Overview

Rigging Artist

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

We are seeking a Rigging Artist for our Vancouver studio. This position will work on a variety of projects and assets within the Rigging Department. The Rigging Artist reports to the Rigging Supervisor.

The ideal candidate will get the opportunity to design and maintain smooth and efficient rigs for CG assets beyond the standard bipedal rigs. They will have an opportunity to work on a variety of rigs from facial, to creature and mechanical to quadrupeds as well as interact with build, animation and production teams. The ideal candidate will have strong MAYA skills, extensive experience in scripting, and the ability to manage multiple tasks in any given day. The Rigging Artist will be a part of the Rigging & Animation team and in regular contact with other department leads. Good communication and problem solving skills are mandatory.

Responsibilities

• Create new rigs and rig components.
• Create of realistic FK/IK rigs for a variety of humanoids, creature, and mechanical models.
• Work with modeling and animation departments to ensure rigs meet requirements.
• Perform rig fixes and troubleshooting during production as requested by Rigging, CG or VFX Supervisors.
• Modify and extend existing Python based studio rigging toolset.
• Develop Python based scripts for asset specific rigging needs when necessary.

Qualifications:

• Min 3 yrs experience as a Rigger within live action VFX or animation studio in TV and/or film.
• Experience with weighting and skinning must be demonstrated.
• Ability to rig a variety of characters / objects in a realistic (non-cartoon manner).
• Solid understanding of Character set-up and rigging tools in Maya.
• Facial rigging for humans and creatures
• Production experience with Deformers, Constraints, Hierarchies, Utility Nodes, Expressions, Hair & Cloth,
• Maya python commands.
• Core knowledge of anatomy and kinematics to create rigs that match the objectives of the final product.
• Experience in Python in Maya.
• Must have some experience with scripting (Python, Mel).
• Knowledge of Api, PyQt, GitHub, Pyside, Shotgun a plus.
• Must be organized with a strong attention to detail and ability to work independently.
• Excellent communication skills in English; both written and verbal.
• Ability to work collaboratively with a variety teams.
• Positive attitude and ability to easily adapt to changes in production needs.
• Mentor and assist other artists.
• Must showcase an up-to-date demo reel demonstrating rigging abilities.

Would be nice to have:

• Knowledge and experience with mechanical systems
• Motion capture and crowd rigging experience
• Rig creation for VFX and realtime game engine environments
• Maya Live Link and Unreal dev kit experience

Zoic is a Houdini/Maya/Vray/Nuke studio.

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.