PlayStation isn’t just the Best Place to Play —it’s also the Best Place to Work. We’ve thrilled gamers since 1994, when we launched the original PlayStation. Today, we’re recognized as a global leader in interactive and digital entertainment. The PlayStation brand falls under Sony Interactive Entertainment, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Sony Corporation.
Senior Technical Artist
This position can be located on site in San Diego or fully remote from anywhere in US or Canada
PlayStation Studios Visual Arts provides the highest quality artistic support to first-party Sony game teams as well as other teams developing titles for the PS5. We offer dozens of services including asset scanning, actor scanning, body motion capture, facial motion capture, motion edit, animation, facial tracking and solving, and lighting. As a service group we have the privilege of working with multiple game developers on a variety of titles. The Technical Art team works directly with clients to replicate and maintain their work environments in the studio and guarantee the quality of the final delivery.
We are looking for a Senior Technical Artist to join our San Diego, California development team. The role requires experience and understanding of visual effects pipelines, experience with Autodesk Maya software, and python programming skills. Technical artists are responsible for setting up and maintaining the technical pipeline on all projects, writing tools for artists for a variety of software packages and needs, troubleshooting all technical issues that arise, and ensuring the quality of the final product. Technical artist work with both our art teams and our engineering team and help provide communication and cohesion between these two groups.
Responsibilities:
- Understanding and maintaining project pipelines.
- Learning and supporting varying client working environments, assets, and tools.
- Writing, maintaining and customizing internal tools for production team.
- Troubleshooting problems in pipeline and for individuals on as-needed basis.
- Creating and maintaining technical documentation.
Desired Experience:
- BS degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Graphic Art, or a related field, or equivalent experience.
- At least 5+ years in some branch of visual effects (film, game dev, tv, etc).
- Excellent knowledge of Maya and Python and experience developing python tools for Maya.
- Excellent troubleshooting skills and the ability to problem solve creatively.
- PyQt/PySide experience.
- Ability to work in a team and communicate well.
- Ability to mentor junior technical artists.
- Experience with game engines such as Unreal, Unity, or proprietary engines.
Nice to Have:
- General knowledge of Maya rigging.
- Experience with other programming languages, especially C++.
- Experience developing or maintaining system environments.
- Experiencing developing or maintaining project pipeline tools.
- Experience with perforce and/or git.
- Experience with project management and tracking software (such as Shotgun and Jira).