Senior Technical Artist (Character) at Maxis Studios in Redwood City, California, United States | 5-7 Years Experience

Description & Requirements

Electronic Arts creates next-level entertainment experiences that inspire players and fans around the world. Here, everyone is part of the story. Part of a community that connects across the globe. A place where creativity thrives, new perspectives are invited, and ideas matter. A team where everyone makes play happen.

Welcome to Maxis, home to tinkerers, craftspeople, & storytellers. Our drive is to inspire everyone to make a better world through creative play. As the developer of The Sims, we create games and experiences for millions of people around the world and are always looking for new ways to inspire our players. Maxis is a place where you can do what you love and help others grow while doing it; a place where your unique voice can be heard and seen. We put creativity and inclusivity at the core of our work and don't settle for seeing the world only as it is, but strive to build a world as it could be.

Teams are building the next generation game and creative platform, Project Rene and reimagining The Sims that players know and love with even more new ways to play. We're excited you're interested to learn more about how you can join our team and dream big.

You will be reporting to the Senior Technical Art Director.

Preferred Locations: Vancouver, Toronto (Hybrid three days/week onsite studio)

As a Character Technical Artist at Maxis, you will collaborate with Art & Animation Leads, Technical Artists, and Engineers across the studio and EA, to push the boundaries of character technology. The model applicant is passionate about character development, exploring new technologies, and implementing modern game production solutions for existing and new IPs.

Responsibilities:

Collaborate with Art & Animation Directors, Engineers, Character & Animation Leads to achieve look development, content pipeline, and runtime implementation goals.
Create character look development prototypes, applying latest technologies to aesthetic and performance goals.
Collaborate with technical directors to define character performance requirements, diagnose, profile, and manage content costs.
Help develop a technical character pipeline from Maya to Unreal.
Firefight production issues, investigating urgent issues and resolving roadblocks.
Collaborate with teams across the studio and EA to improve character development practices and pipelines.
Create solid documentation and training material.

Qualifications:

Production experience in Unreal Editor with a focus on character pipelines, including skeletal mesh actors, rigs & animations workflows, blueprints.
Understanding of human and creature anatomy, proportion, silhouette, & topology and techniques to create foundational models and textures.
5+ years of experience of Maya and industry leading tools for character development (Zbrush, Marvelous Designer, Marmoset Toolbag, etc).
Proficiency in Unreal Materials with a focus on character look development.
Fundamentals in PBR and proficiency in Substance Designer and Painter workflows.
1+ years of experience with runtime dynamics Cloth & Hair and related authoring techniques.
1+ years of experience designing and overseeing large character part systems.
Proficiency in Python, Mel, and developing and maintaining artists production tools.
Bonus Qualifications
Experience developing and maintaining Maya riggs for game characters.
Experience developing for iOS/Android.
Experience developing for console hardware (XB1/XBX/PS4/PS5).

Visit us at: https://www.ea.com/ea-studios/maxis

COMPENSATION AND BENEFITS The ranges listed below are what EA in good faith expects to pay applicants for this role in these locations at the time of this posting. If you reside in a different location, a recruiter will advise on the applicable range and benefits. Pay offered will be determined based on a number of relevant business and candidate factors (e.g. education, qualifications, certifications, experience, skills, geographic location, or business needs). BASE SALARY RANGES

British Columbia (depending on location e.g. Vancouver vs. Victoria)
- $107,600 - $147,100 CAD

In British Columbia, we offer a package of benefits including vacation (3 weeks per year to start), 10 days per year of sick time, paid top-up to EI/QPIP benefits up to 100% of base salary when you welcome a new child (12 weeks for maternity, and 4 weeks for parental/adoption leave), extended health/dental/vision coverage, life insurance, disability insurance, retirement plan to regular full-time employees. Certain roles may also be eligible for bonus and equity.

About Electronic Arts

We’re proud to have an extensive portfolio of games and experiences, locations around the world, and opportunities across EA. We value adaptability, resilience, creativity, and curiosity. From leadership that brings out your potential, to creating space for learning and experimenting, we empower you to do great work and pursue opportunities for growth.

We take a holistic approach with our benefits program, focusing on physical, emotional, financial, career, and community wellness to support a balanced life with paid time off and new parent leave, plus free games and so much more. We nurture environments where our teams can always bring their best to what they do.

Electronic Arts is an equal opportunity employer. All employment decisions are made without regard to race, color, national origin, ancestry, sex, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, age, genetic information, religion, disability, medical condition, pregnancy, marital status, family status, veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law. We will also consider employment qualified applicants with criminal records in accordance with applicable law. EA also makes workplace accommodations for qualified individuals with disabilities as required by applicable law.

About The Company

Maxis Studios

21 Active Jobs

Maxis, creators of the ever-expanding Sims world, is an EA studio where a diverse collection of creatives make games that inspire players across the globe. We have offices in Redwood City, CA, Austin, TX, and Kitchener, ON, as well as team members based across the US and Europe.

Maxis is a place for people who see building games as a unique opportunity to change hearts and minds by giving players the chance to create their own unique experiences. Members of our team are working toward a better world not only through our games, but through employee resource groups and the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Council.

We support each other so we can be authentic. We foster connectedness so we can collaborate. We respect boundaries to build an environment that’s safe, creative, and ideal for tinkering. We’re on the lookout for diverse, innovative thinkers who want to make a positive impact on the world.