Animation TD

Summary:

For over 30 years, Naughty Dog has been crafting best-selling, critically acclaimed games that constantly push the boundaries of narrative, gameplay, and technology. Our most recent game, The Last of Us Part II, has received over 300 Game of the Year awards and three of our games are among the top 10 highest scored games on the PlayStation 4. As a part of the Naughty Dog legacy, you’ll become a part of continuing the development of extraordinary and enduring experiences for a broad, global range of audiences.

At Naughty Dog, Animation TDs play a crucial part in ensuring the Animation Team has the tools and tech that it needs.  That may mean writing new tools, establishing standards and workflows, debugging issues, or creating highly-technical assets – whatever it takes to help the team work as smoothly as possible!

Responsibilities:

• Create tools to streamline artist workflows (example: asset management tools, pipeline automation scripts, integration with project management software)
• Create tools to give artists more power (example: motion capture data processing , animation retargeting tools, physics sim pipeline, tools leveraging machine learning)
• Work with the engineering team to develop low-level tools infrastructure and asset pipelines
• Ensure tool interfaces are user-friendly and effective
• Create well-architected systems that can be built upon for years to come
• Develop workflows and standards for efficient content generation, including optimization standards
• Help to maintain a wide array of existing workflows and tools
• Test and validate tools and techniques in production
• Work between all art departments (characters, VFX, sound, environment, etc.) on shared technology
• Additional responsibilities may be assigned as needed

Requirements & Skills:

• Strong experience with Python, PyQT/PySide, and with Maya scripting
• Ability to write robust code, both from a functional and architectural standpoint
• Excellent problem-solving skills and the ability to work with minimal supervision
• Familiarity with content creation and game development pipelines
• Good oral and written skills
• 3+ years of production experience in video games, film or VFX

Bonus Skills:

• Animation experience is a major plus
• Experience in C# or C++
• Experience with OpenMaya and Maya plugin development
• Experience with motion capture pipeline
• Experience with Machine Learning and data analysis

As part of the Naughty Dog application process, candidates should expect to be given a technical interview and may be asked to complete an animation test.

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