Lighting Artist

Lighting does two jobs at once. It guides the player, making the way forward and the thing worth looking at legible without a marker, and it sets mood, which is where most of a scene's atmosphere comes from. Both are achieved with placement, colour, contrast and exposure rather than with more lights.

The work happens inside the engine, with its own shadow, global illumination and post-processing systems, and it is bounded by cost: every light and every shadow caster is paid for in frame time. Working with the art director on the look and with technical artists on the budget is therefore constant.

An Environment Artist builds the space. A VFX Artist handles effects that emit their own light. The lighting artist decides how all of it is seen.