Keywords Studios logo
Keywords Studios

International technical and creative services provider to the global video games industry and beyond.

Lighting Artist

ArtistGeneralFull TimeRemoteSeniorTeam 10,001+Since 1998H1B No SponsorCompany SiteLinkedIn

Location

Canada

Posted

5 days ago

Salary

$65K - $70K / year

Seniority

Senior

Bachelor DegreeEnglishUnreal Engine

Job Description

Lighting Artist

Keywords Studios

• Create high-quality real-time lighting for gameplay environments, levels, cinematics, characters, and interactive sequences. • Translate art direction, concept art, reference material, gameplay requirements, narrative goals, and client feedback into effective lighting solutions. • Use lighting to establish mood, atmosphere, visual hierarchy, environmental storytelling, and player focus. • Ensure lighting supports gameplay readability, navigation, combat visibility, character presentation, and important interactive elements. • Develop and refine exposure, color, contrast, fog, atmosphere, reflections, shadows, emissive response, color grading, and post-processing. • Create lighting for a range of visual styles, including realistic, stylized, cinematic, and highly art-directed projects. • Maintain visual consistency across related environments, gameplay spaces, sequences, times of day, and lighting conditions. • Bring assigned scenes from initial lighting setup through final polish. • Respond to feedback from Art Direction, project leadership, and clients in a timely and professional manner. • Ensure completed work meets project requirements for quality, performance, organization, and delivery. • Help oversee lighting work for an assigned scene, group of scenes, feature, or milestone when requested by project leadership. • Review the work of other lighting artists or multidisciplinary artists contributing to lighting. • Provide clear, respectful, and actionable feedback through written notes, live reviews, reference images, paintovers, or in-engine examples. • Help ensure lighting work follows approved visual targets, technical standards, and project requirements. • Communicate expected outcomes, priorities, and quality standards to artists working within an assigned area. • Monitor the visual progress of assigned lighting work and identify scenes that may require additional revision or support. • Confirm that feedback has been addressed before work is submitted for senior, Art Director, or client review. • Support junior or less-experienced artists with lighting fundamentals, engine workflows, scene organization, optimization, and production practices. • Lead by example through reliable execution, clear communication, constructive collaboration, and professional conduct. • Escalate unresolved quality, schedule, scope, or technical concerns to the appropriate senior artist, Art Director, or Producer.

Job Requirements

  • Professional experience creating lighting for games, real-time projects, animation, visualization, or a closely related field.
  • A portfolio or reel demonstrating strong real-time lighting work.
  • Strong understanding of lighting fundamentals, including value, color, contrast, composition, visual hierarchy, atmosphere, exposure, shadow, and material response.
  • Experience lighting gameplay environments or interactive real-time scenes.
  • Understanding of how lighting supports mood, gameplay readability, navigation, environmental storytelling, and player focus.
  • Professional experience using Unreal Engine or another modern real-time engine.
  • Experience with dynamic or baked lighting, global illumination, reflections, volumetrics, exposure, color grading, and post-processing.
  • Working knowledge of physically based rendering and material response.
  • Understanding of basic lighting optimization, including light cost, shadows, volumetrics, reflections, scalability, and platform constraints.
  • Ability to take ownership of assigned scenes and follow them through review and completion.
  • Ability to receive, interpret, and implement artistic and technical feedback.
  • Experience reviewing artwork or providing constructive feedback to teammates.
  • Ability to identify work that does not meet an established quality target and communicate practical improvements.
  • Ability to balance visual quality, technical requirements, production scope, and schedule.
  • Strong written, verbal, and interpersonal communication skills.
  • Ability to organize priorities, communicate risks, and follow work through to completion.
  • Experience collaborating with multiple game-development disciplines.
  • Ability to adapt to different projects, visual styles, engines, pipelines, platforms, and client expectations.
  • Ability to work effectively both independently and as part of a distributed team.

Benefits

  • Opportunity to work on different projects
  • 3 weeks of paid leave
  • Benefits package including medical, dental and vision
  • Sick Leave
  • Disability Coverage
  • Corporate holidays
  • Professional Development

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