Character Technical Artist

Job Description

Character Technical Artist - Treyarch (Vancouver)

Treyarch, the studio behind the best-selling Call of Duty - Black Ops franchise, is seeking a Character Technical Artist to join its legendary team in delivering the next generation of Call of Duty games.
Our goal is to create stunning, realistic, and memorable characters and props that work seamlessly in fast action-60 frames per second gameplay and non-pre-rendered, real-time cinematics - pushing the boundaries of gameplay, art, storytelling, and technology to reach our global audience of hundreds of millions of players.

As a Character Technical Artist, you will work on tools, pipeline process, and art assets directly on our current and future games with a focus on characters, creatures, weapons, and vehicles
Our ideal candidate will demonstrate a balance of technical skills and excellent art sense while keeping efficient games in mind.

What you'll do…
• Evaluate, expand, and maintain asset creation pipelines and processes.
• Present and carry through new innovative ideas for raising the visual bar and improving technology.
• Collaborate with engineers and artists to drive teamwork, support, and communication.
• Develop sophisticated deformation systems for clothes and muscles to achieve realistic results during real-time gameplay.
• Work with existing and build new real-time physics systems for cloth, hair, soft and rigid objects.
• Develop procedural systems for deformation and mechanical machines.
• Interact with outsourcing teams during skinning and deformation reviews, guide on improving visual quality.
• Work with animators on developing animation control rigs tools and animation pipeline tools.
• Mentor, educate, and share your subject matter expertise with the team to instill standard methodologies and further grow our team.

To succeed you should have…
• 3+ years of professional Technical Art or Technical Animation experience in video games, ideally with at least one shipped title.
• Ability to assess the content scope and ensure successful delivery of content on may be tight deadlines.
• Strong communication, presentation, and follow-up skills.
• Outstanding problem-solving skills regarding creative, technical, and production issues, while keeping a professional, calm, and composed demeanor.
• Experience developing and improving tools and scripts with Python APIs in various art creation software.
• Experience using Qt, PySide, and/or PyQt.
• Experience working in various game engines and run time packages.
• Solid knowledge and understanding of facial and figure anatomy, as well as hard surface mechanical shapes.

We'd love it if you also have…
• A passion for playing and making video games.
• Are a self-starter and proactive.
• An experience and interest in AI.
• Ability to fix or modify modeling issues, including LOD's and UV's.
• Understanding of version control and project management tools.
• C++/Maya API experience.

We love hearing from anyone who is enthusiastic about changing the games industry. Not sure you meet all qualifications? Let us decide! Research shows that women and members of other under-represented groups tend to not apply to jobs when they think they may not meet every qualification, when, in fact, they often do! At Activision Blizzard, we are committed to creating a diverse and inclusive environment and strongly encourage you to apply.

Rewards

We provide a suite of benefits that promote physical, emotional and financial well-being for 'Every World' - we've got our employees covered! Subject to eligibility requirements, the Company offers comprehensive benefits including:
• Extended health plan, including medical, dental, vision, life and AD&D insurance, for employees and their dependents, as well as disability insurance;
• RRSP with Company match, tuition reimbursement, charitable donation matching;
• Paid holidays and vacation, paid sick time, compassion and bereavement leaves, parental leave;
• Mental health & wellbeing programs, fitness programs, free and discounted games, and a variety of other benefit programs like supplemental life & critical illness, legal service, and others;
• If the Company requires that you move geographic locations for the job, then you may also be eligible for relocation assistance.

Eligibility to participate in these benefits may vary for part time and temporary full-time employees and interns with the Company.

The standard base pay range for this role is $63,700.00 - $134,600.00 CAD. These values reflect the expected annualized base pay range of new hires in British Columbia, Canada. Actual amounts will vary depending on experience, performance and location. In addition to a competitive base pay, employees in this role may be eligible for incentive compensation. Incentive compensation is not guaranteed.

Jobcode: Reference SBJ-6kqpjj-18-191-178-88-42 in your application.