Common employability requirements for my chosen focus?

 What features would be beneficial for a junior environment/shader/material artist?

Over the past few months I have had to put a lot of thought into what kind of job I would be interested in leading into the job search I will likely have to do next year, and originally I thought that this would be purely technical art. After a bit of introspection and a bit of a mental crisis over the last month or so I realised that I was more interested in the node based systems to make materials and shaders, and the presentation elements in engine that tend to make the project come alive. Things like particles and shaders are the easiest for me to get stuck into and enjoy the most, which I think is a desirable factor already - I have to be passionate and interested in the field.

After doing some quick hunting on sites like LinkedIn, I found a couple of job listings that I found interesting compiled them below:

Material Artist:

Responsibilities:

• Be able to make photoreal or stylised textures and materials
• Balance visual quality and technical consistency for real time applications
• keep consistency with the visual artistic style defined for the game
• Assist in R&D of new techniques and help tech artists create tools
• Communicate and receive critique from lead artists and directors

Qualifications/Skills:

• Digital portfolio of previous high quality work
• Sound knowledge of the texturing pipeline used in games or VFX
• Experience with substance designer, substance painter, 3DSMax/Maya or equivalent, Photoshop, Zbrush
• Good understating of PBR materials and real time engines (unreal, unity, etc)
• experience of asset creation (both tiled and baked assets)
• Good observation/research skills of what real world materials look like (geology, rock formations, terrain, urban planning etc)
• Strong understanding of art fundamentals (colour theory, composition, lighting for mood)

Extras:

• Interest in real time shader creation
• interest in lighting
• Interests in latest advancements in game graphics and visual trends
• Photogrammetry experience
• Organisation, time management, presentation and communication skills
• strong English skills (written and verbal)

Vegetation Artist:

Responsibilities:

• Create realistic plant life assets for in-games environments
• work with tech and design to make interactive plants + biomes
• Translate real plant life and biomes into in game content and features
• Track, plan and estimate time frames for the completion of tasks
• communicate with higher ups to confirm direction and consistency

Qualifications/Skills:

• Experience with Zbrush, Substance painter/designer, data management software (perforce etc), 3D modelling packages (SpeedTree, 3DS max, Houdini etc)
• Experience with photogrammetry/Photometric Stereo asset creation and capture
• portfolio showing relevant experience
• knowledge of most up to date industry practices around vegetation creation

Extras:

• Organisation, time management, presentation and communication skills
• strong English skills (written and verbal)
• Interests in latest advancements in game graphics and visual trends

Environment Artist:

Responsibilities:

• Model & texture stylized, modular environment kits using reference material and illustrations
• Creation of final environmental art using environment kits created by yourself and others
• Modelling additional hard-surface & organic hero props for use in the environment as needed
• Iterating on level art and layout with designers and other environments via prototyping and feedback to improve visual quality and gameplay
• Ensuring all environment assets follow the given artistic direction and technical requirements
• Participate in feedback and planning sessions with the art team
• Estimate task times and help prioritize environment art tasks
• Keeping up to date with the latest environment art trends and techniques and bringing this knowledge to the team.

Qualifications/Skills:

• A portfolio demonstration experience in creating high quality modular environment kits and environment layouts in Unreal Engine 4 or Unity, with a focus on in-engine presentation and gameplay.
• Excellent knowledge of 3DS Max and general 3D art skills, as well as strong artistic fundamentals as applied to environment art
• Ability to sculpt environment props in ZBrush or similar programs
• Excellent understanding of PBR workflows and able to author textures and material using Substance Designer, Painter, and Photoshop.
• A strong sense of aesthetics, quality and style, with an interest to adapt to different art styles based on the project
• Strong communication and organisational skills
• Strong ability to self-direct and problem solve as needed; proactive in seeking feedback and support
• Able to provide feedback to colleagues in a positive, supporting and constructive manner

Extras:

• Technical art skills as applied to environment art, such as shader and material creation in Unity Shader Graph / UE4 Material Editor
• Other environment art adjacent skills, such as VFX, Lighting
• Light scripting skills to support level designers with simple tasks