Senior Technical Material/Shader Artist

Lighthouse Games is a new AAA studio in Leamington Spa. We are defined by our pedigree of talent and serious ambition to build a new best-in-class game. When you join us at Lighthouse, you’ll create the best work of your career within a collaborative, hybrid working environment. You’ll learn from the best and work alongside the future greats of the gaming industry.

As a Senior Material Artist – Hard Surface, you will play a pivotal role in supporting our Vehicle Art team, bringing specialist knowledge of material and texture creation to a ground-breaking new IP. Working closely with Vehicle Artists, Art Leadership, Technical Artists and Scanning Artists, you will study real-world reference and translate the detail, construction and material properties of vehicles into highly believable in-game content. Leveraging the power of Unreal Engine, you will have everything needed to create world-class, photorealistic materials across a wide range of hard-surface assets.

Key Duties Include

• Support the development of master material shaders for our Vehicle Art team, maintaining a high standard of technical practice and artistic quality in line with project goals.
• Create and maintain complex Unreal Master Material Shaders suited to vehicles and other hard-surface assets.
• Create photorealistic PBR textures and Material Instances, accurately representing materials such as metals, paints, plastics, composites, rubber, glass and interior finishes.
• Collaborate with Art Leadership and the Vehicle Art team to develop and innovate material workflows that maximise realism, consistency and visual impact.
• Establish best practices for hard-surface material creation, documenting workflows and contributing to the development of new tools and techniques.
• Work with Technical Artists and Render Engineers to optimise shader and material content while ensuring performance targets are met.
• Research real-world vehicles, manufacturing processes and material properties, using high-quality reference to drive the implementation of advanced material techniques and technologies.

Requirements

• Extensive experience developing, implementing, optimising and maintaining complex photorealistic PBR materials and shaders using Unreal Engine’s node-based material editor.
• Strong experience creating materials and textures for hard-surface assets, with an excellent understanding of how different surfaces behave and appear in the real world.
• A strong eye for reference and the ability to study real-world materials, construction, wear and surface detail to recreate convincing and accurate results.
• Proficiency in content creation and rendering tools such as Substance Painter/Designer, Max/Maya/Blender, RealityCapture or equivalent software.
• Deep understanding of real-time rendering, lighting, PBR workflows and industry standards, with a passion for problem-solving and pushing artistic boundaries.
• Exceptional organisational abilities and the confidence to collaborate closely with Vehicle Artists and other disciplines across the project.

Desirable

• Previous experience creating materials for vehicles, automotive visualisation or similarly complex hard-surface assets.
• Knowledge of photogrammetry, photography and physically accurate material capture techniques.
• A strong interest in vehicles, automotive design or motorsport.

Benefits

• 25 Days Holiday, plus 1 day for your birthday
• Studio Shutdown between Christmas and New Year
• Discretionary Bonus Scheme
• Private Pension Scheme
• Private Healthcare
• Health and Well-Being Benefits
• Dental Care
• Optical treatments
• Mental Health Support