Who You'll Work With
Since game creation is such a team-based undertaking, as a Lighting Artist, you'll be working with a lot of people throughout a project. Here are a few of them:
Concept Artists
You may or may not be working with concept artists, depending on how things work where you end up. If the studio you work at has multiple concept artists, and concept art is created and used heavily, there's a good chance that you'll be given concept art as a starting point for something you'll be lighting, especially for key or hero moments.
(Not every scene in a level or cinematic is going to get a concept piece done for it, but the more important scenes frequently will.) This is helpful because it gives you a good starting point. That concept art has probably already been tweaked or redone a number of times until everyone is on board and in agreement for the look, and it's your job now to light the scene using the concept as reference. Sometimes it's just a general starting point, and sometimes they'll want you to follow it very closely.
At the other end of the spectrum, you may end up working at a company that has no concept artists at all, and you are given free reign to develop the look yourself, based on the description of the area, including things like time of day and weather, etc.
Environment Artists
You will be lighting environments that have been created by the Environment Artists, so they are the people you'll have the most contact with. There will probably be times when you'll want to make requests for alterations to an environment for better lighting possibilities, and hopefully this will happen earlier on in production, as it becomes more problematic to make major changes to an environment after a lot of time and effort have already gone into it.
FX Artists
Special Effects are frequently involved in lighting. Explosions, gunfire, lightning flashes, lava, futuristic weapons, fire, lasers and more, are all FX that give off light. Many times these effects will have some form of initial lighting built in to them as a starting point, with Lighting Artists altering or replacing these initial lights for the final look. If the FX have no initial lighting, it's usually the case where FX Artists will place the FX where they need to be, and a Lighting Artist will then do a lighting pass on top of them.
Skybox Artists
At some companies the Environment Artists also create the skyboxes, but at larger companies, this has become a specialization, and you may be working with people who specialize in skybox art. Note that although the sky itself is the primary work here, that it goes beyond just skies. Anything that is seen in the distance along with the sky (city skylines, rock outcroppings, jungle tree lines, other planets, etc.) are created by these artists. You'll be working with them to ensure that the lighting and post FX like fog all work together with the sky to blend well and look believable.
Game Designers
While much of the levels you light will be fairly straightforward, there will be times that Level Designers will have specific requests for some spots, to help a player navigate through an area, or for "flashlight only" scenarios, etc. They'll also want to be sure that the lighting doesn't impede the flow of the level, etc. You'll work with them the most in the early stages of a level, when it's first coming together.
Art Directors
The Art Director may have created some of the concept art, or at least was involved in the process. Their job is to oversee the project and make sure a visual story is being told as it was originally intended. They will have input for the lighting direction as the project develops. Hopefully most of the changes they ask for will come towards the beginning of the project, and not towards the end. Larger studios will also have Creative Directors and Lighting Directors.
Programmers
Although you might not work with the programmers as much as some of the other departments here, it's still good to ask questions about the engine and the tools to gain a better understanding of how (and why) things work the way they do. The Programmers will not be shy in explaining to you why you can't have hundreds of dynamic, shadow-casting point lights in your level. It's good to form a relationship with them, as you're more likely to get tools written that will make your life easier! It's especially nice if you have a programmer that works specifically on the lighting pipeline. Programmers are kind of like plants, but instead of sunlight and water, they need snacks and beer. Treat them well, and they will write amazing tools and code for you.
Production Coordinators
There's a difference between "Producers" and "Production Coordinators". You may not work with Producers directly, but you may be fortunate enough to work with (good) Production Coordinators. Their job is to help you with your job. A good Production Coordinator will take the load off your shoulders when it comes to tracking things down, and finding out who's responsible for what. They'll help find out what's blocking you from finishing any current tasks, and can make things run like clockwork. They're worth their weight in gold.
QA
QA, or Quality Assurance is the team of people that are constantly playing through the game, looking for bugs and things that aren't working as expected, etc. In the early stages of a game, you might not work with QA that often, but as the game progresses, and especially as it nears the final stretch, you'll be working with them more. Initially, QA mainly ignores lighting errors, since they know it's still in progress. But at some point they'll be asked to start including lighting problems in their testing, and you'll be working with them a lot more, as you start getting bugs for lighting.
So those are some of the people you'll work with.
What's your average day actually like?
