Job Description
Lead Environment Artist
Location: Boston, Massachusetts, United States
Full-time
Allows Remote
Proletariat, Inc. is seeking a Lead Environment Artist to join us in our work on World of Warcraft. In this role, you will guide, support, inspire, and manage Environment Artists as they bring the game’s world to life with immersive landscapes consisting of hand-painted terrain, foliage, and other natural elements. Set an example for our team with your beautiful and technically sound artwork, understanding of artistic composition, mastery of tools, and understanding of art pipeline and production processes. You are an organized time manager, problem solver, originator of process, partner to other leads, team morale booster, a patient and empathetic communicator and listener, and an out-of-the-box thinker.
Responsibilities:
- Be the voice for the Proletariat Environment Art team to the wider Proletariat and Blizzard teams.
- Communicate frequently with Leads, Art Directors, Concept Artists, Game Designers, and Software Engineers to ensure you and your team’s successful design and iteration on in-game environment art
- Mentor, motivate, collaborate with,and guide Environment Artists; amplify their strengths, review their work on technical and aesthetic bases, and stay aware of their workloads, including support of the team’s work/life balance
- Provide guidance in Environment Art processes and instruct the team regarding new processes and software to match project needs
- Be a driving force in creating a welcoming and respectful atmosphere for collaboration, communication, and creativity, with an emphasis on the values of diversity and inclusion.
- Assist in running the day-to-day workflow and create and maintain process documentation for Environment Art-related processes.
- Establish clear and consistent schedules in conjunction with Producers, and identify potential problems in the art pipeline and work with other project leads to prevent them.
- Interview, hire, and train new team members in collaboration with the Recruitment team.
- Lead the team with your strong hand-painting skills and stylization, efficient modeling, and eye for the details of the natural world
- Optimize your content so it can be enjoyed by as many players as possible, within agreed-upon production schedules and with minimal direction.
Your Background:
- Extensive experience modeling, texturing, and lighting 3D art of natural elements (organic surfaces, plants, foliage) for games
- In-depth knowledge of technology, terminology, and techniques of game art development, including an awareness of design and programming considerations
- Positively influences team morale and empowers team members, able to clearly communicate expectations and rally team around an objective.
- Leads with empathy, strong ethics, flexibility, confidence, self-awareness, and the ability to see all sides of complex situations.
- Able to communicate artistic issues to non-artists; strong presentation skills
- Brings creativity and initiative to both preproduction and production concept tasks and adapts swiftly to new themes and directions
- Ability to provide oversight to multiple timelines, self-manage and meet deadlines, able to work unsupervised for long periods and able to supervise others.
- Portfolio examples that show strong art fundamentals including composition, design, shape language, and color theory, and understanding of how environment art can serve to enhance design goals
- Can be relied upon to quickly learn new processes and software as needed.
- Experience working in an iterative, agile environment.
- Self-directed, enthusiastic, positive, embraces critiques.
- Understands the audience and appreciates games
- Prior exposure to in-engine Level Art processes and workflows, including environmental composition, terrain sculpting and painting, asset placement, and lighting skills is beneficial
Send us
- Resume/CV
- Cover Letter
- Link to your portfolio
What we offer
- Healthcare, dental, and vision, most of which are 100% sponsored by Proletariat to cover you and your family.
- Flexible PTO Policy with a focus on minimum time away, rather than maximum.
- 401K plan with generous matching contributions.
- Wellness reimbursements and discounts
- Flexible working hours.
Our office is currently still remote, but we look forward to moving to an optional hybrid model in the future. If you’re based outside of the Boston-area and you’re not looking to relocate, we understand! Just let us know your situation during your phone screen conversation, and we’ll see if we can accommodate making a remote hire!
