Animation Technical Director

Job Description

Ubisoft's 20,000 team members, working across more than 30 countries around the world, are bound by a common mission to enrich players' lives with original and memorable gaming experiences. Their dedication and talent have brought to life many acclaimed franchises such as Assassin's Creed, Far Cry, Watch Dogs, Just Dance, Rainbow Six, and many more to come. Ubisoft is an equal opportunity employer that believes diverse backgrounds and perspectives are key to creating worlds where both players and teams can thrive and express themselves. If you are excited about solving game-changing challenges, cutting edge technologies and pushing the boundaries of entertainment, we invite you to join our journey and help us create the unknown.

As Ubisoft's first production studio in China, Ubisoft Shanghai opened its door in 1996 and has been at the forefront of the Chinese game industry. It has been working on major Ubisoft brands such as Splinter Cell®, Assassin's Creed®, Might & Magic®, Just Dance®, Far Cry® and Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora™.

With our mission to leverage our presence in China, bring a stronger long-term added value to the group, 600+ talents from around the world have jointly developed a world-class expertise in development of open world and wildlife in AAA games, as well as mobile games and live operations.

To learn more, please visit: www.ubisoftgroup.com

Job Description

About the Role

With a high-level understanding of the capabilities of our technology combined with your visibility on the project as a whole, as a Technical Animation Director at Ubisoft Shanghai, you provide expert insight, tools, and support to steer a game – and its creators – towards success.

Unafraid to innovate, you establish an actionable plan to bridge the gap between coming up with ideas and putting them into practice. Though every day of development brings its own mix of both expected and unforeseen challenges, you never lose sight of the big picture. As a strategic thinker and tactical planner, you balance short-term priorities with long-term goals, while consistently considering the future impacts of your choices.

What you will do
• Define the projects and improvements to the existing pipeline (Cinematics, Ingame Animation, Motion Capture, Ragdoll, Facial, Rig.)
• Organize, communicate, and define the development direction of pipeline and tool flows. Plan for the long-term development of the project.
• Develop or find the best tools, tool chain and methods to improve and facilitate the work of Animators.
• Acquire the best internal and external tools. Work with the programmers and project Technical Directors to enhance and facilitate the work by prototyping technological elements, adjusting existing tools, requesting new tools, validating the effectiveness of the tools provided with before they are deployed on the project.
• Standardize the best work methods and data structure (data and assets), ensure the validity and integrity of the data (meet standards and minimize debugging) by drafting pipeline documents, setting out common classification system, trainings, coaching and supervising processes users.
• Test the selected / developed engine, request improvements, verify all related documentation, and correct and / produce new documents if necessary.
• Anticipate technological advancements and stay up to date on market trends to define project best practices and share them within our studios.
• Participate in recruitment to build the animation team & foster their professional development.

Qualifications

What you should be equipped with:
• Solid working experience as an Animation Technical Director or other similar leadership role,
• Previously shipped a few AAA game titles and previous experience as Technical Animator.
• Able to work with/experienced the complex animation tasks.
• Excellent knowledge of real-time animation systems and pipeline development.
• In-depth knowledge of game engines (e.g. Unity or Unreal) & 3D software (3DS Max, Maya, and Motion Builder) as well as scripting languages (e.g. C#, Python, JavaScript, Max Script，MEL), 3D math (vectors, matrixes...), motion capture, and state machines.
• In-depth knowledge of rigging, ragdoll (Havok), IK, reflex bone and other character setting related engine pipeline. 
• Comprehensive understanding of the mainstream engine processes and demonstrating practical proficiency in operating all stages of the pipeline.
• Solid personal portfolio, good artistic sense in animation. Self-motivated. 
• Proven leadership and a good team player, with good communication skills, functional English proficiency, presentation skills. 
• A passion for sharing your knowledge and helping others learn and grow. 

Jobcode: Reference SBJ-rv645n-216-73-216-62-42 in your application.