Walt Disney Animation Studios is looking for a Rigging Technical Director.
Rigs are tactile, sculptural, intuitive interfaces for posing the character. Company is looking for self-motivated creators, with strong artistic skills built on top of a solid technical foundation. You will work closely with the industry's top talent in fields ranging from design and modeling through animation to bring our characters to life. This is a regular, full time, staff position that will be located at our Vancouver, BC studio. Please note that relocation eligibility may be determined based on role and individual circumstance.
Responsibilities:
- Build an intuitive interface for posing a character that maintains appeal and design throughout its range of motion
- Author clean deformations that perform with consistency and predictability
- Shepherd the rig build process, starting with geometry received from modeling all the way through delivering a final rig to animation which requires an ability to debug broken or poorly functioning assets/shots with minimal supervision
- Work closely with the character teams (comprised of visual development, modeling, simulation, look development, animation, and character fx), iterating quickly and addressing notes accurately
- Contribute to our codebase in a way that others can build off of, taking input from peers and building tools around consensus
Requirements:
- Solid understanding of the principles of animation and design
- Extensive knowledge of anatomy, kinematics, and physical behaviors
- Expertise in facial rigging that leans heavily on sculpting appealing shapes on top of a clean and stable deformation base
- Attention to detail focused on delivering a quality product
- Solid understanding of Python scripting
- 3+ years of professional experience rigging characters
- Experience working in collaborative environments and taking direction
- Strong problem-solving ability
- Comfort with Linux environments
- Previous leadership experience is a plus
- Experience in modeling, sculpting, and creating blendshapes are a plus
- Experience in animation is a plus
- Experience in hair or cloth simulation is a plus
- Bachelor's degree in Art, Illustration, Computer Graphics, Engineering, related field or equivalent experience