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Facial Character TD

We are looking for a rockstar Facial Character TD’s to be responsible for authoring facial rigs and facial riggings systems from scratch or utilizing a variety of high-resolution scan-data. This role will participate in facial research & development efforts; pioneer and recommend new tools, techniques and technology for pushing visual boundaries, performance and efficiency; and seek to continuously push the state of the art. If this sounds like you, please read on!

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 (i.e. smooth skinning decomposition, etc)
• 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
• Designs supporting facial rigging systems such as sticky-lips and corneal bulge
• Processes and cleans 3D or 4D scan data from FACS sessions, and extracts useful information such as wrinkle and bloodflow maps
• Focuses on performance optimization for runtime
• 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
• Other duties may be assigned

Education/Experience:

• Bachelor's degree (B.A.) from a four-year college or university; or five to seven years related experience and/or training; or equivalent combination of education and experience.
• One to four years of experience in character setup, Python scripting, a familiarity with MEL and a comprehensive understanding of all technical aspects of Maya animation.
• One to two years of animation training covering all basic animation principals.
• Extensive knowledge of Maya.

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.

If this sound like the opportunity that you have been looking for - we want to hear from you. Please use the link below and apply directly to the role. Don't forget to attach your reel.