Senior Technical Designer in Animation, Fortnite

Job Description

What We Do

Unreal projects have been leading the pack of real-time entertainment with our constantly growing team of engineering experts. We're always improving on the tools and technology that empower content developers worldwide.

What You'll Do

As a Senior Technical Designer in Animation, you will use your animation sense and technical understanding of character animation to design and create animation systems that facilitate realistic and high quality motion. Working with animation, design, and engineering colleagues, you will develop new tools and/or refine existing ones to ensure the animation/behavior pipeline operates smoothly and efficiently. You will also help identify potential issues and deploy correct solutions, using your technical knowledge to help bridge and facilitate communication between the animation team and other departments, such as engineering and design.

In this role, you will
• Facilitate the creation of animation behavior tools/techniques/philosophies that allow the building of complex movement systems in a manner accessible by content creators.
• Design and implement animation state machines/behaviors and runtime solutions.
• Look for opportunities to improve the animation pipeline/workflow and help provide solutions for technical animation problems, including performing training and creating documentation for the animation team.
• Analyze, troubleshoot, and solve in-game animation implementation issues and animation-related technical challenges.
• Closely collaborate with the animation leadership to maintain the style and quality bar for animations in the game.

What we're looking for
• A strong animation sense and a clear understanding of character motion and how to achieve it with modern animation methods.
• Expertise with animation pipelines, including source content creation tools such as Maya and the export process into a game engine.
• Knowledge of how to combine animations to create a desired look and feel.
• Experience with AAA game development, preferably on a large team using an established game engine (internal or commercial); experience with Unreal Engine is a plus.
• Familiarity with modern animation behavior tools and concepts, such as blend trees and state machines; experience with Unreal Engine Animation Blueprints is a plus.
• Coding knowledge not expected or required, but experience with C++ is a plus.

This role is open to multiple locations across North America (including CA and WA).

Pay Transparency Information

The expected annual base pay range(s) for this position are detailed below. Each base pay range is relevant only for individuals who are residents of or will be expected to work within the specified locale. Compensation varies based on a variety of factors, which include (but aren't limited to) things such as skills and competencies, qualifications, knowledge, and experience. In addition to base pay, most employees are eligible to participate in Epic's generous benefit plans and discretionary incentive programs (subject to the terms of those plans or programs).

California Base Pay Range

$135,059 - $198,086 USD

Washington Base Pay Range

$135,059 - $198,086 USD

Note to Recruitment Agencies: Epic does not accept any unsolicited resumes or approaches from any unauthorized third party (including recruitment or placement agencies) (i.e., a third party with whom we do not have a negotiated and validly executed agreement). We will not pay any fees to any unauthorized third party. Further details on these matters can be found here.

Jobcode: Reference SBJ-rn521o-3-139-238-76-42 in your application.