Senior Technical Rigger: Character Rigging

2K; United States; On-site; USD 66,000 - 103,000; Full time

Job summary

Visual Concepts seeks an expert character rigging artist (temporary) for the NBA Tech Art team in the Novato, CA studio. You will rig body and face components, write Python tools, and work closely with art and engineering to deliver optimized game rigs.

The role emphasizes Maya expertise, anatomy knowledge, and programming with Python; familiarity with FACS-based rigs and UI tools is a plus. Collaboration across departments will drive asset-quality improvements.

Qualifications

• Expert character rigging artist with body and face rigging experience.
• Strong Maya proficiency and understanding of human anatomy for realistic deformation.
• Experience creating game-optimized rigs and clean skin/weight maps.
• Able to write Python/PyMel scripts to automate workflows and pipelines.

Responsibilities

• Update character rigs to improve deformation and realism.
• Create math node networks for body and face rigs.
• Implement blendshapes and corrective shapes.
• Create clean skinweight and blendweight maps.
• Write Python code to automate tasks and improve workflows.
• Diagnose and fix rigging-related tool issues.
• Collaborate with art and engineering teams on assets and pipelines.
• Contribute to documentation and pipeline improvements.

Skills

Autodesk Maya

Python scripting

Human anatomy & deformation

Facial Action Coding System (FACS)

Joint placement & skeleton setup

Games rigs optimization

Problem solving

Tools

NgSkinTools

Qt

Perforce

Maya Python API

Job description

Visual Concepts seeks an expert character rigging artist (temporary) for the NBA Tech Art team in the Novato, CA studio. You will rig body and face components, write Python tools, and work closely with art and engineering to deliver optimized game rigs.

The role emphasizes Maya expertise, anatomy knowledge, and programming with Python; familiarity with FACS-based rigs and UI tools is a plus. Collaboration across departments will drive asset-quality improvements.