Microsoft - Global Publishing - SR. Technical Animator
polycounter lvl 6
Hi,
There's a great/rare opportunity within Microsoft Global Publishing available for qualified applicants. If you like working with multiple game studios to solve the hardest challenges in your field, with the support and resources of a company like Microsoft, this job will be exciting to you.
Here's the job posting that should be on the corporate portal, but hasn't been updated yet because this is such a new position.
I've worked at Microsoft for nearly 6 years. Over 2 years as a vendor, and over 3 years as a full-time employee. I've been making games for nearly 15 years and this is far and away the best gig I've found.
https://careers.microsoft.com/jobdetails.aspx?ss=&pg=0&so=&rw=1&jid=286064&jlang=en&pp=ss
Don Smith
Technical Art Director
Microsoft Global Publishing
There's a great/rare opportunity within Microsoft Global Publishing available for qualified applicants. If you like working with multiple game studios to solve the hardest challenges in your field, with the support and resources of a company like Microsoft, this job will be exciting to you.
Here's the job posting that should be on the corporate portal, but hasn't been updated yet because this is such a new position.
I've worked at Microsoft for nearly 6 years. Over 2 years as a vendor, and over 3 years as a full-time employee. I've been making games for nearly 15 years and this is far and away the best gig I've found.
Global Publishing: Senior Technical
Animator
Microsoft Studios Global Publishing within the Xbox division is looking for a talented Senior Technical Animator who is passionate about establishing strong animation style and quality for next gen real-time experiences! We work with many of the best Game Development Studios around the world and partner to push the limits of visuals and technology to delight our audiences.
We currently need exceptional artists to help us visualize the future of interaction. In particular, we have an incredible opportunity for a Senior Technical Animator who wants to live at the intersection of technology and art, with the aesthetic skills to understand what best in class animation quality looks like and the technical skills to make it real and performant in-game. We’re looking for someone with strong communication skills, a self-driven approach to work to the highest quality with an eagerness to partner closely with engineers and other creative disciplines to deliver complete and compelling solutions. The Senior Technical Animator within Publishing must bring consistently high artistic standards to both his/her work and that of the Art team, defining the animation quality bar whilst delivering compelling real-time experiences.
The position of Senior Technical Animator (emphasis on characters and rigged solutions) is to provide industry leading techniques and knowledge to support and grow our partner’s efforts to produce high quality character assets across many types of interactive entertainment. We place great value on collaborative individuals capable of hands-on support and knowledge sharing across Microsoft Studios.
Job responsibilities:
Act as the technical art expert for the immediate MS Global Publishing team of artists and art directors. This includes handling all aspects of producing prototypes, creating exemplar assets to set quality levels and define best practice. Be a leader in more technical aspects of character creation with specific emphasis on rigging, performance capture, animation and in-game animation technology.
Microsoft Studios Global Publishing within the Xbox division is looking for a talented Senior Technical Animator who is passionate about establishing strong animation style and quality for next gen real-time experiences! We work with many of the best Game Development Studios around the world and partner to push the limits of visuals and technology to delight our audiences.
We currently need exceptional artists to help us visualize the future of interaction. In particular, we have an incredible opportunity for a Senior Technical Animator who wants to live at the intersection of technology and art, with the aesthetic skills to understand what best in class animation quality looks like and the technical skills to make it real and performant in-game. We’re looking for someone with strong communication skills, a self-driven approach to work to the highest quality with an eagerness to partner closely with engineers and other creative disciplines to deliver complete and compelling solutions. The Senior Technical Animator within Publishing must bring consistently high artistic standards to both his/her work and that of the Art team, defining the animation quality bar whilst delivering compelling real-time experiences.
The position of Senior Technical Animator (emphasis on characters and rigged solutions) is to provide industry leading techniques and knowledge to support and grow our partner’s efforts to produce high quality character assets across many types of interactive entertainment. We place great value on collaborative individuals capable of hands-on support and knowledge sharing across Microsoft Studios.
Job responsibilities:
Act as the technical art expert for the immediate MS Global Publishing team of artists and art directors. This includes handling all aspects of producing prototypes, creating exemplar assets to set quality levels and define best practice. Be a leader in more technical aspects of character creation with specific emphasis on rigging, performance capture, animation and in-game animation technology.
- Be part of a team that grows and maintains the MS Global Publishing art pipeline and extending the group’s capabilities by providing tools, training and documentation to artists.
- Assist partners both internally and externally to produce world class characters for their projects. Work across multiple projects.
- Collaborate with other discipline leads across teams to evaluate production issues. Remove technical blockages by defining and delivering tools, assets or training to our team or partners.
- Work with production design, concept art and modeling to produce compelling, identifiable and believable characters for projects across Microsoft Studios.
- Effectively work with motion capture providers to coordinate technical components of a shoot. Produce assets needed for a shoot and define the specification for data delivery. Build close relationships with motion capture vendors and work to push the limits of this technology.
- Project managing third party subcontracted suppliers, where necessary. Skills in planning, defining criteria for production worthiness, designing specifications, providing assessment/review and structured implementation are essential.
- Tailor character techniques and technologies for the wide range of Microsoft platforms such as Xbox One and other Windows products. Must be able to define and implement to the highest quality.
- Maintain high level of familiarity with industry-standard tools, modern research and novel techniques for character content creation to provide recommendations for partners and raise the quality bar of Microsoft Studios titles. Evaluate assets like rigs or technology like animation tools or game engines and middleware for a project suitability. Help make strategic technology decisions for a projects character requirements.
- You thrive in an environment of innovation and excellence.
- Technical passion and drive to discover understand and communicate learnings with others.
- Strong communication skills to work across several projects, with internal and external partners across a number of technical landscapes. Being able to affect change and lead teams.
- Have extensive experience of working in challenging environments where problem solving and managing teams effectively are critical.
- A proactive detail oriented problem solver who demonstrates a strong sense of artistic and technical creativity and respect for aesthetics.
- Ideally a minimum of 5 years of games or film industry experience is desirable.
- A BA/BFA or similar qualification is required.
- College Degree in a related subject and/or comparable professional experience.
- Generalist knowledge and production experience in such skills as modeling, texturing, lighting, animation, dynamics and particle systems.
- Expert knowledge of rigging, keyframe animation techniques, performance capture processes and data manipulation, as well as in-game animation methodologies, systems and middleware.
- A high level of expertise with at least two leading 3D applications (e.g. Maya, MotionBuilder, Houdini, 3DSMax, Softimage) as well as experience with leading image manipulation tools (e.g. Photoshop, After Effects or Nuke).
- Experience with game engines like UE4 and Unity, as well as experience with middleware like Havok Animation and Natural Motion’s Morpheme.
- Scripting skills with the leading 3D applications e.g. Maya, 3DSMax, Softimage etc. Python and Javascript considered a bonus.
- Experience creating small applications and tools with C# or C++ also considered a bonus.
Use this link to apply. The job posting will not read correctly, but the email goes to the correct people.
CLICK TO APPLY!:https://careers.microsoft.com/jobdetails.aspx?ss=&pg=0&so=&rw=1&jid=286064&jlang=en&pp=ss
Don Smith
Technical Art Director
Microsoft Global Publishing