Technical Artist - Character
Airship is currently seeking a skilled Character Technical Artist to help keep the artistic vision intact by developing pipelines and tools to push the quality and efficiency of our characters. You’ll work closely with Character Artists and Animation, advising on technical resources, researching new techniques, and ensuring the team is efficient and effective.
RESPONSIBILITIES:
Learn and maintain a deep understanding of the character (both player and non-player) animations and systems driving the characters.
Work within the constraints of the project, efficiently providing expertise to the character team.
Work with art, design, and code teams to prototype new features.
Ability to use debug and solve complex visual and performance problems.
Help support animators and character artists on a daily basis.
Push the boundaries on what the team and tech can do, researching and developing as needed.
REQUIRED SOFTWARE:
Houdini
Python
Lua
MaxScript
Maya
3D Studio Max
Adobe After Effects, Photoshop
Substance Painter
Unreal Engine
SKILLS:
Experience rigging characters and developing animation tools.
High attention to detail.
Excellent communication skills.
Solid understanding of art and animation pipelines.
Familiarity with game systems and the game development process.
Ability to identify the best tools and software to maximize productivity.
Understanding of rigging and animation.
Experience in physics simulations.
Shader development experience.
High-level artistic skills - proportion, color, composition.
Creative mindset and ability to overcome technical challenges.
Experience in digital art content creation - high and low-poly modeling, unwrapping, baking, texturing, level art, etc.
Excellent interpersonal skills in dealing with differences between creative and technical teams.
Our Benefits
Full health benefits including medical, dental and vision
Profit sharing
Generous PTO
401k plan
Relocation packages
Plus (when there’s not a pandemic)...
Office movie lunches
Snacks on snacks on snacks
A world-beating, custom-made board gaming table
MAME cabinet
How We Work
Autonomy through collaboration
We remove as many barriers as possible between you and productivity. We’ll ask you to be self-reliant and self-motivated, with the expectation that you talk frequently with your lead and teammates to keep everyone aligned.
Focused project management
We don’t manage just to manage. We’re building a system and process that is helpful, but not intrusive. If someone is asking you for a status update, it’s probably because they are working with you on the thing they are asking about, or are planning to use it.
Small team environment
Size is relative (especially in today’s dev world), but we’re all about direct interaction with teammates, experimenting with ideas and less bureaucracy.
Our Values
High Performance
Average will never be our target. We work hard to put the special sauce in each game we create, and this forms the core of our identity. It also pushes us to evolve. As we strive to be better together, we grow together.
Mutual Respect
We respect the time and extraordinary efforts of our employees by offering generous PTO, profit-sharing, WFH days (even pre-pandemic), and an understanding of personal circumstances. Making great games often takes a lot; we aim to give a lot in return, by committing to share our success with our team.
Approachability
Making something “fun” is inherently subjective, and can’t come without disagreement. We value being open, honest, and approachable. Respect breeds communication, and good communication means good games. If you aren’t approachable, in good times and bad, Airship isn’t for you.
Help Us Build It
We are still trying to achieve our goals, and probably always will be. We’re looking for thoughtful, creative folks to help us move the goalpost.
Due to the high volume of applicants we receive, we can’t reply to each individually. Only candidates in consideration for positions will be contacted. Thank you!