Shading Technical Artist

Summary:

Naughty Dog is seeking an experienced Shading Technical Artist to join our studio. This artist would work closely with Art and Engineering to improve our shading techniques. This role involves giving better controls to our artists, improving the lighting response of a particular type of material, creating one-off special effects, or even writing tools to assist the artist workflow. Above all, it’s about working with the team to create the best art possible!

Responsibilities:

• Support the art team with requests for shader changes (more advanced controls, better blend methods, etc)
• Create “Shader Packages”, which give artists easy-to-control presets for advanced surface types (like “dirty glass”)
• Implement (or improve) shading models for special features like water, fabric, fur, snow, or skin
• Develop functions for procedural vertex animation, like wind or other ambient motion
• Create tools to improve the texture artist team’s efficiency, and support third-party tools (like Substance Designer)
• Work with the engineering team to develop features, both for the game engine and for tools/asset pipelines
• Help ensure feature interfaces are user-friendly
• Pioneer new asset creation techniques
• Create technical prototypes and mock-ups that the art team can use as examples
• Help the team develop workflows and standards for efficient content generation
• Help drive framerate and memory optimization of the game

Requirements & Skills: 

• Intermediate programming experience with shading languages (HLSL/CG/Etc.)
• Experience in other programming/scripting languages is a plus
• A strong artistic eye is a necessity!
• Excellent problem solving skills and the ability to work with minimal supervision
• High-level familiarity with every aspect of game development, and how different disciplines collaborate
• Good oral and written skills

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