Materials Artist – Contract

ArenaNet

Materials Artist at ArenaNet creating high-quality PBR materials for Guild Wars 3. Collaborating with cross-functional teams to bring immersive environments to life.

Posted 7/22/2026contractBellevue • Washington • 🇺🇸 United StatesMid-LevelSenior💰 $40 - $58 per hourWebsite

Core Competencies

Role fit

Core Competencies

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Demonstrates expertise in creating high-quality PBR materials and environment assets using Unreal Engine 5, with a strong focus on collaboration across artistic and technical teams to enhance visual storytelling and gameplay experience.

Highest-signal resume keywords

Substance Designer ProficiencyUnreal Engine 5 ExperienceHigh-Quality Material CreationCollaboration With Technical ArtistsGame Development Experience

ATS Keywords

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Applicant Tracking System Keywords

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Hard Skills

PBR Material CreationEnvironment Asset DevelopmentGame-Ready Asset OptimizationHigh-Poly to In-Game ImplementationForm and Composition Understanding

Soft Skills

Strong Collaboration SkillsEffective CommunicationConstructive Criticism Reception

Tools & Technologies

Substance DesignerMayaZBrushBlenderPhotoshop

Industry Keywords

Game DevelopmentEnvironment ArtVisual DirectionAsset IntegrationMaterial Workflows

Tech Stack

Tools & technologies

Unreal Engine

About the role

Key responsibilities & impact

Create high-quality PBR materials and surface treatments that support and elevate the project’s visual direction.
Build and manage Substance Designer graphs for tileable materials, trims, and surface detail.
Create 3D props and environment assets for a wide range of locations in Unreal Engine 5.
Partner closely with Tech Art, Concept Art, Environment Art, Design, and Art Direction to translate visual targets and gameplay needs into compelling in-game assets.
Collaborate with Environment Artists to ensure materials are integrated consistently and effectively across in-game environments.
Collaborate with Technical Artists and Engineers to improve workflows, pipelines, optimization, and asset integration processes.
Contribute to the development and documentation of material workflows, standards, and libraries.
Track and address material-related bugs.
Proactively seek and apply feedback while contributing ideas that elevate the overall visual direction of the project.
Balance artistic quality with performance, readability, gameplay needs, and production constraints.
Continuously push the quality of the game through strong craftsmanship, iteration, and attention to detail.

Requirements

What you’ll need

3+ years of professional game development experience creating environment or prop art for shipped titles.
Strong portfolio demonstrating high-quality material and surface creation across a variety of styles and real world surfaces.
Excellent understanding of form, composition, materials, scale, and environmental storytelling.
Experience creating game-ready materials and assets from high-poly through optimized in-game implementation.
Strong proficiency in Substance Designer, Maya, ZBrush, Blender and Photoshop.
Experience working in Unreal Engine workflows, ideally UE5.
Understanding of physically based rendering (PBR) pipelines and modern asset creation techniques. asset optimization and best practices in content creation.
Strong collaboration and communication skills with both artistic and technical teams, with ability to both give and receive constructive criticism.
Ability to iterate quickly while maintaining a high level of polish and craftsmanship.
Passion for games, world building, and creating immersive player experiences.

Benefits

Comp & perks

This role is benefits-eligible through our third-party employer, including medical, dental, vision, 401(k), and flexible/dependent care accounts.