Senior Environment Artist

Sony Pictures Imageworks is located on the unceded traditional territory of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh First Nations. We are committed to respecting traditional lands, and working with communities towards reconciliation.

Sony Pictures Imageworks Canada Inc.
725 Granville Street, 5th Floor
Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, V7K 1Y4

Project based, Full Time

Language in work environment - English

Benefits per company policy: include healthcare, tuition reimbursement, RRSP's, Sick and Vacation leave, standard increases as applicable

Sony Pictures Imageworks is looking for an experienced, versatile Senior Environment Artist to join our growing Environments team at our Vancouver or Montreal studios.

As an Environment Artist, you will use a flexible generalist workflow to create highly detailed 3D environments and matte paintings for a diverse range of high-end VFX and Animated projects. 

Please note: you must be an accomplished matte painter as well as a generalist, ideally with experience in animated projects. This is an ideal role for an experienced senior artist with aspirations to become a lead; you will be mostly flying solo on a smaller, tight-knit - but fairly long-running - animated project.

What you'll be doingProduction

• Collaborate with your CG and VFX Supervisors to achieve the creative vision of the client and the technical requirements of the Show.
• Create complete, render-ready 3D environment assets for downstream consumption by lighting teams.
• Create matte paintings to integrate with both your own 3d environments and those of the main asset pipe.
• Help establish best practices and follow them, providing an example for the rest of the team.

Studio

• Contribute to the testing of Environments tools, pipelines and workflows.
• Participate in show post-mortems, and work to carry over the solutions identified in them to future projects.

Leadership

• Model and foster a culture of professional excellence based on trust, candor and respect. 
• Help inspire and motivate the team.
• Actively support the professional growth of your peer artists by participating in mentoring, training and other initiatives.

Collaboration & Communication

• Develop collegial partnerships with peer artists to find solutions and compromises for technical and creative challenges.

What we need to see

• Bachelor's degree or higher in Art, Illustration, Architecture, Design, Computer Graphics, or equivalent.
• 5+ years of relevant experience in vfx or animated feature films.
• Good understanding of fundamental visual principles, including perspective, composition, form, value, and color. 
• Skill and experience in a broad mix of the following areas is required, to be able to function well as an independent artist:
• Modeling & UVing (esp. hard surface, landscape & foliage)
• Texture painting and mapping
• Look development and shading
• Dressing & scattering of 3d environments
• Matte Painting
• Production experience in the use of Houdini as an environment generalist is essential.
• Basic familiarity with VEX & HScript needed
• Hands-on production experience with a broad mix of applications is desired:
• Nuke
• Katana
• Photoshop
• Arnold
• Speedtree
• Maya, Max, Modo or similar
• Gaea, Terragen, World Machine or similar
• City Engine
• ZBrush, Mudbox or similar
• Substance Designer
• Substance Painter or Mari
• Shotgrid or similar

Ways to stand out from the crowd

• Prior experience on both Animated and live action VFX projects.
• Experience with Unreal Engine
• Proficiency with scripting languages such as Python, VEX, HScript, etc.

Personal Qualities we’re looking for

• Highly organized, able to efficiently manage your own workload with minimal oversight.
• A proactive problem-solver, addressing roadblocks as they occur.
• A good communicator, able to interpret creative notes reliably and engage in productive discussions with peers and leadership.
• Willing to freely contribute your expertise and experience to help your peers.
• Always learning new skills and techniques.
• A natural collaborator, proactively reaching out to artists to find solutions.
• Calm under pressure, setting an example to the rest of your team.

The anticipated base salary for an Senior position is $45.34 to $65.10/hr. Benefits are per company policy: which include healthcare, tuition reimbursement, RRSP's, Sick and Vacation leave, standard increases as applicable. The actual base salary offered will depend on a variety of factors, including without limitation, the qualifications of the individual applicant for the position, years of relevant experience, level of education attained, certifications or other professional licenses held, and if applicable, the location of the position.

Please note that you must be able to provide a demo reel that illustrates your relevant artistic and technical experience that also includes the nuances for this specific role.

We value unique perspectives, and want diverse, unique talent to work with us.  We encourage candidates from all identities to apply.

*Sony Pictures Entertainment is an equal opportunity employer. We evaluate qualified applicants without regard to race, colour, religion, sex, national origin, disability, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, or other protected characteristics.