Unreal Engine (Technical Artist)

Technical Artist, the link between our programming and art teams. The Unreal EngineTechnical Artist blends significant industry experience and artistic versatility to a variety of technical art tasks. They will be responsible for collaborating with the art team to push the look and feel of our projects to the next level using bleeding edge technology.

This role will assist with the creation of textures, materials, and shader code. Additionally, the individual works with art, pipeline and animation teams to manage, performance issues, quality control and suggest pipeline improvements.

Requirements:

• • • Pioneers new asset creation techniques for environment assets
    • Creates technical prototypes and mock-ups for the Art Team to uses as a reference
    • Proposes pipeline and technology improvements to Art and Core Pipeline Teams
    • Supports the Environment Team with requests for shader changes
    • Collaborates with the Environment Team to create and apply PBR materials and texture maps on assets that provide the desired look and feel of the art direction of the project
    • Ability to work on both stylized and realistic projects
    • Maintains consistency and quality on all textures and shaders created for characters and/or environments
    • Understands memory and frame-rate budgets for XboxOne, PS4, or comparable platforms
    • Keeps up with current technologies used in and by various game engines
    • Other duties may be assigned

    Education and/or Experience:

    • Bachelor’s degree (B. A.) from four-year college or university; or five to seven years related experience and/or training; or equivalent combination of education and experience in AAA console games.
    • Advanced knowledge of cutting-edge content creation pipelines
    • Advanced knowledge of game engines like Unreal Engine or equivalent
    • Advanced knowledge of Physically Based Shading and Lighting
    • Experience using node-based shader networks such as those found in Unreal Editor
    • Experience in Substance Designer/Painter, Houdini, Maya
    • Basic understanding of CgFX, HLSL, or Cg from a technical artist’s perspective
    • Basic understanding of Python and photography is a plus

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Lighting (Technical Director)

Lighting TDs are responsible for creating lit environments and elements, including placing key lights, creating shadows, etc. for both live action integration and full CG images. Lighting TDs work in these general areas:

Texture coordinate application (including fur application and perspective texture application)

Texture map painting, material property/shader specification, and compositing both as a means of lighting and the combining of scene elements.

Placing lights, defining material properties, painting textures, managing renders and sometimes compositing.

Requirements:

• Develop lighting for full CG shots.
• Develop for CG assets, including construction of clean and efficient shading networks.
• Be proficient in Maya, as well as all modern lighting and rendering techniques.
• Be knowledgeable of Vray or equivalent renderer.
• Understand multi-pass rendering and compositing.
• Be able to take direction and work in a team-focused environment, and good communication skills are a MUST!
• Possess strong time management skills and be extremely organized.
• Work ethically and maintain a positive attitude in the face of challenging situations.

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Senior Character Animator (Technical Director)

Senior Character Animators create and polish performances in a timely manner based on direction from the Animation Director and Supervisors to create convincing performances and motion of all types and styles.

Requirements:

• Use and understand 3D animation and deformation tools.
• Work with production and supervisor team to understand manage schedules and shot deadlines.
• Attend dailies, shot sequence reviews, and team meetings routinely.
• Provide input regarding tools and interfaces to improve throughput.
• Work with animation team to maintain continuity and consistent performance within a show.racter Animator

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Modeler

Modelers build models from scratch and see them through the modeling pipeline from start to finish. A mastery of human and animal anatomy, perspective, weight, volume, proportion and/or architecture, industrial design or automotive design is required. Several years of experience creating high resolution textures using Mudbox, Zbrush, Maya and Photoshop are also beneficial.

Requirements:

• Creating complex organic models needed for character animation.
• Propping elements for effects and environmental sets and structures.
• Character texturing and UV-ing.

Production experience with V-ray lighting and rendering is a plus!

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Animation Rigger

The rigger’s primary responsibility is to create highly versatile character rigging systems and animation interfaces. 3+ years work experience is required in 3D CG for Digital Animation, Visuals Effects or Video games. Excellent communication skills are also required, as you will be working with a lead. Candidates must work well under pressure, as projects turn over at a much faster rate than the industry average.

Requirements:

• Implements animation control rigging systems for complex characters and props using Maya>
• Works with the Lead Rigger to ensure that all rigs meet the show’s requirements.
• Oversees the characters, vehicles and props rigging through the animation pipeline.
• Develops tools and plug-ins to optimize animation and rigging workflow.
• Additional responsibilities may include facial target modeling and other organic and non-organic modeling tasks.
• Ensure the CG characters will employ all current character setup procedures.
• Troubleshoot and wrangle character-rigging issues for artists within various disciplines.
• Maintains or exceeds consistent level of productivity while meeting deadlines and producing high quality work.
• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent degree in Computer Science, Computer Visualization, or Computer Animation required or equivalent work experience.

Knowing the following will be beneficial to getting hired as a rigger:

• Expertise with Maya animation software.
• Expertise in setting up cloth simulation rigs.
• Experience with MEL, CSH, Python, TCL, Perl or other scripting languages.
• Skilled knowledge of anatomy for both human/biped and animal/quadruped.
• An additional reel demonstrating abilities in rigging, scripting, along with proficiency in tools or plug-in design. Character, prop, and vehicle rigs are best for demonstration purposes.

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Animator

We are looking for animators to work on stylized, key framed, cut- scene projects. We are seeking experienced Maya animators with a 2 year minimum of serious production experience.

Requirements:

• Successful candidates must be able to work in a fast paced environment, being efficient as part of a team or on their own.
• Must demonstrate ability to take directions and animate both primary and secondary characters, physical actions, emotions, facial animations and lip synchs.
• Accountable for meeting deadlines, following schedules, and showing work in progress.
• Be pro-active and take initiative to improve production quality, optimizing pipeline wherever possible.
• Must be able to understand and follow through on basic CG layouts, shot turnovers, notes and feedback.
• Must be able to animate multiple types of shots, ranging from simple to moderately difficult.

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