Houdini Technical Artist - W/M/NB

Ubisoft’s 21,000 team members, working across more than 30 countries around the world, are bound by a common mission to enrich players’ lives with original and memorable gaming experiences. Their commitment and talent have brought to life many acclaimed franchises such as Assassin’s Creed, Far Cry, Watch Dogs, Just Dance, Rainbow Six, and many more to come. Ubisoft is an equal opportunity employer that believes diverse backgrounds and perspectives are key to creating worlds where both players and teams can thrive and express themselves. If you are excited about solving game-changing challenges, cutting edge technologies and pushing the boundaries of entertainment, we invite you to join our journey and help us create the unknown.

Ubisoft's pioneering studio, Paris studio was responsible for the publisher's first successes following its creation in 1992. Today, it is at the helm of such must-have licenses as Just Dance, Ghost Recon and Mario + The Rabbids. Ubisoft Paris has also built a solid reputation as a partner of choice in cross-studio collaborations such as Watch Dogs, Skull & Bones, Beyond Good & Evil 2 and Star Wars. Building on this experience, the studio continues to push the boundaries of creativity by working on some very promising yet unannounced projects.   

With 750 talents of 35 nationalities, Ubisoft Paris is today the largest studio in France and one of the most experienced in the industry. Young talents can benefit from the strong presence of senior profiles in the creative, technical or artistic fields. Everyone is driven by the same passion: to push the limits of what is possible and to offer new experiences to our players.  

Ready to join the adventure? Join us at the Paris Studio! 

Under the responsibility of the Technical Director, the Houdini Technical Artist helps define and create, support and maintain the procedural content generation pipeline and tools. A key aspect of this role is not only to understand the existing processes and to be able to update/optimize it but is also about being able to understand the level designers and level artists’ needs in order to provide custom tailored tools.

Responsibilities

• Create Houdini digital assets for use in game with Houdini Engine (procedural objects, terrain processing & space population (rocks and vegetation))
• Iterate with the various teams to:
  • Create tools linking the game engine to Houdini processes
  • Empower the world builders by freeing them from redundant task
  • Allow the artists to express their creativity by providing them with comprehensive tools
• Maintain the processes, pipeline and documentation by ensuring that all new addition is compliant with the existing systems.
• Be able to gather in a same rule the gameplay (playability/variety), the technical constraints (memory/perf) and the artistic requirements
• Troubleshoot problems and find appropriate solutions
• Assist the team in learning new technologies and processes
• Between the Houdini Artists, a common trunk of knowledge is shared, but each one is also able to bring his own knowledge in the project.

• Well advanced Houdini knowledge
• Familiar with VEX and ideally with Python
• Strong understanding of rendering budgets and other technical constraints related to performance in real-time engines
• Strong understanding of the requirements for a global pipeline, the ability to enforce strong processes and to setup new ones
• Experience collaborating with graphic programmers and mentoring artists
• Excellent communication skills
• Good knowledge and understanding of the video game development processes and techniques
• Overall artistic knowledge (composition, color, motion, etc.) is a plus

Nice to have

• Experience in developing games for consoles (PS4, Xbox One, Xbox 360, PS3)
• Familiarity with 3DSMax/Zbrush/Motion Builder /Photoshop
• Knowledge of other programming languages (C#, C++, Java Script)
• USD knowledge is a plus

Joining us means having access from day one to : 

• Flexibility in your working hours and the possibility to work remotely under the conditions of the Ubisoft policy. 

• 20 days of remote working per year from a European Union country (reserved for European citizens);  

• Our internal e-learning platform to finally train you on the tools you need so much;  

• Our game library where you can borrow the latest Ubisoft games, those of the competition, consoles and board games;  

• Our preferential rates on a wide range of shows, cinemas, concerts, sports halls, amusement parks, and many other good deals. 

And after 1 year?  

• You have a career and development plan established with your manager as well as clear objectives that will allow you to progress and increase your salary each year;  

• You have joined one of our clubs : choir, yoga, tennis, lightsaber... Or you have created your own!   

• You take advantage of your 1.5 hour lunch break to take part in a class in our gym or borrow one of our bicycles to ride in the Bois de Vincennes ;  

• You look forward to the next surf/yoga or ski weekend organized by the work council;  

• You've gotten really good at foosball, rock climbing, Mario Kart or Just Dance ;   

• You've raided the clearance sale sale to complete your collection of Ubi goodies and games (because we  never have enough); 

Check out this guide to help you with your application, and learn about our actions to encourage more diversity and inclusion.