Senior Lighting Artist

The Company

Torn Banner Studios is a Toronto, Canada-based independent game development studio founded in 2010. We first made our mark with Chivalry: Medieval Warfare, a multi-million copy selling title that redefined melee combat in gaming. Since then, we’ve continued to grow and innovate, releasing Chivalry 2 and, most recently, No More Room in Hell 2. Today, our team of around 100 developers is dedicated to creating unique, challenging, and fun gaming experiences.

The Role

We are looking for a Senior Lighting Artist to join our team and help create visually stunning, realistic environments for a multiplayer video game. You will be responsible for designing and implementing lighting that enhances realism, atmosphere, gameplay readability, and player immersion across a variety of environments and gameplay scenarios.

You will work closely with Environment Artists, Level Designers, Technical Artists, VFX Artists, and the Art Director to establish lighting that aesthetic, engaging, and realistic, while supporting the technical and gameplay needs of an online real-time multiplayer experience.

*Note: While this role can be carried out remotely, candidates are required to be current Ontario residents or willing to relocate to Ontario.*

Responsibilities

• Create and implement realistic lighting for indoor and outdoor game environments.
• Establish lighting moods and visual storytelling while maintaining a consistent realistic art direction.
• Set up dynamic and/or baked real-time lighting depending on the game’s technical requirements.
• Balance visual quality and performance across target platforms.
• Ensure lighting supports gameplay readability, navigation, and player awareness without compromising realism.
• Develop lighting setups for different times of day, weather conditions, and environmental scenarios.
• Work with environment and level artists to ensure materials, geometry, and lighting work together convincingly.
• Identify and resolve lighting, shadow, exposure, reflection, and visibility issues.
• Optimize lighting and related rendering features for multiplayer environments and performance budgets.
• Create lighting setups that remain effective across different player viewpoints and gameplay situations.
• Collaborate with Technical Artists and Programmers on lighting technology, shaders, rendering features, and optimization.
• Participate in visual reviews and iterate based on feedback from the Lead Environment Artist, Art Director and broader development team.
• Help establish and maintain lighting workflows, best practices, and documentation.
• Contribute to improving the game's overall visual quality and lighting pipeline.

Requirements

• Professional experience as a Lighting Artist in games
• Strong understanding of realistic lighting principles, color theory, composition, exposure, and photography/cinematography.
• Experience creating lighting for realistic 3D environments.
• Strong understanding of real-time rendering and the performance implications of lighting techniques.
• Experience with Unreal Engine
• Good understanding of (PBR), materials, reflections, shadows, and post-processing.
• Ability to troubleshoot lighting and rendering issues independently.
• Strong artistic eye and attention to detail.
• A portfolio demonstrating strong environment lighting and realistic visual work.

Bonus

• Experience lighting for multiplayer or large-scale games.
• Experience with post-process effects and color grading within Unreal Engine.
• Experience with Unreal Engine's Lumen, virtual shadow maps, or other modern real-time GI solutions.
• Experience lighting for real-time games with a cinema/film style art direction.
• Experience creating dynamic time-of-day and weather lighting systems.
• Understanding of optimization techniques for large multiplayer maps.
• Experience with profiling and debugging GPU/rendering performance.

Benefits & Perks

• 6.5 weeks paid vacation
• Eligible for Employee Stock Options Plan
• Flexible schedule and work location, with your choice of remote, hybrid, or on-site.
• Healthcare & benefits plan, for you and your family
• 100% parental leave top-up for 16 weeks, for Canadian employees.

Torn Banner Studios welcomes and encourages applications from people with disabilities. Accommodations are available on request for candidates taking part in all aspects of the selection process.

Compensation

• The pay range for this role is $120,000 to $150,000 per year. The range for this role represents candidates across a wide range of skills and experience for the position. Increased salaries may be achievable for those who have achieved mastery and deep industry knowledge over time. Your specific offer will rely on your unique experience and alignment to our team's needs for the position.

Transparency on use of AI and position vacancy

• Our recruitment process does not use artificial intelligence to automatically screen, assess, or select applicants. All decisions on progressing, rejecting, and offering candidates are made by human reviewers.
• One AI–enabled tool that may be used during the interview process is that of interview recording, transcription, and summarizing. Again, this would not make decisions, but simply make reviewing the notes easier. We will always ask for the candidate's approval before using such a tool.
• In compliance with Ontario regulations, the advertised posting is for a currently vacant position.