inFAMOUS: Second Son was probably the first game that made me really appreciate graphics of the current generation of consoles, but Sucker Punch, that is currently known to be working on a new PS4 exclusive, wants to push the envelope even further, as explained in a new career opportunity ad seeking a Senior Character Texture/Look Dev Artist.
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When you look at a person walking down the street, do you see diffuse, normal, and gloss maps instead of skin, hair, shoes, and clothing? Do you see the word “albedo” and know that it is not found in egg whites? Well then, we’d like to have a chat with you! We’re looking for a Senior Character Texture/Look Dev Artist to work with Sucker Punch's physically-based rendering engine to create even more compelling and believable characters.
We’re proud of the work we did on inFAMOUS Second Son, which helped show what the new generation of hardware was capable of. But we’ve got big ambitions, we’re not satisfied, and we know there are people like you out there who can push us even further.
Responsibilities
- Define the direction for textures and shading on our upcoming title. Using your strong sense of surface and texture—organics, textiles, metal, leather—work with the rest of our rendering team to create jaw-dropping character visuals and have a huge impact on how real our characters look.
- Create comprehensive map sets for our physically-based rendering engine, combining photo source with traditional hand painting techniques.
- Collaborate with other art departments at Sucker Punch to define and optimize reusable texture properties for use in tools like Substance and Mari.
- Develop innovative ways for us to effectively and efficiently create character visuals on a small, tight-knit team of artists, designers, and programmers.
Qualifications
- Demo reel or portfolio to demonstrate/support excellence in the following areas.
- Mastery of Photoshop and Maya
- Working knowledge of Mari or Substance Painter
- Please provide a breakdown of your contributions to what we see in your demo reel
- Excellent grasp of physically-based lighting and shading principles.
- Ability to augment or create efficient UV layouts.
- Proven ability to author top-tier, real-time content
- Solid communication skills. Should be able to clearly communicate technical details to technical and non-technical audiences.
- Must be eligible to work in the US. All work will take place at our Seattle headquarters.
Bonus Factors
- Credited work as a Shader or Rendering Tech Artist for film or TV.
- Have used photographic material acquisition and HDRI creation.
- Experience prototyping shaders in Unreal Engine, Unity, or CryEngine.
- Proficient with Substance Designer or a similar tool.
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Looks like we can expect even better than what we saw with inFAMOUS: Second Son for what concerns character graphics, with an eye of making characters look "real."
Interestingly, the ad specifically mentions that Sucker Punch will use its own internal physically-based rendering engine, but Unreal, Unity and CryEngine experience is considered a bonus, possibly indicating that the studio's engine has common areas with those popular middlewares.
Personally, I'm quite excited to see how Sucker Punch will push the platform with its upcoming game, and whether it'll be another inFAMOUS or something completely new. That said, since they seem to be aiming for realism, it's probably not going to be a cartoonish game like Sly Cooper.