Technical Animator

RESPONSIBILITIES

• Work with Programmers to improve toolkit, systems, establish rigging standards.
• Create rigs and skinning for animated organic and mechanical objects.
• Proactively come up with ideas on how to improve animation pipeline.
• Troubleshoot complex problems as they arise and construct solutions to unforeseen design problems in a timely manner.

REQUIREMENTS

• Understanding of skinning, rigging.
• Knowledge of Maya/Motionbuilder.
• Minimum of 2 years of experience in rigging, skinning, weighting, or physics.
• Ability to come up and utilize skinning tricks (folded shoulders, 2-bone ropes).
• Good communicator with strong verbal and written English skills. Ukrainian/Russian is a plus.
• Excellent problem-solving and time management skills.
• Self-direction and motivation.
• Proactive attitude.
• Desire to help drive the improvement of the game engine year-over-year.
• Ability to work under strict schedule and time pressure.

Preferences

• Experience working with procedural/physically-altered animation techniques.
• Experience with facial animation.
• One shipped AAA title on consoles.
• Experience in applying modern interactive character animation techniques such as blend-trees, HFSMs, IK, and partial-body animation.
• Understanding of real-world kinematics and ability to replicate physical movement using a mix of simulation tools and baked skeletal animations.
• Familiarity with mocap and hand-created animations.