Real-Time Environment Artist - Expression of Interest - ILM San Francisco (Project Hire)

About the role

We are seeking an artist who embodies the innovative spirit, creative talent, production excellence, inclusive mindset, and passion for great storytelling that defines Industrial Light & Magic (ILM).

Responsibilities

• Create a wide range of believable real-time 3D assets, props, and environments from concept art, photographic reference, and creative direction.
• Create and maintain both organic and hard-surface environment assets, materials, and textures.
• Build blocking geometry for initial environment layouts and develop environments from early blockout through final art implementation.
• Maintain a consistent visual standard throughout the development process, from initial blockout through final polish and delivery.
• Model, texture, assemble, edit, and set dress detailed 3D environments in a real-time engine.
• Apply materials and lighting to support the intended mood, visual storytelling, and creative goals of each environment.
• Process and clean up photogrammetry assets for integration into real-time environments.
• Tune and optimize assets and environments to meet the visual-quality, performance, memory, and run-time requirements of the project.
• Actively participate in the QA process to identify and fix bugs.
• Create and implement materials, LODs, foliage, and other environment-art elements needed to support efficient real-time rendering.
• Collaborate with Leads, Art Directors, Designers, Technical Artists, and Engineers to solve artistic and technical challenges.
• Prepare scenes and content for internal reviews, creative working sessions, and virtual scouting sessions as needed.
• Support client-facing creative sessions and other real-time working sessions as needed.
• Contribute to environment-art workflows, documentation, asset briefs, and best practices that improve consistency and iteration speed.
• Proactively seek feedback, respond constructively to direction, and keep Leads and Production informed of progress and developments.
• Participate in dailies and reviews, contribute aesthetic solutions, and share knowledge with other members of the team.
• Work toward defined milestones and deadlines while continuing to develop your skills and stay current with relevant tools, techniques, and industry trends.
• Support the development of Apprentice and Junior Artists as appropriate.

Requirements

• 3–5 years of relevant professional experience in game development, VFX, animation, virtual production, or a related field, with shipped titles or comparable completed productions.
• A strong foundation in traditional or digital art, with a particular emphasis on landscapes, interiors, environmental composition, and visual storytelling.
• Strong 3D modeling and texturing skills using Maya, 3ds Max, Blender, or equivalent software.
• Proficiency with Photoshop and 3D painting tools such as Substance Painter or equivalent software.
• Experience using a real-time engine such as Unreal Engine or Unity.
• Familiarity with environment-art workflows such as terrain or landscape editing, material setup, LOD creation, asset optimization, foliage tools, and scene assembly.
• Experience taking environments from early blockout through final polish and real-time engine integration.
• A solid understanding of PBR workflows, materials, textures, and lighting.
• A strong understanding of form, shape, structure, silhouette, scale, proportion, color, and detail.
• Experience with sculpting software such as ZBrush or Mudbox.
• Ability to create work in a range of visual styles, from photorealistic to stylized.
• Able to work with a high degree of self-direction and motivation while meeting deadlines.
• Strong communication, collaboration, time-management, and prioritization skills.
• A team-oriented attitude and an openness to new ideas, constructive criticism, artistic direction, and changes.
• Familiarity with source-control tools such as Perforce or equivalent software.

Qualifications

• Experience creating environments for virtual production, virtual scouting, VR, AR, or other emerging platforms.
• Experience working with photogrammetry.
• Familiarity with procedural modeling, procedural asset-placement tools, or world-building tools.
• Experience with software such as Houdini, Mari, World Machine, Quixel, or equivalent tools.
• Familiarity with Blueprint visual scripting or similar real-time engine tools.
• Familiarity with advanced Unreal Engine material creation or scripting tools such as Python or MEL.

Benefits

Join ILM and be part of a dynamic and innovative team. The hiring range for this position in San Francisco is $104,300 to $136,900 per year. The base pay actually offered will take into account internal equity and also may vary depending on the candidate’s geographic region, job-related knowledge, skills, and experience among other factors. A bonus and/or long-term incentive units may be provided as part of the compensation package, in addition to the full range of medical, financial, and/or other benefits, dependent on the level and position offered.