inXile entertainment is an Xbox Game Studio led by Brian Fargo. We specialize in deep, reactive, and narrative-focused RPGs, but also love exploring other genres. Our studio is filled with passionate developers who love making games, and playing them.
inXile Entertainment, a Microsoft game studio, is seeking a Animation Engineer to work with our outstanding development team. This position will help create and build upon our next generation of Animation systems, tools, and pipeline. You will work with a talented core team of passionate and committed individuals on creative and large scale projects. In this position, you will have the opportunity to build and develop new tools as well as pipelines used across all our studios in a friendly and inclusive environment that fosters collaboration, fun and learning, with some of the most accomplished and driven people in the industry.
Responsibilities:
- Develop and maintain advanced character animation systems in Unreal Engine 4 (UE4)
- Prototype, research into and develop new animation techniques, such as: procedural or physics-based animation, motion matching, etc.
- Work closely across with riggers, animators, designers and other teams to improve the animation pipeline and workflow
- Develop, support and streamline the connections between technical animation, AI, physics and network systems
- Develop character animation systems using UE4 components such as Animation Sequences, Montages, Notifies, and custom systems. In both C++ and Blueprint.
- Extend and adapt the UE4 animations systems
- Develop and take ownership on developing a reactive ambient character system
- Optimize the animations systems to support large numbers of simultaneous characters in the world
- Work with animators to implement and support systems based on their needs
- Understand game design and create technical designs based on them
- Iterate with designers and artists to make the best game possible
- Performance optimization, bug fixing, and preparing the title for release quality
Requirements:
- 5+ years of experience in game programming, with experience working on at least one AAA shipped title.
- Advanced experience with UE4
- Strong C++ programming skills
- Strong understanding of the animation pipeline and team workflow (Mocap to Unreal)
- Proficiency in developing conversation flow and gesture systems
- Firsthand experience with standard animation techniques such as rigging, skeletons, state machines, ragdolls, IK, compression, morph, facial animation, etc.
- Experience in developing character animation systems using UE4 components such as Animation Sequences, Montages, Notifies, and custom systems. In both C++ and Blueprint
- Experience with using animation software such as Havok Behavior, Morpheme, Natural Motion
- Exposure and experience with cutting-edge animation techniques, such as motion matching, procedural or physics-based animation
- Strong familiarity with animation software, such as: Maya, 3DS Max, Motion Builder etc.
- Experience integrating facial animation integration, bone / blend shape systems
Pluses:
- Experience with Faceware
- Extensive experience with one or more real-time animation middleware (e.g.: Havok Animation, Granny, Morpheme) or equivalent custom/in-house solutions
- Previous experience working on an RPG
- Adept at taking the initiative on researching and experimenting with new ideas, solutions, and technologies.
- Python programming skills
- Familiarity with optimization and multi-threaded techniques