming
• Experience in other content creation software, as a user or tools developer; Houdini, Substance Designer, Substance Painter, etc.

As part of the Naughty Dog application process, candidates should expect to be given a technical interview and may be asked to complete an art test.