Principal Biome Artist

Summary 

As the Principal Biome Artist, you will oversee the creation of all in game biomes that define our world. You will work closely with both internal and external teams of diverse and talented artists that help shape and define a wide range of biomes and environments.  
 
You are an experienced communicator, collaborator and ambassador for the biome teams and all things biomes. You will collaborate across departments, working with Leads, Directors and Production to create vivid biomes, brimming with life, that adhere to the tone of the overarching IP.

Core Responsibilities 

• Collaborating with the Art and Creative direction, you will shape, define, and maintain artistic unity and quality of biomes across the game, and assist in evolving the world from pre-production to the finished product.  
• Working closely with Technical Art Direction, establish and own the setup and execution of all open world biomes. Defining best practices for foliage asset creation, Biome organization and best workflow practices for a Co-Development environment. 
• Prioritizes and assigns tasks and initiatives to your team to ensure the best possible results, while aligning with Directors, Production and Co-Dev managers.  
• Help drive the planning and pre-production efforts of each assigned biome when necessary.  
• Document best practices and processes for others to follow as needed. 
• Responsible for working closely with Engineering and Technical Art Direction to ensure biome content complies with all technical specifications and constraints  
• Collaborate with production and art direction in the planning of biome asset rosters. Defining detailed asset lists to fully realize each unique biome. From foliage and terrain materials to associated vfx requirements.  
• When required, create proxy assets for use in biome prototyping and establishing the asset pipeline. 
• Establish and create procedural rulesets and recipes to replicate the natural world for a variety of unique biomes. 
• Generate, manipulate and sculpt realistic representative heightmaps of real-world locations and geological features.  
• When required, Ability to create high quality organic 3D environment assets utilizing scan data and modern workflows for modeling, texturing, and baking. 
• Narrative set dressing and world building in engine. 
• Ability to identify issues of quality and performance. Be responsive in addressing and troubleshooting bugs related to graphics, performance and gameplay.  
• Oversee and guide both internal and external artists on the creation of foliage assets, biome rulesets, and crafting high quality true to life biomes. Mentoring and providing feedback regarding quality and technical execution.  
• Own and drive diorama creation for vertical slices to establish the visual bar for each unique biome. Meeting quality, technical and gameplay requirements. 

Core Qualifications 

• 7+ years’ experience in world building and biome asset creation roles.  
• Proven track record for creating high quality biomes and biome assets for open world AAA titles.  
• Experience and ability to lead internal teams and work collaboratively across departments. 
• Possess an understanding of ecology and geography with a passion for learning and understanding how climate, plants and animals define biomes. 
• Strong proficiency in content creation software. Maya, Blender, Substance Suite and Adobe products. 
• Experience with Photogrammetry pipeline and asset creation as it pertains to foliage and terrain materials. 
• Experience with PBR texture and material workflows.   
• Familiar with modern level editor workflows and practices.  
• Bachelor’s degree in Fine Arts, Game Art, or related field.  

Plus if... 

• You have experience with Unreal Engine 5. 
• Strong fundamental art skills with an eye for color, form, composition and narrative storytelling.  
• Experience working with Co – Dev teams and Outsourcing Vendors. 
• Experience with photogrammetry pipeline.  
• Experience with pre-production workflows and planning. 
• You possess a technical art background. 
• Experience with Gaea, World Machine or similar terrain generation software.  
• You have experience with PCG (Procedural Content Generation) Graphs and defining rule sets. 
• Open World Experience.  

Description 

• Full-time job with benefits. 
• Role is on-site in Santa Monica, CA. 
• Office is located near downtown Santa Monica – near metro and freeways. 

The base pay range for this position is $120,000 to $155,000 per year. Actual compensation is based on market location and may vary depending on job-related knowledge, skills, and experience. We also offer a competitive package of benefits including paid time off, sick time, company holidays, parental leave, medical/dental/vision insurance, life insurance, disability insurance, and 401(k) to regular full-time employees. Certain roles may also be eligible for bonus and equity. 

About Absurd Ventures   

Absurd Ventures is a media company creating new IP across all platforms and for all formats. Absurd Ventures is building narrative worlds, creating characters, and writing stories for a variety of genres, without regard to medium, to be produced for live-action and animation; video games and other interactive content; books, graphic novels, and scripted podcasts.