The Senior Technical Artist functions as the bridge between engineering and art, owning the importing, implementation, and management of art assets and their integration with the game engine.  The tech artist collaborates daily with multiple departments such as artists, animators, designers, and engineers to effectively drive animation, characters, and features within the game.  Additionally, this position also claims ownership of overall game asset performance, making sure that assets are optimized and implemented in an efficient manner.  The Senior Technical Artist also carries the primary responsibility of keeping the overall in-game art assets structured and neatly organized and facilitates a seamless integration of assets into Unreal 4 by using best in class practices.

 Role and Responsibilities

·        Effective communication with team members of varying disciplines including written documentation of pipeline processes and proprietary systems.

·        Ability to be an effective bridge between art and programming - especially at the Unreal 4 in-engine level.

·        Expertise within relevant areas Unreal 4, primarily rigs and animation systems, but also comfortable with most other areas to be effective: shaders, blueprint, physics assets, lighting, etc.

·        Be the main point of contact and owner of all character assets within the engine.

·        Ability to own the state machines, blueprints, and animation workflows.

·        Guide the vision of art working with technology and technology working with art especially when it comes to creating new features and teaching fellow devs how to use them.

·        Self driven, able to prototype and debug new features.

·        Overall familiarity with engine side setup and troubleshooting workflows.

·        Strong experience in a DCC, 3DSMax preferred, including rigging, biped, model optimization, animation, animation exporting and UV layout.

·        Photoshop experience required for basic image modification and texture adjustments.

·        Experience with asset optimization for the efficient use of resources.

·        Ability to support the art team with troubleshooting and technical assistance.

·        Strong problem-solving methodology

Experience and Education Requirements

·    5+ years experience in games development, with shipped titles.

·    UE4 - Tech Art Character Experience with Character Blueprints and ABPs (mandatory)

       ·    3DSMax - Character Rigging with Biped

·      Self-motivated, able to multitask, and organized.

·      Comfortable in a fast paced iterative environment.

·      Understanding of Rigging and Animation.

·      Experience with the game pipeline from start to finish.

·      Prior experience with version control software such as Perforce