Lead Technical Designer in Animation

ART

What We Do

Push your artistic talent to the limit on a team of world-class environment, character and concept artists who strive to innovate and inspire.

What You'll Do

Epic Games is looking for a Lead Technical Designer in Animation (TDiA) to join our team working on Fortnite. As a TDiA, you will use your animation sense and technical understanding of character animation to design and create gameplay animation systems that facilitate appealing, high-quality character motion. You will be a primary point of contact for animation implementation issues and any animation-related technical challenges and will work closely with Animation, Design, and Programming colleagues to ensure the animation pipeline operates smoothly and efficiently. You will also help identify potential issues and deploy correct solutions, using your technical knowledge to help bridge and facilitate communication between the animation team and other departments. As a Lead, you will help to set the technical roadmap and direction for future animation technologies in Fortnite and will manage a team of other TDiAs working on a variety of systems.

In this role, you will

• Lead a team of TDiAs working on Fortnite seasonal features, cosmetic animation support, and character locomotion technologies, working closely with the Fortnite Animation Programming team to help determine and schedule the technical roadmap for the product
• Help create animation behavior tools/techniques/philosophies that allow the building of complex movement systems
• Design and implement animation state machines/behaviors and runtime solutions
• Work closely with the Animation, Design, and Programming departments to analyze, troubleshoot, and solve in-game animation implementation issues and animation-related technical challenges
• Closely collaborate with the animation leadership to maintain the style and quality bar for animations in the game
• Look for opportunities to improve the animation pipeline/workflow and help provide solutions for technical animation problems, including performing training and creating documentation for the animation team

What we're looking for

• Strong verbal communication skills, as well as both experience with and interest in team management and mentoring
• A strong animation sense with a clear understanding of realistic and stylized character motion and how to achieve them with modern animation methods
• Expertise with animation pipelines, including source content creation tools such as Maya, MotionBuilder, and the Unreal Engine using our Control Rig toolset
• Exceptional problem-solving ability with strong written communication and teamwork skills
• Familiarity with gameplay animation tools and concepts, such as blend trees and state machines; experience with Unreal Engine Animation Blueprints is a plus
• Experience with AAA game development, preferably on a large team using an established game engine (internal or commercial); experience with Unreal Engine is a plus
• Self-motivation, a strong work ethic, and the ability to work independently