Summary:
The Lead Character Technical Director recommends new directions and technologies for the project and develops new tools and rigs used by in-house artists and production teams. Tools and rigs are developed to be flexible and work on multiple shows (existing and future shows), integrate with existing tools and systems, and be able to be sent to vendor studios. Someone in this position will communicate with the supervisor of the CG department in order to develop tools for the pipeline and meet their needs. The Lead Character Technical Director will communicate all designs, plans, and approaches for new tools to the members of the Research and Development team. Responsibilities also include working with vendor studios to plan, direct, and supervise development of tools and rigs built by the vendor for the vendor studio.
Responsibilities:
- Collaborate with other leads (modeling, texture, animation, and environment) to make the episode doable within the CG Department’s parameters.
- Character set-up, rigging, weighting, and skinning.
- Script new tools and implement new techniques.
- Extend and maintain existing tools.
- Attend review sessions with the teams to gather feedback on tools usage, bugs, and feature requests.
- Build and carry out hierarchy and pipeline solutions.
- Create “Build” notes for the designs to instruct overseas artists on how to approach rigging complex and unique characters to hit the requirements of the episode.
- Good problem-solving, coming up with ideas to translate very cartoony 2D storyboards into a fast-paced CG pipeline.
- Lead team of character technical directors by enforcing aesthetics, technical quality, and time-lines for each assignment.
- Bid out and cast assets based on complexity, technical and aesthetic difficulty, and episode prominence.
- Review animatics/designs and give suggestions and/or solutions to the Supervising Producer to make the episode fit within the given parameters.
Qualifications:
- A great “can do” attitude and flexibility to non-traditional solutions is essential.
- Excellent communication skills, both with other leads and with overseas artists.
- Be able to quickly improve upon an existing asset personally, or give clear and direct notes about how other artists can improve an asset.
- Familiarity with Python scripting/debugging.
- Possess strong technical chops and have an artistic eye.
- The ideal candidate should be knowledgeable in the rigging process, pipeline, and be able to develop tools and systems to assist the character team.
- In-depth knowledge of IK and FK systems is required.
- Must have experience using Maya to build complex rigs and tool sets.
Additional Qualifications:
- A minimum of 3-4 years of industry experience in film, broadcast, and/or games.
- Unreal Engine 4.0 experience is a plus.
- Proficiency in C++
Paramount is an equal opportunity employer (EOE) including disability/vet.
At Paramount, the spirit of inclusion feeds into everything that we do, on-screen and off. From the programming and movies we create to employee benefits/programs and social impact outreach initiatives, we believe that opportunity, access, resources and rewards should be available to and for the benefit of all. Paramount is proud to be an equal opportunity workplace and is an affirmative action employer. We are committed to equal employment opportunity regardless of race, color, ethnicity, ancestry, religion, creed, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, age, citizenship status, marital status, disability, gender identity, gender expression, and Veteran status.
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