ArtStation: artstation.com/iansmithartist Linkedin: linkedin.com/iansmithartist
Over 15+ years of experience working on real-time and pre-rendered projects, specialising in environment art and procedural workflows. I currently work as a Senior Environment Artist at Kinetic Games, creating props, modular kits, and large-scale terrain assets to support ongoing development.
Previously, I worked at Playground Games on Forza Horizon 6 as a Senior Environment Artist on the terrain team, focusing on large-scale open world terrain creation including procedural biome pipeline, manual terrain sculpting, seasonal variation, and photogrammetry-based material workflows.
Across all roles, I focus on building efficient workflows, improving production quality, and fostering a collaborative team environment.
TECHNICAL EXPERIENCE
Tools: Houdini | Substance Designer & Painter | ZBrush | 3Ds Max | Blender | Photoshop
World Machine | Gaea | Reality Capture | Photoscan/Metashape Other: Git | Unity VC | Perforce
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
Kinetic Games - Phasmophobia - Senior Environment Artist - May 2026 - Present
- Create a variety of game assets: props, modular assets, and larger terrain assets.
- Seasonal and event set dressing.
- Lightmap baking
- Asset optimization.
Playground Games - Forza Horizon 6 - Senior Environment Artist - July 2024 - April 2026
- Create terrain using a mix of manual sculpting and procedural workflows.
- Design terrain considering gameplay, composition and storytelling.
- Produce realistic materials using Designer and photogrammetry, matching real-world reference.
- Mentor junior artists, providing feedback and guidance.
- Collaborate with Art Direction, Leads and other art disciplines to ensure all visual, technical, and gameplay criteria are met.
SideFx — Project Lead - May 2023 - November 2023
- Project Lead on Project Pegasus, a technical learning demo showcasing procedural workflows with Houdini & UE5.
- Defined concept and scope, managed a small team, and created structured learning content.
- Built procedural cliff, terrain, and prop workflows using Houdini Digital Assets and PDG networks.
- Integrated workflows with Nanite and UE5 for large-scale environment generation.
- Presented at Houdini Hive at SIGGRAPH and GDC to demonstrate procedural world-building.
- Ran 3 day workshop at EPC, Breda University of Applied Sciences.
NSC Creative — CG Supervisor - January 2015 - June 2024
- Supervised a team of artists, overseeing project planning and pipeline development.
- Acted as a communication bridge between directors, producers, and clients.
- Mentoring junior artists and fostering their development.
- Contribute to all stages of production, taking shots from script to screen, including ideation, concepting, storyboarding, animatics, animation, lighting, rendering, and compositing.
ACHIEVEMENTS
- Workshop - Landscape creation with Houdini and Unreal Engine 5, EPC April 2024
- Presentation - Project Pegasus - World Building for Games, SIGRRAPH August 2023
- Presentation - Rapid Iteration with Houdini, ZBrush & Substance, GDC March 2023
- Mentorship - Environment Art Mentorship, With Alex Beddows, Skilltree Inc, May 2022