Description:
As a Technical Art & Animation Director you will play a pivotal role in our game development process by leading and inspiring a team of technical artists and animators. Your primary responsibility will be to bridge the gap between art and technology, ensuring that our games achieve cutting-edge visuals while maintaining optimal performance on console platforms.
You will be required to work across all our studio locations with both Art Directors and Project Artists, tackling the many different production challenges faced during the natural development of console games. Building a close relationship with the many disciplines to drive both existing and future tech and tools is critical to the success of this role.
As the Technical Art/Anim Director you will be reporting into the Global Head of Art.
Key Responsibilities
- Team Leadership: Build, lead and manage a team of technical artists and technical animators, providing mentorship, guidance, and support to help them excel in their roles.
- Art and Technology Integration: Collaborate closely with art and engineering teams to drive the seamless integration of art assets and technology, focusing on optimization and efficiency, developing an understanding of the needs of the clients as well as our own internal teams.
- Performance Optimization: Develop and implement technical art strategies to optimize game performance on console platforms, including graphics rendering, memory usage, and load times.
- Art Pipelines: Create and maintain efficient art pipelines that ensure a smooth workflow for the art team, reducing iteration times and improving quality.
- Visual Quality: Set and maintain high standards for visual quality, ensuring that the artistic vision is realized within the constraints of console hardware.
- Cross-Functional Collaboration: Work closely with cross-disciplinary teams to ensure that art and technology are aligned with gameplay and design requirements.
- Research and Development: Stay up to date with industry trends and emerging technologies, and lead R&D efforts to incorporate innovative art techniques and tools into the development process.
- Develop and implement: New animation tools based on both client and the project needs.
- Documentation and Training: Produce and maintain technical documentation for the art team and provide training and knowledge sharing on best practices and new tools.
Qualifications
REQUIREMENTS:
- Proven experience as a Technical Art Director in the video game industry, with a strong portfolio showcasing your contributions to AAA console games as both artist and animator.
- Deep understanding of console hardware and software architecture, with a track record of optimizing games for optimal performance.
- Broad knowledge of game engines such as Unreal, Unity and gaming company’s proprietary engines
- Strong leadership and team management skills with the ability to inspire and motivate a team of technical artists and animators.
- Proficiency in industry-standard software and tools, including 3D modelling and texturing, shaders, rendering, and scripting languages (e.g., Python).
- Excellent problem-solving and communication skills to effectively bridge the gap between art and technology.
- A passion for identifying problems and finding solutions.
- A passion for pushing the boundaries of visual quality and technical innovation in game development.
- Knowledge of game development processes, industry trends, and emerging technologies.
- Expert on Maya, Motion Builder animation workflow.
- Expert-level experience building animation tools.
- Expert on understanding state flow of gameplay animation and implementing animation in a game engine.
- MEL Scripting, Python, C# or other programming experience.