Overview

Lead Rigging

This position is based in Vancouver. All applicants must reside in the United States or British Columbia/Ontario if applying within Canada.

Zoic Studios seeks a Lead Rigging Artist to collaborate with various other departments within the studio to create and complete shots as assigned. In this Role you will work on a variety of projects and assets within a Rigging Department. The Lead Rigging Artist reports to the Rigging Supervisor.

The ideal candidate will have advanced knowledge of designing and maintaining smooth and efficient rigs for CG assets. In addition, they will have strong MAYA skills, extensive experience in scripting, and the ability to manage multiple tasks in any given day. You will help Lead a team of artists within the Rigging & Animation team.  Good communication and problem-solving skills are mandatory.

As our studio mainly works on streaming and episodic tv, you must be comfortable working and leading a team in a fast-paced environment. The expectation is to manage your own assignments of rigs as well as manage, train and assist your team with their own tasks.

Responsibilities

• Work with Department Supervisors to achieve creative goals and maintain quality standards.
• Provide guidance for team members.
• Develop, maintain, and modify python-based scripts for assets, modules, and tools for intra and inter departmental tasks.
• Creation of new rigs and rig components for a variety of bipeds, quadrupeds, creature, and mechanical assets.
• Thorough Quality control (QC) for all rigs before release.
• Proactively troubleshoot and problem-solve with CG or VFX Supervisors and modeling/animation/CFX departments to ensure rigs meet requirements.
• Take direction, and effectively communicate with both the team and management and mentor other Artists.

Qualifications:

• Min 3 years’ experience as a Rigger within live action VFX or animation studio in TV and/or film.
• Must showcase an up-to-date demo reel demonstrating rigging abilities.
• Solid understanding of Character set-up and rigging tools in Maya.
• Solid understanding of anatomy and kinematics to create rigs that match Show and Production expectations or exceed them.
• Proven level of experience with Skinweighting and other Deformers.
• Ability to rig a variety of characters / objects in a realistic (non-cartoon manner).
• Experience writing Python Classes and UIs
• Must be organized with a strong attention to detail and ability to work independently.
• Positive attitude and ability to easily adapt to changes in production needs.
• Excellent communication skills in English; both written and verbal.

Would be nice to have:

• Experience with a Rebuildable, Buildscript, Rig-Builder environment
• Knowledge of Api, PyQt, GitHub, Pyside, Shotgun
• Character FX knowledge and Interest (Hair, Cloth, Muscle)
• Houdini knowledge
• Motion capture and crowd rigging experience
• Experience with Unreal Engine and Maya roundtrip production

Additional information

• Candidates MUST be located in the United States, British Columbia or Ontario. This is a remote (work from home) position
• Zoic does not cover relocation costs
• This job description contains the basic requirements for the position and is NOT intended to be a complete list of responsibilities; other duties may be assigned
• Due to the volume of applications we receive across our different openings we regret that only those selected to interview will be contact