Lead Environment Artist - UFC

EA SPORTS is one of the most iconic brands in entertainment – connecting hundreds of millions around the world to the sports they love through a portfolio of industry-leading video games.

The EA SPORTS UFC franchise offers the electrifying spectacle and entertainment of MMA for over 20 million players across the globe. It delivers fluid and responsive mixed martial arts through inventive gameplay technology. Located in Vancouver, British Columbia, the EA SPORTS UFC team is on a mission to become the world's greatest fighting game. If you're passionate about building immersive digital entertainment, this is the role of a lifetime.

Building massive environments, populating them with buildings, roads, trees and props - the Worlds team has the ultimate goal of creating fun, interactive and exciting worlds for our players to experience. As an Environment Artist you will work with both internal and external teams of the Worlds/Environments domain, to achieve diverse and engaging worlds and gameplay levels for our players. You will collaborate closely with Art Direction and Stadium Leads, to help develop both the visual and gameplay experiences – according to the goals of each.

This team works hybrid 2 days/onsite (Tuesday & Wednesday) at EA Vancouver.

Your Responsibilities:

• Collaborate with Art Director/Environment Director to achieve the artistic vision.
• Create realistic and engaging sports game environments, including stadiums, Outdoor Venues, and other relevant settings.
• Collaborate with level designers to ensure environment support gameplay mechanics and narrative.
• Set dress locations, conveying depth and storytelling in the way assets are composed – going beyond the immediate needs of game design.
• Deconstruct concept art, reference imagery, and style guides into efficient asset lists, considering opportunities for reuse and modular construction.
• Explore, recommend, and implement new techniques, tools, and workflows, that improve quality and efficiency.
• Assess scope, make recommendations, provide solid estimates, and deliver the work on time and to quality.
• Create high fidelity models and paint photorealistic surfaces using Substance Painter
• Maintain team best practices.

Your Qualifications

• 7+ years of game development experience with asset creation and overseeing entire levels for AAA titles.
• Proficiency in industry-standard software such as Maya, 3ds Max, Blender, Substance Painter, and Photoshop, along with a comprehensive understanding of PBR workflows.
• Exceptional asset creation abilities (hard surface, architecture and/or organic assets).
• Experienced working methodically, from initial grey-block through to final assets, iterating with low-fidelity content to determine the optimal approach, before building final assets.
• Strong communication skills to effectively convey environment goals and collaborate to resolve cross-departmental issues.
• Excellent understanding of lighting, composition, color theory, and visual storytelling.
• Experience working with game engines (e.g., Unreal, Frostbite, Unity).
• Experience collaborating with designers, engineers, and tech artists to evolve workflows, pipelines, and to problem-solve.
• Level Design Experience is a plus, but not required
• Experience working with outsource vendors is a plus.

Portfolio Requirements

• Strong portfolio showcasing high-quality 3D environment art and a keen eye for detail. Examples of assets that were created/owned from start to finish.
• Sets, assets, and environments that demonstrate an understanding of composition, architectural construction, material properties, and organic wear and tear.
• Examples of high fidelity modelled assets, painted using 3D paint software, e.g., Substance Painter.

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BC COMPENSATION AND BENEFITS

The base salary ranges listed below are for the defined geographic market pay zones in these locations. If you reside outside of these locations, a recruiter will advise on the base salary range and benefits for your specific location.

EA has listed the base salary ranges it in good faith expects to pay applicants for this role in the locations listed, as of the time of this posting. Salary offered will be determined based on numerous relevant business and candidate factors including, for example, education, qualifications, certifications, experience, skills, geographic location, and business or organizational needs.

BASE SALARY RANGES

• British Columbia (depending on location e.g. Vancouver vs. Victoria):
º $126,000 - $176,300 CAN Annually

Base salary is just one part of the overall compensation at EA. We also offer a package of benefits including vacation (3 weeks per year to start), 10 days per year of sick time, paid top-up to EI/QPIP benefits up to 100% of base salary when you welcome a new child (12 weeks for maternity, and 4 weeks for parental/adoption leave), extended health/dental/vision coverage, life insurance, disability insurance, retirement plan to regular full-time employees. Certain roles may also be eligible for bonus and equity. "