Senior Technical Artist

Description

The Technical Artist is a senior member of the art team and acts as a liaison between the art department and the code department. He or she is involved in the day to day creation of tools, scripts, shaders and/or plug-ins that facilitate the artists and designers workflow and may occasionally be involved in the day-to-day creation of assets, either as part of a project or for the studio generally. He or she serves as a resource to the Art and Code departments. The Senior Technical Artist is also responsible for ensuring that he or she is effectively sharing his or her experience and expertise to assist junior and intermediate technical artists in continuing their professional development.
As a senior member of the art team, the Senior Technical Artist is expected to have the training, skills, abilities and technical/professional knowledge to complete more complex assignments and to complete less complex assignments more quickly than more junior technical artists. The Senior Technical Artist is expected to be able to generate worthwhile new ideas or techniques having practical applications and to apply new ideas/concepts.
The Senior Technical Artist is expected to handle a larger number of different responsibilities and to exhibit more effective time management. Quality expectations for the Senior Technical Artist’s work product are commensurate with the degree of seniority of the individual.
The Technical Artist is a member of the Technology Department; while assigned to a project, he or she will report directly to the Technical Lead of that project.
Specific duties include:
•Assisting the Technical Lead with time estimations and scheduling at the beginning of any project.
•Utilizing his or her subject matter expertise to assist the Technical Lead in assigning tasks to animation department staff at the appropriate level for such tasks.
•Creating any tools, scripts, shaders, plug-ins and/or content needed during the prototype phase of the project.
•Working closely with members of the Tools and Shared Technology groups to design and assist in the development of tools and pipelines for Artists, Animators and Designers.
•Driving the technical aspect of art development through advances in tech process, technology and automation.
•Communicating with the Art, Programming and Design teams concerning issues that may affect one or all of these departments.
•Working with the Art, Code and Design leads to define, document, and train teams on production pipelines for levels, characters, animations, materials, lighting and other assets for specific or multiple projects.
•Improving and enhancing tools/processes throughout the project cycle.
•Researching and evaluating the latest content production software, pipelines and processes, ultimately working toward implementation with other departments.
•Producing and integrating art assets where necessary.
•Taking ownership of assigned tasks, and taking pride in the quality of the work he or she creates.
•Actively mentoring, coaching, teaching and training junior members of the Technical Art team.
•Consistently sharing and applying new industry, technical and company information within the Technical Art department and to members of the studio generally.
•Assisting the Technical Lead (as required) with the day to day management of the Technical Art team.
•Remaining flexible in undertaking any other such duties and responsibilities.
•Participating in any training or development offered by Bedlam.