Unreal Technical Animator

Job Description

We're looking for a Technical Animator to join our growing Art team here at Virtex Stadium.

Working very closely with our art and development teams, we'd love for you to use control rig & animation blueprint systems in Unreal Engine to define what real-time, dynamic animation looks like in Virtex Stadium.

The day-to-day will involve creating the tools and pipelines needed to deliver best in class runtime animation for both users and events as well as assisting in development and maintenance of a variety of real-time animation systems using a wide range of inputs including VR, motion capture, live animation.

This is a perfect role for someone looking to get hands on with the next generation of live, dynamic animation systems in real-time and using them to ship real products.

Our studio is growing and so we'd really like it if you thrive in an ambiguous environment where goals and constraints are mostly team driven and where change, big or small, is a critical part of the process.

Job Requirements

Responsibilities:

Create re-usable and bespoke rigs and skin data
Create dynamic animation systems for both players and talent (events) that can handle a variety on inputs (ranging from VR to Mocap)
Identify bottlenecks in our animation pipeline and help resolve them with robust technical implementations
Work with the Animation, Engineering, and Technical Art departments to ensure all dependencies are met
Add to and improve our cross-engine animation retargeting solution (real-time)

Ideal experience:

5+ years of professional experience as a animator or equivalent role
Expertise and experience in using Unreal Engine
Rigging/technical animation experience in Games or VFX/Feature Film.
Working knowledge of Control Rig, Animation Blueprints, State Machines & other Unreal animation workflows
A keen eye for proper form and deformation throughout wide ranges of movements

It would be extra awesome if you have:

Strong proactive problem-solving attitude and the ability to work with minimal supervision
Experience with gameplay technical animation – such as state machines, cloth, physics and ragdoll setups.
Experience building rigs in Blender
Experience working with novel avatar standards such as VRM, ReadyPlayerMe & VRChat
Programming knowledge such as C++/Blender API & Plugin Writing
Passion for esports, VR or live events.
Familiar with Unreal Engine Virtual Production tools and pipeline
Passion and interest for Virtual Personas such as Vtubers

Benefits

Ability to work fully remotely (limited to UK and European time zones to facilitate collaboration).
In place of traditional PTO, we have unlimited holiday but we expect you to use 20 days minimum each year.
Learning and Development budget to explore fun stuff outside of your day-to-day role.
Latest VR equipment for all team members.
Play fund to support you exploring VR games and other social apps.
Annual budget for attending esports events.
Relocation support to the UK if you are interested in moving and working from the studio/office in London.
Workplace pension scheme for UK residents.
Private healthcare for UK residents or a budget towards a local provider outside of the UK.
We are a registered UK Visa Sponsor.
Stock Options.

Who We Are

As big fans of esports, we began to envision virtual stadiums and a 3D viewing experience a long time ago! With the Virtex Stadium application launching on PC and VR in 2021, we want to make that dream a reality by allowing esports fans to view gameplay live in 3D, in the centre of a virtual stadium. Partnering with the wider esports ecosystem (incl. publishers, leagues, teams), we are working towards building the virtual home of esports.

At Virtex, we’re powered by a team who have taken part in esports live events as competitors, organisers and dedicated fans so we know what makes a good live show and we’ll choose the stadium over the stream every time.

Just like our favourite teams, we know it takes different types of skills to win and while Virtex Entertainment is headquartered in London, UK, we support fully remote team members all over Europe so you can work wherever you work best!

Vision & Mission

We want to contribute and make watching esports an exciting place, because we believe it is the future of gaming and entertainment. Creating a VR and cross-platform experience for esports feels like a perfect fit for us because all of our favourite games are already 3D, whether they are a PC, console or a mobile game.
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Our vision is for fans to experience the intense excitement and joy only a live event with with a crowd can provide. Our mission starts as a virtual stadium that allows us to create previously impossible experiences, opens up completely new territory with endless creative opportunities but we're not stopping there.

With everything we do, we aim to bring fans closer to the shows, games and teams that they love while creating experiences everyone can enjoy. We know this is the future of esports and we want to be the ones who bring this vision to life; Watching on the stream? No, we'll see you in the stadium.