Senior UE5 Lighting Artist

Job Overview

We are seeking an experienced Senior UE5 Lighting Artist to join our team and contribute to international AAA open-world game projects.

In this role, you will be responsible for the overall lighting design, atmosphere crafting, and visual quality enhancement of massive open-world environments. You will leverage high-quality real-time lighting solutions to build immersive gaming experiences.

This position requires a strong balance of artistic expression and technical optimization capabilities-ensuring top-tier visual fidelity while meeting the rigorous performance standards of an open-world project.

Key Responsibilities
Lighting Design & Production

• Design and implement comprehensive lighting schemes for open-world environments.


• Formulate lighting representations for day/night cycles and dynamic weather systems in alignment with the project's art style.


• Handle interior and exterior scene lighting setup and atmosphere crafting.


• Enhance visual depth, spatial awareness, and narrative expression within game scenes.


• Continuously iterate and optimize visual quality based on feedback from the Art Director.

UE5 Real-Time Lighting Production

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  Proficiently utilize the UE5 lighting ecosystem, including:

  
  
  
  
  • Lumen Global Illumination
  
  
  • Virtual Shadow Maps (VSM)
  
  
  • Volumetric Fog
  
  
  • Sky Atmosphere
  
  
  • Exponential Height Fog
  
  
  • Post Process Volumes
  
  
  • Reflection Systems
  
  
  • HDR Pipeline
  
  
  
  


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  Take ownership of: Lighting Layout, Color Management, Exposure Control, Atmosphere Design, Weather Expression, and Time-of-Day Cycle Representation.

  
  

Open-World Project Duties

• Participate in lighting planning for large-scale open-world maps.


• Responsible for unifying the lighting style while creating distinct visual identities across multiple biomes.


• Address and resolve lighting management challenges under the World Partition framework.


• Optimize lighting performance during level streaming states.


• Ensure visual consistency across various times of day and weather conditions.


• Support exploration experiences and visual guidance through strategic lighting design.

Technical Optimization

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  Conduct performance profiling and optimization for scene lighting.

  
  


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  Collaborate with Technical Artists to establish lighting budgets and specifications.

  
  


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  Optimize the following components to meet target performance milestones without sacrificing visual fidelity:

  
  
  
  
  • Dynamic Lighting
  
  
  • Shadow Cost
  
  
  • Reflection Cost
  
  
  • Volumetric Effects
  
  
  • Post Process Effects
  
  
  
  

Requirements
Mandatory Qualifications

• 5+ years of professional experience in the game industry.


• Contributed to at least one shipped AA or AAA project.


• Direct development experience in open-world projects.


• Proficient in Unreal Engine 5.


• Outstanding lighting aesthetics, artistic sensibilities, and color control capabilities.


• Familiar with cinematic photography language and camera lens expressions.


• Exceptional ability to shape environment atmosphere and mood.


• Capable of independently taking ownership of large-scale regional lighting production.

Technical Competencies

Candidates must possess practical, project-proven experience in one or more of the following core technical areas:

• Core UE5 Technologies: Production experience with Lumen, Nanite, Virtual Shadow Maps, World Partition, Data Layers, and Open-World Streaming.


• Performance Optimization: Experience in GPU performance profiling, Render Pass analysis, and utilizing tools like Unreal Insights and ProfileGPU. Console platform optimization experience is highly valued.


• Large Map Experience: Experience with open-world day/night cycles, dynamic weather lighting systems, macro-level map lighting planning, and biome-specific lighting design.

Preferred Qualifications (Pluses)

Priority will be given to candidates with experience in:

• Houdini pipeline integration.


• A Technical Artist background.


• Blueprint development capabilities.


• Shader creation experience.


• Background in photography, cinematography, or film/TV lighting.


• HDR project experience.


• Console platform development experience.


• Multiplayer open-world project experience.


• International AAA project development experience.

Portfolio Requirements

Candidates must provide one or more of the following:

• An up-to-date UE5 lighting portfolio.


• Scene breakdown cases demonstrating "Before / After" comparisons.


• Open-world project case studies.


• Day/night cycle or dynamic weather system demonstrations.


• Video showreels or cinematic flythroughs.


• Priority given to portfolios showcasing: Lumen applications, Open-World scales, AAA-quality projects, Lighting Breakdowns, or Optimization workflows.

Preferred Project Experience

Experience in the following game genres is highly preferred:

• Open-World RPGs


• Open-World Action games


• Survival Crafting games


• MMO Open-World projects


• Console AAA projects

Reference Titles: "Cyberpunk 2077", "Horizon" series, "Ghost of Tsushima", "Assassin's Creed" series, "Red Dead Redemption" series, "Black Myth: Wukong".

What We Are Looking For

• Extreme pursuit of excellence in lighting and visual expression.


• Passion for AAA game development.


• Constant tracking and learning of cutting-edge UE5 rendering technologies.


• Strong communication skills and a collaborative team spirit.


• Ability to work efficiently and adaptively within an internationalized project environment.

Benefits

Base salary, Bonus, Health insurance, EAP Program, Relocation support.