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BioWare Austin seeks Technical Animator

Our Jobs at Bioware page has information on how to apply and several other helpful resources.

BioWare Austin is looking for Technical Animators whose experience is rooted strongly in animation and in-engine cinematics. Candidates must be excellent at animation, enjoy rigging a character, and be able to create tools to free animators from technical limitations, and allow them to concentrate on creating high quality work. You will have excellent communication and problem solving skills. You will work together and communicate with animators and programmers to come up with technical solutions.

BioWare, the newest member of the incredible family of EA studios, has created some of the world's best-selling titles including the award-winning Baldur's Gate™, Neverwinter Nights™ series, and Star Wars®: Knights of the Old Republic™. Original BioWare-created IPs include Jade Empire™ and the critically acclaimed, Mass Effect. BioWare is hard at work on the epic fantasy RPG Dragon Age™; Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood™ for the Nintendo DS™; and unannounced projects including a highly anticipated massively multiplayer online game.

BioWare’s games have continually achieved critical and commercial success. All of our published titles are in the top 5% highest rated at www.gamerankings.com; in fact we have 6 games in the top 1% highest rated games of all time! Today BioWare has more than 400 staff at its two locations and continues to grow. We have sold over 20 million games (including engine licenses) in the past ten years! Our games have received many top industry awards, and we are proud that our Edmonton studio location has been recognized as a top employer in Canada, awarded the following for 2008:

  • Canada’s Top 100 Employers
  • Financial Post Canada’s Top 10 Best Companies to Work For
  • Alberta’s Top 35 Employers

Education and Experience

  • Up to 2 years of experience in computer generated animation.
  • In-depth technical knowledge of 3D Studio Max would be an asset.
  • Scripting or programming experience also an asset. (Maxscript: sourcecode of scripts.)
  • Experience with mo-cap would be an asset.

Skills / Abilities / Knowledge / Personal Suitability:

  • Experience in rigging characters (incl. use of expressions and scripts) is required.
  • Ability to work comfortably with a scripting language (Maxscript, MEL, etc.) is desired.
  • Knowledge of Puppetshop, MAX Script, Lua and XML a plus
  • Good technical knowledge of any of the major 3d packages (Maya, Max, XSI, etc.) is required.
  • Solid knowledge of human and animal anatomy.
  • Excellent problem solving, communication and interpersonal skills.
  • Self-starter with the ability to contribute to a team environment.
  • Strong passion for creating immersive, high quality videogames.
  • Capable of working both as a member of a team, and individually with minimum supervision.

Duties:

  • Skinning Characters, both body and facial, and developing custom rigs using in-house rigging tools.
  • Collaborate with Principal Lead Animator and Senior Technical Animator in implementation of animations within game engine.
  • Be creative and anticipate the needs for new tools.
  • Be meticulous and organized in the approach to the tasks, files and storage of the material.
  • Streamline animation pipeline by creating (scripted) tools.
  • Performs other duties as required.

Portfolio requirements

    3D portfolio
    • Show at least 1 humanoid rig (including skinning and animation controls).
    • Show at least 1 creature (animal) (including skinning and animation controls).
    • Examples of scripted tools related to animation and/or rigging.
    • Examples of key-framed character animation.
    • Examples of in-engine or pre-rendered cinematics.

    Optional: (no originals please) Examples of the following:

    • Facial animation (tools and/or animation).
    • Motion-capture related tools.

    How to apply

    Please quote the following competition number in the subject line of your electronic application, or include in the cover letter of your mailed application:

    ArtistJobsAustin -AT- bioware.com

    08-ANIM-TECH-BWA-13

    To apply by mail, send your resume to:
    Technical Animator # 08-ANIM-TECH-BWA-13
    BioWare Corp.
    200, 4445 Calgary Trail
    Edmonton, Alberta
    Canada T6H 5R7

    Along with your submission, you MUST include a signed product submission agreement.
    You can fax it to: 780-439-6374
    Resources to help you apply:

    Posted by AlexMarquez on February 7, 2008 12:42 AM