Lead Character TD

Description

About us

Nerd Corps Entertainment, established in 2002, is one of North America’s largest privately owned animation studios, boasting a diverse portfolio of award-winning original properties such as Slugterra, League of Super Evil, Storm Hawks and Rated A for Awesome. With six shows in production, there is always a genre or character to keep you interested and challenged. But we’re more than just an animation studio. Our 400 creatives build stories, worlds, and experiences for kids that cut across platforms from television to online, games, toys, mobile—wherever kids are spending time. We handle all stages of our process in-house, from the IP creation and development to post-production, finance, sales and distribution, licensing and consumer products, and interactive development, making us a rarity in the industry. Our studio near Vancouver’s trendy Commercial Drive is a vibrant mixture of rookies and veterans, where those fresh out of college can continue learning from mid-career and senior artists, and where every level of experience can make the most of their talent on some of the best kids shows and games in the world.

Leo, Gemini, Emmy…been there, won that.

Come work for an award-winning studio and make cartoons, not war.

Department: Modelling

Location: Vancouver

About the position

As the lead character technical director you will work in collaboration with the pipeline and modelling supervisors and play an integral role in the development and implementation of new production rigs as our studio migrates from XSI to Maya. This is a great opportunity for an experienced character TD with a good understanding of the animation pipeline. You will work with the studio’s supervisors and our software team to develop high-end tools and processes to achieve the best looking shows.

Responsibilities

• Work with modelling & animation supervisors to produce prototype rigs and ensure rigs are production ready
• Work closely with software team to develop automation, tools and scripts to improve the rigging process
• Work closely with animation team to support and improve their needs
• Collaborate with modelling department to optimize geo-/topology
• Evaluate new rigging techniques, skeletons, deformers and tools to improve the rigging process
• Ensure rigging team is using the best deformation techniques to achieve the best look, performance, and rig’s responsiveness
• Lead rigging team to ensure schedules are met
• Create and maintain documentations for tools and processes
• Research new techniques and tools
• Additional responsibilities as required

Crew Management

• Oversee the daily activities and capabilities of the rigging team
• Partner with management to guide artists’ overall professional development, providing performance feedback, mentoring, assist with resolving performance issues and maintaining positive morale amongst the crew
• Train and educate new hires
• Ensure the team completes tasks the best way possible and as scheduled
• Foster and enable cross-departmental communication and collaborative environment
• Work with production team to identify appropriate staffing levels and needs
• Foster a healthy and creative work environment

Qualifications

• 4+ years of experience in a leadership role in the animation/film/tv industry
• Great communication skills, organization and team awareness
• Strong working knowledge of Maya is a must
• Good knowledge of animation process from modelling to animation
• Proven experience in rigging pipeline development is a big plus
• Experience in hair and fur is a big plus
• Experience in cloth is a big plus
• Working knowledge of Python and/or Mel or other object-oriented programming language is a plus

THANK YOU to all those who express interest in being a part of the Nerd Corps team. Unfortunately, due to the volume of applications we receive, we may be unable to reply to all applicants. If we feel that you may be a good match for one of our current openings you will be contacted.