Lighting Artist

 Position Overview 

We are looking for a Lighting Artist to join the Art & Animationteam. They will play a key role in defining and enhancing the game’s visual atmosphere by implementing and refining lighting across various scenes and environments. The ideal candidate will possess a keen eye for colour, contrast, and visual composition, combined with a strong technical foundation in Unity’s lighting systems. This role will collaborate closely with the environment and all tech teams to ensure that lighting enhances both gameplay and aesthetics, delivering a cohesive visual experience across the project. 

Key Responsibilities 

Lighting Implementation and Optimization: 

Lighting Setup and Adjustments:  

• Set up and own lighting across environments, character scenes, and cutscenes in Unity, ensuring they align with the game’s artistic vision and technical requirements. 

• Make real-time adjustments to lighting setups based on team feedback, optimizing performance while preserving visual fidelity. 

Atmospheric Lighting and Mood Creation:  

• Work closely with the Head of Art & Animation and Environment Artists to develop atmospheric lighting that enhances the visuals within the game.

• Use lighting creatively to reinforce gameplay, and player immersion across different game settings. 

Cross-Disciplinary Collaboration: 
 

Collaborate with Art and Technical Teams:  

• Partner with environment artists and technical artists to ensure lighting works seamlessly with other visual components, enhancing cohesion and consistency in scenes. 

• Coordinate with technical art to balance visual quality and performance, ensuring lighting is efficient for real-time performance on targeted platforms. 

Scene Optimization and Debugging:  

• Identify and resolve technical and performance issues related to lighting, such as real-time shadows, global illumination, and post-processing, using profiling tools and techniques in Unity. 

• Collaborate with engineers to debug any lighting-related issues, ensuring assets meet performance and quality standards across devices. 

Creative and Technical Ownership: 

Lighting Tool Usage and Shader Knowledge:  

• Leverage Unity's lighting tools within URP, such as light probes, reflection probes, and lighting volumes, to achieve realistic lighting effects that align with project goals. 

• Basic shader knowledge, with the ability to adjust or customize shaders in Unity as necessary to enhance visual effects related to lighting is a benefit. 

Process Adherence and Detail Orientation:  

• Follow established workflows and best practices, avoiding ad-hoc solutions in favour of structured approaches that can be easily maintained and scaled. 

• Ensure all lighting assets and methods adhere to the project’s technical and aesthetic standards, with detailed documentation for future updates. 

Iteration and Feedback: 

Lighting Polish and Review:  

• Continuously refine lighting elements through feedback cycles, ensuring consistency with the project’s vision and maintaining a high standard of visual quality. 

• Proactively share progress with the art team, being open to feedback and ready to iterate to align with broader art and design goals. 

Knowledge, Skills, and Experience 

• 1-3 years of experience in lighting for real-time environments, preferably within a game development setting, using Unity. 

• Demonstrated experience in lighting environments for interactive media, with a strong portfolio showcasing work on completed games or similar projects. 

• Proficiency in Unity’s lighting systems, including global illumination, lightmapping, post-processing, and environment lighting techniques. 

• Familiarity with profiling and optimisation techniques, ensuring real-time lighting runs efficiently across various hardware using URP. 

• Knowledge of basic shader adjustment in Unity for visual effects related to lighting. 

• A solid understanding of colour theory, composition, and visual storytelling. 

• Strong sense of mood and atmosphere creation through lighting, able to bring environments to life with attention to detail and thematic consistency. 

• Strong communication skills with the ability to work collaboratively and respond to feedback constructively. 

• An approachable, team-oriented demeanour, fostering a positive and supportive environment within the art department. 

• Experience with other industry-standard software and tools, such as Photoshop or Substance for texture support related to lighting. 

• Understanding of URP in Unity, with experience in leveraging this for high-quality lighting. 

• Familiarity with procedural lighting tools or dynamic lighting systems.