Freelance 3D Rendering Artist Jobs in Raleigh, NC

WHAT MAKES US EPIC?
At the core of Epic's success are talented, passionate people. Epic prides itself on creating a collaborative, welcoming, and creative environment. Whether it's building award-winning games or crafting engine technology that enables others to make visually stunning interactive experiences, we're always innovating.
Being Epic means being a part of a team that continually strives to do right by our community and users. We're constantly innovating to raise the bar of engine and game development.
ART
What We Do
Push your artistic talent to the limit on a team of world-class environment, character and concept artists who strive to innovate and inspire.
What You'll Do
Epic is looking for a Technical Artist with a strong focus on material creation to join the Fortnite team. In this role, you'll be responsible for building visually rich, performant materials for characters and character accessories, using Unreal Engine and industry-standard texturing tools to deliver a wide range of effects. While this position favors a materials specialist, the ideal candidate brings a generalist mindset and a solid understanding of the broader game art pipeline. You'll work closely with artists, engineers, and other tech artists to create scalable solutions that support Fortnite's visual style across many platforms.
In this role, you will

• Create high-quality, game-ready materials for characters and other cosmetics
• Build materials that leverage procedural textures and custom material logic to achieve distinctive visual effects
• Generate textures and bake data using tools such as Substance Designer, Substance Painter, and Houdini
• Develop reusable material frameworks and workflows that enable tech artists and artists of other disciplines to efficiently create unique assets
• Collaborate with character artists, tech artists, and engineers to integrate materials with geometry, effects, and Blueprints
• Optimize materials and textures to meet performance, memory, and scalability targets across multiple platforms
• Contribute to improving Unreal Engine material pipelines and best practices

What we're looking for

• A strong reel or portfolio demonstrating realtime game materials, ideally with character or cosmetic-focused examples
• Advanced understanding of PBR workflows, real-time rendering constraints, and material authoring best practices
• Proven experience creating complex materials using procedural textures and custom material behaviors
• Hands-on experience with Substance Designer and Substance Painter for texture generation and asset authoring
• Familiarity with the Unreal Engine 5 art and material pipeline
• Experience developing content for multiple platforms
• A solid understanding of modeling and texturing fundamentals within a real-time art pipeline, strong collaboration skills, and a desire to own features and initiatives from inception through ship
• Bonus: Tools, scripting, or pipeline development experience for Unreal Engine, Substance Designer, and/or Substance Painter
• Bonus: Experience in setting up or working with modern character art pipelines, building custom tools, templates, or automation to improve material and texture workflows
• Bonus: Familiarity with Blueprints, Python, or similar scripting languages and experience in secondary areas such as modeling, lighting, or VFX

EPIC JOB + EPIC BENEFITS = EPIC LIFE
Our intent is to cover all things that are medically necessary and improve the quality of life. We pay 100% of the premiums for both you and your dependents. Our coverage includes Medical, Dental, a Vision HRA, Long Term Disability, Life Insurance & a 401k with competitive match. We also offer a robust mental well-being program through Modern Health, which provides free therapy and coaching for employees & dependents. Throughout the year we celebrate our employees with events and company-wide paid breaks. We offer unlimited PTO and sick time and recognize individuals for 7 years of employment with a paid sabbatical.
ABOUT US
Epic Games is a leading interactive entertainment company. For over 30 years we've been making award-winning games and engine technology that empowers others to make visually stunning games and 3D content that bring environments to life like never before. Epic's award-winning Unreal Engine technology not only provides game developers the ability to build high-fidelity, interactive experiences for PC, console, mobile, and VR, it is also a tool being embraced by content creators across a variety of industries such as media and entertainment, automotive, and architectural design. As we continue to build our Engine technology and develop remarkable games, we strive to build teams of world-class talent.
Like what you hear? Come be a part of something Epic!
Epic Games deeply values diverse teams and an inclusive work culture, and we are proud to be an Equal Opportunity employer. Learn more about our Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) Policy here.
Note to Recruitment Agencies: Epic does not accept any unsolicited resumes or approaches from any unauthorized third party (including recruitment or placement agencies) (i.e., a third party with whom we do not have a negotiated and validly executed agreement). We will not pay any fees to any unauthorized third party. Further details on these matters can be found here.