Technical Artist: Rigging & Facial Animation Pipelines

EA Sports; Royal Leamington Spa; Hybrid; GBP 45,000 - 65,000; Full time

Job summary

Electronic Arts is seeking a Technical Artist specialized in rigging and character pipelines. Reporting to the Technical Art Director, you will bridge the gap between character artists, animators, and software engineers to guide the development of character pipelines and facial rigging systems.

You will work with a hybrid schedule, collaborating with EA SPORTS teams to push the fidelity of character assets while meeting project budgets and timelines.

Qualifications

• 3+ years of experience as a Technical Artist or Technical Animator in game development with at least one shipped AAA title.
• Experience in Python and digital content creation applications such as 3ds Max or Maya.
• Experience developing artist-facing interfaces using Qt, PySide, or similar frameworks.
• Experience with character kinematics, anatomy, skeletal structures, and deformation.

Responsibilities

• You will develop artist-facing rigging and animation tools using Python with Maya, 3ds Max, and Motion Builder.
• You will improve facial animation pipelines, increasing anatomical and expressive deformation for EA SPORTS F1 characters.
• You will extend central EA SPORTS procedural rigging systems to build complex, high-fidelity rigs, collaborating with central technology teams and game-team artists.
• You will establish technical standards, resolve skeletal mesh issues, and improve character asset performance within project budgets.

Skills

Python scripting

Rigging pipelines

Character deformation

Kinematics & anatomy

Tools

3ds Max

Maya

Qt

PySide

Job description

Electronic Arts is seeking a Technical Artist specialized in rigging and character pipelines. Reporting to the Technical Art Director, you will bridge the gap between character artists, animators, and software engineers to guide the development of character pipelines and facial rigging systems.

You will work with a hybrid schedule, collaborating with EA SPORTS teams to push the fidelity of character assets while meeting project budgets and timelines.