Animation R&D Programmer: Retargeting (Mid / Senior Level)

Rockstar; City of Edinburgh; On-site; GBP 40,000 - 80,000; Full time

Job summary

Join a dynamic team at a leading entertainment company, where you'll contribute to cutting-edge animation technology for large-scale games. This role offers the chance to work on innovative projects, enhancing character motion and animation systems in a collaborative environment. If you have a passion for animation and strong C++ programming skills, this is an exciting opportunity to make a significant impact in the gaming industry. You'll work alongside talented professionals and help push the boundaries of character animation technology, ensuring high-quality experiences for players worldwide.

Qualifications

• Strong C++ skills and experience with animation retargeting or related techniques.
• Degree in Computer Science or equivalent industry experience required.

Responsibilities

• Develop and maintain an extensive runtime animation system and tools.
• Collaborate on procedural animation and character motion synthesis.

Skills

C++ Programming

3D Math Skills

Character Animation Technology

Communication Skills

Multi-threading Techniques

Education

Degree in Computer Science

Equivalent Industry Experience

Tools

Game Engine Animation Systems

Job description

At Rockstar Games, we create world-class entertainment experiences.

Become part of a team working on some of the most rewarding, large-scale creative projects to be found in any entertainment medium - all within an inclusive, highly-motivated environment where you can learn and collaborate with some of the most talented people in the industry.

Rockstar is on the lookout for a talented engineer to join our Animation R&D team, with a background in animation retargeting or related techniques.

This position will help us develop advanced animation systems for our large open world character-based games. The successful applicant will have strong C++ programming skills, good knowledge of and interest in character animation systems, and passion for realistic, high quality character motion.

This is a full-time, permanent and in-office position based in Rockstar’s state-of-the-art game development studio in Edinburgh, Scotland.

WHAT WE DO

• We develop animation technology, from performance capture to a sophisticated runtime engine, for massive open world games.
• We are a global team of programmers and researchers who collaborate on pushing the boundaries of character animation on next generation hardware.
• We support and work closely with animation, gameplay, physics, tools, graphics, performance capture, and technical art teams across multiple Rockstar studios.

RESPONSIBILITIES

• Help invent, develop, expand, maintain, and support an extensive runtime animation system, pipeline, and tools.
• Develop robust and performant technology to adjust animation to different characters, situations, and environments.
• Collaborate and contribute to the research and development of features related to procedural animation, motion adaptation, and character motion synthesis.
• Keep up to date with the latest academic and industry breakthroughs, independently research and develop improvements to continuously push our technology forward.

QUALIFICATIONS

• A degree in Computer Science or a related discipline, or equivalent industry experience.
• Proven development of solutions in animation retargeting, motion adaptation, or related subjects.
• Experience creating, extending or working directly with an animation system within a game engine.

SKILLS

• Good communication skills, ability to clearly share complex technical information with other programmers, animators and technical artists.
• Strong C/C++ programming skills.
• Strong 3D math skills.
• Knowledge of character animation technology, particularly retargeting and IK systems.
• Familiarity with common optimization and multi-threading techniques.

PLUSES

Please note that these are desirable skills and are not required to apply for the position.

• Industry experience working on AAA character based games, or character based VFX animation.
• C# or python programming skills.
• Experience developing within a large existing codebase, collaborating, or working independently within a large team.
• Experience with motion synthesis or style transfer.
• Practical success optimizing or debugging large/complex multithreaded C++ code.
• Involvement with pipeline or UI based tools development or support.

HOW TO APPLY

Please apply with a CV and cover letter demonstrating how you meet the skills above. If we would like to move forward with your application, a Rockstar recruiter will reach out to you to explain next steps and guide you through the process.

Rockstar is committed to creating a work environment that promotes equal opportunity, dignity and respect. In line with this commitment, Rockstar will provide reasonable accommodations to qualified job applicants with disabilities during the recruitment process in order for such applicants to be considered for the position for which they are applying, as well as to qualified employees to enable them to perform the essential functions of their roles. If you need more information about Rockstar’s reasonable accommodation policies or process, or need to request an accommodation, please contact the Human Resources Department.

If you’ve got the right skills for the job, we want to hear from you. We encourage applications from all suitable candidates regardless of age, disability, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, belief, race, or any other protected category.

#LI-AN1