Lead Material Artist (Character/Wardrobe, World/Props) / (Personnage/Garde-robe, Monde/Accessoires)

Job Position(s): Lead Material Artist (Character/Wardrobe, World/Props) / (Personnage/Garde-robe, Monde/Accessoires)

NBCUniversal is hiring a Lead Material Artist (Character/Wardrobe, World/Props) based in Montreal to join their animation and visual effects team. This role sits within the look development pipeline, responsible for creating and refining high-fidelity materials and textures across character wardrobe and production assets from props through to full world-building environments. It suits an experienced material artist who has worked across both organic and hard-surface asset types within a studio animation or VFX pipeline.

About the Role

The Lead Material Artist (Character/Wardrobe, World/Props) works within the look development department, contributing to animated feature or series productions under the NBCUniversal studio umbrella, which includes DreamWorks Animation. Day-to-day work involves developing physically based rendering materials, supervising the material quality of assets across both character and environment categories, and coordinating with lighting and rigging teams to ensure assets hold up across shots and sequences.

Key Responsibilities

• Develop and maintain PBR materials for character wardrobe, props, and environment assets across the full production pipeline from look development through to final render.
• Lead material reviews, providing technical and aesthetic feedback to junior and mid-level artists to maintain consistency across asset categories.
• Partner with the surfacing and lighting departments to identify and resolve material behavior issues within the rendering environment.
• Establish and document material standards and naming conventions that support a clean, scalable asset library across productions.
• Contribute to look development for hero assets, ensuring cloth, leather, metal, and organic surfaces meet the creative direction set by the production designer.
• Troubleshoot shader and texture pipeline issues in collaboration with technical directors to keep assets moving through the VFX pipeline without delays.

What You Bring

• Five or more years of material or surfacing experience within an animation studio or VFX production environment.
• Proficiency in industry-standard tools including Substance Painter, Substance Designer, and Maya, with working knowledge of Arnold or a comparable production renderer.
• Demonstrated credits across animated feature film production or episodic animation at a studio level.
• Strong understanding of PBR workflows and how materials translate across lighting conditions in a final render pass.
• Experience in a lead or senior capacity, including mentoring artists and contributing to pipeline decisions.

Why This Role

NBCUniversal’s Montreal studio operates within a production ecosystem that spans animated features and series through DreamWorks Animation, giving material artists access to projects with real theatrical and streaming reach. The Lead Material Artist (Character/Wardrobe, World/Props) position sits at a level where you are shaping the visual language of productions, not just executing tasks within one. For artists looking to grow within a major studio animation pipeline, this role offers both creative scope and organizational scale.

Apply now for the Lead Material Artist (Character/Wardrobe, World/Props) position at NBCUniversal in Montreal through the FilmLocal job board.