Technical Artist (Rigging) - EA SPORTS Technology

Important Note: This team works onsite at EA Vancouver (Burnaby office). Applicants are required to work onsite 3 days, Tuesday - Thursday every week. This is a 12-month contract with the possibility of longer term employment. 

EA SPORTS is one of the most iconic brands in entertainment - connecting hundreds of millions around the world to the sports they love through a portfolio of industry-leading video games. 

EA SPORTS Tech provides specialized technology teams working on modern character articulation and motion, content pipelines and workflows, machine learning, game security, dev ops, as well as long lead feature and technology development for all EA SPORTS titles. As part of EA SPORTS Tech, the Rigging Team pushes visual boundaries and experiences for our players. We invest in future technologies, shared tooling, and production workflows. We combine creativity and imagination with technical expertise. We are a diverse group that encourages team members to bring their unique perspectives and expertise to work every day.

Your Responsibilities:

A Rigging Technical Artist works under the direction of a Rigging Lead in partnership with project managers to ensure that deliverables are achieved at quality and on time. Your responsibilities and tasks will include: skeleton creation, character and object skinning, control rigging, cloth/hair simulation, asset maintenance, and script development. TAs are expected to assume ownership of their content, and resolve any technical or quality issues that arise with their assets. 

Your Qualifications:

• At least 3 years of cinematic or games production experience.
• Background in rigging and skinning complex assets
• Effective at communicating with different audiences: artists, engineers, managers.
• Experience scripting/programming in Python (knowledge of C++ a bonus).
• Expertise with Autodesk Maya
• Knowledge of human anatomy and animation principles

Great to Have:

• Understanding of / experience with game engines (commercial or proprietary)
• Character simulation experience
• Experience with / understanding of 3D mathematics
• Experience with Houdini / procedural node graph systems
• Familiarity with motion capture (data + acquisition)