Character Technical Artist

Welcome to Striking Distance Studios!

Driven by people. Inspired by challenges. Relentless to deliver creative excellence.

At the intersection of art, design and technology lies Striking Distance Studios. We are a AAA development studio within the San Ramon Hills of the San Francisco Bay Area. With the release of our first title, The Callisto Protocol, we are excited to continue to grow our team.

Here at Striking Distance Studios it is amazing people, an immersive experience and a passion for excellence that drives us each day. We are looking for people who push themselves creatively and learn with every new challenge. We give you the setting and the opportunity to do work you are proud of. We’re looking for the best to come join us and become part of a world-class team.

To us excellence is not a skill, but an attitude!

What we are looking for:

Striking Distance Studios is seeking a talented, motivated, and experienced Character Technical Artist who has a passion to collaborate with Animators, Designers, and Engineers to bring characters to life. This position will facilitate the development of shared rigging and animation technology utilized in cinematic and game creation pipelines across multiple teams. An ideal candidate should have a thorough knowledge of animation, rigging, deformation and simulation tools used in the CG/VFX industry, as well as related cross pipeline and workflows. Experience in game rigging, animation blueprints, animation pipelines, and technologies are required. The team consists of seasoned professionals from film and game backgrounds, aspiring to leverage cutting edge technology to produce the best game experiences. This is the perfect opportunity to work closely with the best in class from all over the world and under one roof!

Responsibilities:

• Responsible for character setups, including the rigging of various heroes, enemies, weapons, vehicles and props, working closely with animators to achieve engaging in-game performance
• Collaborate with Animation, Design and Engineering to build out performant animation blueprints
• Create simulation setups for things such as hair and cloth for real-time in-engine or for animation within Maya
• Assist the animation team in troubleshooting assets and animation problems as they arise
• Provide and maintain technical documentation
• Delve into code written by other technical artists and take ownership of existing systems as needed.
• Act as an intermediary between the animation and technical teams to elucidate the workflows, needs, and terminologies of each team
• Create and expand upon Maya tools.  Improve the art pipeline both between and within the game engine and Maya 
• Keep current on technological developments and advancements.
• Communicate accurate status updates to your team leads, producers, and QA regarding tasks/features you are responsible for.
• Adhere to team coding standards and best practices.
• Foster a culture of open, honest, and respectful communication across all disciplines.

Qualifications:

• Expertise in Maya, with a minimum of 3 years of experience in game or film/vfx fields
• At least 1 year of experience with Unreal Engine, strong proficiency in Unreal preferred
• Possess a comprehensive understanding of animation techniques for the purpose of proactive problem solving and troubleshooting
• Knowledge of anatomy and an understanding of bio-mechanics, for humanoids and animals
• In-depth understanding of character skinning techniques, weight painting, and deformations
• Proficient in Python development skills and debugging techniques
• Experience in adopting production pipelines and following guidelines and system requirements
• Strong troubleshooting skills and the ability to find pragmatic solutions
• Proven ability to be self-sufficient and be proactive in preventing/solving production issues 
• Experience shipping games on current generation consoles (PS5 or XSX) and PC.
• Ability to be self-directed, focused, and detail-oriented.
• A highly communicative and collaborative disposition.
• Advanced verbal and written communications skills.
• A demonstrable love / passion for playing and making video games.

Bonus Skills:

• Good understanding of UI design using Qt, PyQt, PySide
• Maya API (Python and/or C++)
• Familiarity in runtime performance efficiency and optimization