Free Range Games grows games the old fashioned way: we don’t put our team in cages, we work distributedly, and we don’t use toxic work/life trade-offs. Some of our crafters have worked together from PS1 to PS5 and will tell you about carving games one triangle at a time from punch cards.

We are some of the folk behind Spider-man, Tony Hawk, Lord of the Rings, Twitch Sings, Oddworld, Shrek Super Slam, and dozens of mobile and web games. We believe every member of the team has a voice in what the game should be.

We prioritize community, family, and love-of-gaming over process, crunching, and TPS reports. And maybe that’s what you want too.

Free Range Games is looking for a Senior Character Technical Artist to join our growing AAA teams.
You will work with both internal and external teams to help build, develop and maintain the rigging and animation pipeline. Our ideal candidate enjoys cross-team collaboration, support minded and empowers artists workflows.

Please include your portfolio/reel including a detailed breakdown of your work in each section

Responsibilities:

Design, create, test and maintain character rigs and pipeline tools.
Design, document and build art tools.
Work with art teams to review and integrate models that meet technical needs.
Collaborate with animators to design clean and intuitive control rigs.
Develop and maintain character motion and deformation systems.
Develop and document new techniques and processes to solve character production challenges.
Work with production management to prioritize tasks.
Additional responsibilities may be assigned as needed.

Required Qualifications:

5+ years of production experience.
In-depth knowledge of Maya building high-quality assets.
Strong Python knowledge using Pymel, Pyside and Qt for pipeline tool development.
Experience with Unreal’s character and animation pipeline.
Strong understanding of both Figure and Facial Anatomy.
Complex character/vehicle rigging experience in Maya (film, broadcast, or game environments).
Experience setting up production pipelines while being able to follow guidelines.
The ability to take initiative and work independently.
Basic understanding of Linear Algebra.

Nice to haves:

Maya API and C++.
Experience using Physics systems (Cloth, Ragdoll, Dynamics).

Equal Opportunity Employer Statement

Free Range Games is an equal opportunity employer that is committed to diversity and inclusion in the workplace. We prohibit discrimination and harassment of any kind based on race, color, sex, religion, sexual orientation, national origin, disability, genetic information, pregnancy, or any other protected characteristic as outlined by federal, state, or local laws.

This policy applies to all employment practices within our organization, including hiring, recruiting, promotion, termination, layoff, recall, leave of absence, compensation, benefits, training, and apprenticeship. Free Range Games makes hiring decisions based solely on qualifications, merit, and business needs at the time.

E-Verify participant

Federal law requires all employers to verify the identity and employment eligibility of all persons hired to work in the United States. Free Range Games participates in E-Verify.