Technical Animator

Company Description

Ubisoft Toronto Inc.
224 Wallace Avenue. M6H 1V7
Toronto, Ontario

Location of position: Toronto, Ontario

**Our Mission**

Ubisoft’s 19,000 team members, working across more than 40 locations worldwide, are bound by a shared 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 vital in creating worlds where 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.

**Our Studio**

Ubisoft Toronto is one of the most significant development studios within Ubisoft, employing talented developers worldwide. We create worlds and tell stories that grip you, inspire you and challenge you. Since opening in 2010, we have shipped innovative game projects on Ubisoft’s most prominent brands: Assassin’s Creed, Far Cry, Watch Dogs, For Honor and Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell.

We recently launched Far Cry 6, the most ambitious Far Cry game to date, featuring the talented Giancarlo Esposito as Anton Castillo. Our studio has also led the development of the newest game in the Watch Dogs franchise - Watch Dogs: Legion (2020), a stand out for its tech and design work, play as anyone gameplay in an open world, and rich and detailed rendition of a future London. Starlink: Battle for Atlas (2018) was Ubisoft Toronto’s first new IP, which seamlessly blended physical and digital gameplay. Splinter Cell Blacklist was the first title released by Ubisoft Toronto in 2013. We have an exciting roadmap of projects for the future and can’t wait to share more details.

Are you looking to work with enthusiastic experts who are tackling industry-changing challenges in entertainment and beyond? At Ubisoft Toronto, we constantly strive to get better, be better and do better - embracing innovative ideas, exploring new technologies, and working together courageously and collaboratively.

**Job Description**:
**On being a Technical Animator at Ubisoft Toronto**:
As a Technical Animator at Ubisoft Toronto, you will be working together with the team at Massive Entertainment to create a new story-driven open-world video game set in the _Star Wars_ galaxy. Our goal is to create a game and a story that bring both new and lifelong fans on an immersive and outstanding journey, which will stay with them for years to come.

You will be supporting while innovating animation systems and activities. Working closely with animators, riggers, designers and programmers, you will be handling mocap data, lip sync and facial animation systems, animation rigs, physics rigs, animation trees and dynamic objects. In this role, you will follow, refine or establish pipelines for both conventional and innovative features.

**Type of Position**: Permanent, full-time.

**What you’ll do**:

- Create and document the technical charter of the animation based on the creative, artistic, and technical direction (documents, reference games, new development requests) while being able to explain technical aspects to Animators, animation aspects to engineers, and all aspects to game designers;
- Master the engine and animation tools in terms of knowing the limits and propagating the corresponding changes to pipelines;
- Improve or create pipelines for special features;
- Create plug-ins and / or scripts to automate tasks;
- Oversee smooth cross-software development (i.e. 3dsmax-Maya-Motionbuilder transition of skinned mesh);
- Test work in-game to provide feedback and suggestions;
- Work with physics systems for rigid/soft bodies, hair, and cloth;
- Work with animation graphs, scripted game events, etc.

**Qualifications**:
**What you bring**:

- College diploma in 3D animation techniques for video games or equivalent.
- Minimum 3 years of experience in video game technical animation, or any other relevant experience.
- Scripting skills (MEL/Python/Lua, etc.);
- Understanding of object oriented programming;
- Understanding of fundamental animation principles;
- Understanding of fundamental Rigging principles;
- Ability to communicate and collaborate with Artists and Software Engineers;
- Relevant software experience - Motionbuilder, 3DSMax or Maya, and game engines;
- Strong problem solving mindset;
- Adaptability, suppleness, flexibility, open mind;
- Open to constructive criticism;
- Good collaboration with members of the animation team and other team members on the project.

**What to send our way**:

- Your CV, highlighting your background, skills, and any games shipped
- A strong portfolio or demo reel

Additional Information
**We Offer**:

- **A hybrid, flexible wor