Unreal TD (Shaders/Look Development)

Mighty Yeti Studios is a creator-owned indie animation studio specializing in kids and family entertainment. We're seeking a highly skilled Unreal Engine Technical Director (Shaders/Look Development) to join our team for animated series projects. All positions are remote freelance/part-time independent contractor roles.

The Unreal Engine Technical Director (Shader/Look Development) will help in developing the visual style and technical look for our animated series. The ideal candidate will have deep experience with shader creation, material development, and lighting within Unreal Engine, ensuring the final product is visually stunning and meets our creative goals.

Responsibilities:

• Develop custom shaders and materials in Unreal Engine to achieve specific visual styles for animated series projects.
• Collaborate closely with the Art Director, Lighting Artists, and other departments to define and execute the look of characters, environments, and effects.
• Implement real-time rendering techniques to achieve cinematic-quality visuals while optimizing for performance.
• Create and fine-tune complex shaders for skin, hair, clothing, water, and other materials to achieve highly detailed, visually compelling results.
• Work with the lighting team to ensure shaders respond correctly to dynamic and baked lighting setups within Unreal Engine.
• Troubleshoot visual issues and optimize shading and rendering processes to maintain high-quality visuals without sacrificing performance.
• Stay up-to-date with the latest advancements in Unreal Engine’s rendering and shading technologies and integrate new techniques into production workflows.
• Ensure consistency and quality control across all assets, ensuring the final look aligns with the creative vision of the project.

Requirements:

• 3+ years of experience working in Unreal Engine, with a focus on shader creation and look development in animation, games, or VFX.
• Expertise in creating custom shaders using Unreal Engine’s Material Editor, HLSL, or other shader languages.
• Strong understanding of real-time rendering pipelines, lighting techniques, and PBR (Physically Based Rendering) workflows.
• Experience with optimizing shaders and materials for real-time performance across multiple platforms.
• Familiarity with creating and applying complex materials to characters, environments, and effects.
• Experience with integrating assets from software such as Maya, Blender, or Substance Painter into Unreal Engine.
• Excellent communication skills, with the ability to collaborate effectively with both creative and technical teams.
• A portfolio or demo reel showcasing high-quality shading/look dev work, preferably for animated series, games, or real-time content.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Experience working on animated series or real-time animation projects.
• Knowledge of advanced rendering techniques, such as subsurface scattering, anisotropy, parallax mapping, and procedural textures.
• A deep understanding of lighting workflows and how shaders interact with different lighting setups in Unreal Engine.
• (Optional) Experience with realistic real-time hair/fur in Unreal Engine.
• Passion for experimenting with visual styles and pushing the boundaries of what’s possible in real-time rendering.
• Passion for working on family-friendly and all-ages animated content.