Rigging character TD - AXIS ANIMATION

[Stu Shapiro]

RIGGING CHARACTER TD

Axis Animation is looking for a Rigging/Character TD for both next generation game cinematics, film and commercials projects.

This position would be for a contracted period of 12 months (with potential for further work after this period)

successful candidates would be required to work onsite at our studio in Glasgow, UK

Start date to be confirmed


Description:

The Rigging TD's primary role is to create animation assets for animators to use during production, provide technical support to animators/modellers and to update and maintain the pipeline pertaining to creation of animation assets and rigging tasks in general.

Animation Assets may include vehicles, props, quadrupeds and others as well as bipedal characters

Rigging TD's will be expected to work within a proscribed pre-existing pipeline and be actively involved in updating and improving this pipeline in an evolutionary manner.

The role entails working in close liaison with modellers and animators to make sure that relevant requirements are set and met respectively



Responsibilities:

· Produce Rigs for Maya based animation assets based on specific project requirements
· Find, anticipate and resolve problems, bugs and other issues with animation assets, rigs and rigging systems
· Work with the modellers to ensure asset geometry meets any rigging requirements
· Collaborate with animators to ensure that animation asset rigs allow an appropriate level of control
· Implement skinning and weighting of geometry to skeletons to create high quality deformation
· Provide technical support to animators using rigging systems and animation assets throughout production
· Develop new techniques and processes to solve animation production challenges as required
· Create, update and maintain scripts and tools to enhance robustness and efficiency of rigging processes, asset creation/management and data export
· Work with production management to prioritise tasks and evaluate resource requirements
· Keep producers, CG supervisors and team leads informed of progress, changes and other critical issues
· Communicate effectively with production management and other members of the production team


Requirements:

We require potential candidates to have:

· Degree level qualification in a relevant field (e.g. computer sciences or animation related)
· The above requirement may be waived for candidates who can demonstrate exceptional skill and/or have equivalent work experience
· 3+ years professional experience rigging for animation in a studio environment
· 2+ years experience, scripting in MEL and/or Python
· Ability to build complete character control and deformation rigs from scratch
· Good communication skills, including good spoken and written English
· A team-orientated, positive and achievement focused attitude
· Ability to adapt to existing pipeline and tools
· Ability to produce high quality work to strict deadlines



Preferences:

We will give more weight to Candidates who also have significant experience with the following:


· Building vehicle, quadruped and other non-biped custom rigs
· Working with Houdini
· Maya based dynamics simulations (including Ncloth)
· Muscle based rigs
· C and/or C++ programming


How to apply:

Online:
please send link to website and resume to recruitment@axisanimation.com with "application for RIGGING/CHARACTER TD" as your subject line.

Offline:
post your CV and reel to:

recruitment
axis animation
suite 225
the pentagon Centre
36 Washington st
Glasgow
United Kingdom
G3 8AZ

all submissions must be accompanied by examples of work on either VHS or DVD (for email applications a link to online reels is acceptable) and additional documentation describing what specifically you did on the work shown on your reel