AVALON | Character Technical Artist

Position: Character Technical Artist for Avalon MMO

Overview:

Join the Avalon team as a Character Technical Artist and play a crucial role in bringing to life the vibrant characters of our groundbreaking Unreal-based MMORPG. We’re seeking a talented individual with a deep understanding of character creation and animation. Your expertise will be instrumental in developing complex character rigs, ensuring seamless integration with Avalon’s rich narrative and dynamic combat system. Your work will empower players to immerse themselves in a world where every character, from the mightiest hero to the humble NPC, is intricately detailed and vividly realized.

Key Responsibilities:

• Character Development: Collaborate with our design and art teams to conceptualize modular character systems, develop, and implement detailed character models that align with Avalon’s diverse themes and narrative demands. Review aid refinement across all studio character models to a standard : topology and vert count for morphs.
• Technical Skinning & Rigging: Apply advanced rigging techniques to create flexible and expressive character rigs, allowing for a wide range of movements, animations, and player customization of modular pieces. Includes : Body / Face / Hands
• Animation Integration: Work closely with animators to ensure character models respond intuitively to gameplay, enhancing the player’s experience with lifelike character movements. UE Skel & Avalon Skel integration : custom FBX animation, UE animation library, and motion capture LiveLink/FBX animation – use of UERetargeter or LiveLink depending on use case. Includes : Body / Face / Hands
• Metahuman : Experience working with metahuman DNA, blendshapes,rigging systems
• Modular Systems: Collaborate with internal and partners to develop modular systems for Character Traits & Wearables. Customized pipelines
• UE Materials: Collaborate & Develop UE Shader, Hair/ Fur, FX & Texture pipelines
• UE Simulation & Jiggle : Develop systems for fashion & add on modular pieces requiring secondary emotion: fabrics, hair, tails, ears, longer fur, FX emitter attachments, etc
• Optimization: Guarantee character models and animations are optimized for performance across various platforms, employing LODs, mesh optimization, and other techniques without sacrificing artistic vision.
• Tool Development and Workflow Enhancement: Assist in developing and refining animation and rigging tools, streamlining the character creation process and implementation workflows.
• Quality Assurance: Conduct thorough testing of character assets within the Unreal Engine, ensuring technical reliability, adherence to artistic specifications, and seamless gameplay integration.

Requirements:

• Experience: 3+ years in character art, technical art, or animation within the gaming industry, with at least one shipped title on Unreal Engine.
• Experience with Metahuman Pipeline
• Technical Skills: Proficiency in Maya with a strong emphasis on Unreal Engine. A solid understanding of character art pipelines and optimization techniques for MMORPGs is crucial.
• Artistic Talent: Exceptional ability in sculpting, texturing, and animating characters, with a keen eye for anatomical detail, expression, and dynamic posing.
• Collaboration: Excellent communication and team collaboration skills, with the ability to work effectively across different disciplines to bring characters to life.
• Problem-Solving: A creative problem-solver capable of tackling technical and artistic challenges, pushing the boundaries of character art and animation.

Bonus Qualifications:

Experience with Facial Rigging: Expertise in creating detailed facial rigs for emotive character expressions.

Passion for MMORPGs: A genuine love for MMORPGs and an understanding of character roles within such games.

MMO Development Experience: Previous involvement in developing and shipping an MMO, providing valuable insights into character creation’s unique challenges.