Senior Facial Character TD

CONTRACT ROLE

Insomniac is looking for its next Senior Facial Character TD. In this role, the Senior Facial Character TD is responsible for authoring facial rigs from scratch or utilizing a variety of high-resolution scan-data; participate in facial research & development efforts; pioneer and recommend new tools, techniques and technology for pushing visual boundaries, performance and efficiency. Responsible for a strong understanding of FACS and facial anatomy, as well as cutting edge approaches to facial technology.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities include the following:

• Authors high quality photorealistic facial rigs based on FACS using blendshapes.
• Authors rigging systems to augment or support blendshape-based facial rigs.
• Authors or contributes to systems/workflows for integrating head and body rigs.
• Collaborates with Character Art, Animation, and Engineering teams to deliver the highest quality assets with animator/mocap friendly interfaces that run smoothly in engine. 
• Contributes to tools for authoring and editing facial rigs (python/pyqt/pyside).
• Contributes to automated tools and workflows for runtime optimization.
• Contributes to tools for ingesting 3rd party facial rigs.
• Contributes to facial animation systems such as facial solvers and R&D (python/C++/Machine Learning).
• Sculpts FACS (from scratch if necessary) using deformers and/or sculpting tools.
• Processes and cleans 3D or 4D scan data from FACS sessions.
• Keeps up with state-of-the-art approaches to facial rigging for photorealistic characters in film and games.
• Has strong understanding of facial shape transfer techniques and ability to implement shape transfer pipelines.
• May be asked to direct actors through FACS during facial acquisitions.
• May ingest and integrate facial assets from 3rd parties.
• May be expected to maintain relationships and provide feedback to external vendors.
• Adheres to lawful and ethical business practices in support of a diverse team of
  artists.
• Other duties may be assigned.

Supervisory Responsibilities: This role has no supervisory duties but may mentor other TD’s with regard to facial mechanics, rigging, sculpting, or solving techniques.

Qualifications: To perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to perform each essential duty satisfactorily. The requirements listed below are representative of the knowledge, skill, and/or ability required. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

Computer Skills:

• Expert-level experience with Maya.
• Experience sculpting details with ZBrush, Mudbox, or comparable; processing scan data with Wrap3 or comparable; with deformation transfer workflows.
• Preferred experience with machine-learning based solutions for facial scanning/authoring/solving (TensorFlow, PyTorch, etc); authoring plugins that aid in facial deformation transfer or solving (python or C++); and working with faces in realtime (Unity, Unreal or other).

Other Skills: Strong understanding of state-of-the-art approaches to rigging photorealistic faces for film or games; of FACS, how it relates to facial anatomy, and ability to identify primary action units on sight; Understands current approaches to facial performance capture & solving; of modern approaches to scanning including lightstage and 4D scanning.

Expert understanding of facial skeletal and muscle anatomy; Passion for achieving highest quality detail through iteration and refinement. Ability to think outside the box to achieve more realistic solutions or optimize runtime performance. Passion for collaborating and sharing knowledge across teams.