Principal Technical Artist (Unannounced Project)

We are ArenaNet, a studio making online worlds infused with innovation, hand-crafted excellence, and creative passion. Our passion is broadly shared; gamers made Guild Wars 2 the fastest selling MMO game in the West with more than 3 million copies sold in its first 9 months, and players and press have consistently called it one of the best MMOs of all time.

Our studio is built on foundations of excellence with a focus on community. We constantly innovate, unlocking the true potential of online role-playing with game-changing titles like Guild Wars 2 and beyond. The status quo isn't good enough for our dedicated worldwide community of players which is why we question the de facto industry conventions and demand more from ourselves as developers.

You are a highly experienced technical artist with significant experience collaborating with artists and engineers to define clear goals for tool sets, pipelines, and art development process. You will drive the initiative and push leading industry standards through innovation when partnering with engineering and art to solve complex problems that impact the project as a whole. 

WHAT YOU'LL DO

• You will specialize in Technical art as it pertains to characters, animation and rigging, and be comfortable teaching and sharing your knowledge and experience with others.
• You will work closely with the engineering and art teams to evaluate and implement multiple engine pipelines alongside their necessary tools which enable AAA content development..
• You will lead R&D efforts for tools, content, and new technologies for art development while partnering with tools leads to set strategic visions for content and tools. You will then partner with engineers to develop, or integrate, those cutting edge tools and technology.
• You will foster positive relationships with creative and technical disciplines and act as a bridge between them. You will work closely with game artists to support new and existing art tools and pipelines while maintaining performance goals defined by you and graphics engineers.

WHAT YOU'LL NEED TO BE SUCCESSFUL

• 12+ years of experience as a Technical Artist within the games industry
• Solid experience on either PC or console AAA game titles, ideally both platforms.
• Strong knowledge of modern content creation pipelines and workflows, including familiarity with a variety of DCC packages
• Deep knowledge in Pipeline and automation with specialization in Technical Art as it pertains to Characters, Animation and Rigging
• Expertise in Autodesk Maya
• Physics and secondary motion rigging for realtime (ragdoll, cloth, hair, jiggly bits etc.)
• Experiencing with pushing high quality character / creature deformations and physics for real-time
• Strong understanding of Anatomy
• Expertise in Unreal E 4+
• Expertise in Python and PYQT, with some experience with at least one other scripting or programming language (C++, C#, JavaScript, etc.)
• Experience shipping multiple games including at least one AAA title
• Experience with multiple game engines
• Excellent written and verbal communications skills
• Excellent organization and time-management skills
• A customer-centric approach to tool development; solid grasp of UX
• Ability and willingness to mentor team members

PLUSES

• Experience developing for live multiplayer games
• Experience developing for modern consoles
• Experience with at least multiple commercial engines (Unity, Unreal3/4, CryEngine, Lumberyard, etc.)
• Has experience in all stages of game development, pre-production through ship
• Experience with PyMel and the Maya Python API
• Experience in other Technical Art Specialties
  • Shader Development
  • Material Pipelines
  • Lighting
  • Visual FX
  • Rendering
  • Proceduralism
  • Engine Automation