At ArenaNet, we’ve always believed that games are art. They have the power to communicate ideas and tell stories. They can change the way we think, reflect our cultures, and move us. As the developer of the award-winning Guild Wars game series, we’re proud to share our passion for the online worlds we’ve created with over 11 million players worldwide.
ArenaNet develops and publishes games for every kind of person, which means our games need to be built by every kind of person. We believe the best experiences come from working together, celebrating differences, and helping each of our team members shine.
We are looking for a highly skilled Senior Technical Artist to join our dynamic team, with a strong focus on rigging for games. The ideal candidate will have experience in supporting characters and creatures through rigging, as well as in creating and maintaining tools and pipelines. As a Senior Technical Artist, you will design, create, and maintain complex character rigs, secondary motion systems, and animation systems to bring our characters to life. You will engage in continuous research and development of new techniques for driving skeletons, blend-shapes, and custom deformers through advanced control rigs. Additionally, you will collaborate closely with Character Artists and Animators, providing support and addressing feedback to achieve the best visual results in the game.
WHAT YOU’LL DO
- Build, test and maintain rigs for a variety of dynamic art assets.
- Develop constraints, custom deformers, secondary motion
- Create tools within Maya to support and push forward workflows across Rigging and Character Art.
- Work with the team organizing, documenting and maintaining libraries for interacting with the rig from a tooling standpoint.
- Work with other Technical Artists improving workflows and tools used internally by the Rigging Team and other departments such as Character Art and Animation.
- Staying current with the latest technologies/research ongoing in the field to help keep our dynamic art visuals at the cutting-edge regarding motion and deformation.
WHAT YOU’LL NEED TO BE SUCCESSFUL
- A degree in a relevant field or equivalent professional experience in the game industry as a Character Rigger, Technical Animator, or a similar/related role.
- 5+ years of production experience creating complex rigs for games
- A demo reel and online portfolio showcasing exceptional skills in creating motion controls for animation, complex deformation, and skinning of the body and face of characters and creatures.
- Understanding of human body and facial anatomy as it relates to game asset creation and topology.
- Strong Python, Mel or OpenMaya, with the ability to demonstrate these skills in a practical test if required.
- Experience working with Unreal Engine in the context of animation.
- Strong communication, self-management, and organizational skills.
- Effective time management skills, with the ability to meet deadlines and project milestones effectively.
PLUSES - Please note that these are desirable skills and are not required to apply for the position.
- Experience creating animation scripts/tools for Motionbuilder, Maya, is highly advantageous.
- Experience creating assets and pipelines using Houdini in production.
- Experience with C++ is highly advantageous.
- C# programming skills.
- 3D Math background.
- Experience using source control software (i.e. Perforce, Git) and working on a code base collaboratively.
- Understanding of sculpting tools
- Experience with texturing packages such as painter/designer
- Experience with Havok
- Experience with Cloth/Marvelous designer
We are open to remote work from the following states: AZ, CA, CO, FL, GA, ID, IL, MD, NC, NY, OR, TX, UT, WA and WI or onsite/hybrid/flex at our office in Bellevue, WA.
Please note that the pay range listed in this job posting reflects the full salary range for this position. While we provide this range to offer transparency, our target hiring range typically falls between the minimum and the midpoint, allowing for growth potential within the role.
Total compensation is salary plus an annual bonus potential. When determining an offer amount, many things are taken into consideration such as qualifications, experience, internal equity and work location. We strive to provide competitive and equitable compensation packages to all our employees.
This role is also eligible for medical, dental, vision and life insurance, short and long term disability, 401(k), flexible and dependent care spending accounts, PTO, paid holidays and parental leave.
Don’t meet every single requirement on this job post? Studies have shown that women and people of color are less likely to apply to jobs unless they meet every single qualification. At ArenaNet, we believe diversity in culture, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, and backgrounds make us a better team – we celebrate it. So, if you’re excited about this role, but your experience doesn’t align perfectly with every qualification listed, we encourage you to apply anyway. You may be just the right candidate for this or other roles.
