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Technical Artist

Telltale grew to become an industry leader in episodic delivery of narrative games, winning numerous accolades for its best-selling titles. Working with a small team of talented industry veterans, we will honor that tradition while also pushing the boundaries in the way that players experience and enjoy interactive storytelling. To achieve this vision we are seeking an accomplished Lead Technical Artist to help author the future story of Telltale for our upcoming sequel to The Wolf Among Us.

The Lead Technical Artist will be a key member on a core team of seasoned developers, playing a pivotal role in the creation of our all new Unreal-based art pipeline for The Wolf Among Us 2 as well as future Telltale titles. Imagine yourself prototyping early vision scenes, working with advanced facial rigs, animation tests, and material setups, a one of a kind motion capture pipeline as well as evaluation of tools and partners to utilize in full production. The ideal candidate will have expert level understanding of Unreal 4 Engine’s art and rigging capabilities and bring an attitude of experimentation and eagerness to tackle bold artistic and technical challenges.

The position reports to our Art Director and is a full-time position. This role may be based in our Corte Madera, CA office, our Malibu, CA office, or employees may work remotely. Remote workers must be available Pacific Time business hours. In-person or remote from Pacific or Mountain time zones preferred.

Responsibilities

• Design character rigs for biped Quadruped and Multi-limbed or Winged creature rigs.
• Developing auto-rigging tools for biped and quadruped characters in Python.
• Oversee FACS based facial rigging and sculpting.
• Evaluate and integrate off the shelf Facial animation solutions.
• Develop Art Tools supporting the Animation and Art departments.
• Skinning and skinning review of characters.
• Working in Unreal, help to establish our art and cinematic pipeline, work across several art disciplines including lighting, rigging, animation, and general art support as the need arises.
• Lead efforts in building foundational systems for art to establish scenes, animation, rigging, FX, and material tests.
• Coordinate with art, technical, and studio leads to help build and maintain a high performance art pipeline from creation to final package delivery.
• Rapid prototyping, experimentation, R&D, and review of internal and 3rd party cinematic tools and processes.
• Problem solve and determine ‘out of the box’ solutions for pipeline challenges.
• Contribute to the unique product artistic vision holding high standards for aesthetics and technical art implementation.

Qualifications

• 5 or more years experience as a Technical Artist or Rigger
• Advanced Python Scripting and Maya API knowledge
• Understanding of FACS based rigs
• Proven understanding of body and facial anatomy and plans to reproduce these in rigs and in-game characters
• Demo Reel demonstrating human and creature rig techniques.
• Must have 3 or more years experience with Unreal Engine and modern 3D art pipelines
• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent years of experience in Computer Science, 3D graphics, or related field
• Proven experience building tools for modern Unreal art pipeline with solid understanding of Unreal scripting
• Solid experience working with shader and materials in Unreal
• Strong understanding of animation pipelines, including character and environment systems
• Experience working with offsite art and programming teams
• Portfolio demonstrating technical artistic ability including work in Unreal based games
• Self-motivated and diligent, with established habits for tracking one’s own tasks and seeking out answers when needed
• Must have strong communication skills and a positive and professional attitude

Candidates must be authorized to work and accept new employment in the United States.

LCG Entertainment is an Equal Opportunity Employer.