Animation R&D Programmer: Retargeting

Rockstar Games

What We Do

• We develop animation technology, from performance capture to a sophisticated runtime engine, for massive open world games.
  
• We are a global team of programmers and researchers who collaborate on pushing the boundaries of character animation on next generation hardware.
  
• We support and work closely with animation, gameplay, physics, tools, graphics, performance capture, and technical art teams across multiple Rockstar studios.
  

Responsibilities

• Help invent, develop, expand, maintain, and support an extensive runtime animation system, pipeline, and tools.
  
• Develop robust and performant technology to adjust animation to different characters, situations, and environments.
  
• Collaborate and contribute to the research and development of features related to procedural animation, motion adaptation, and character motion synthesis.
  
• Keep up to date with the latest academic and industry breakthroughs, independently research and develop improvements to continuously push our technology forward.
  

Qualifications

• A degree in Computer Science or a related discipline, or equivalent industry experience.
  
• Proven development of solutions in animation retargeting, motion adaptation, or related subjects.
  
• Experience creating, extending or working directly with an animation system within a game engine.
  

Skills

• Good communication skills, ability to clearly share complex technical information with other programmers, animators and technical artists.
  
• Strong C/C++ programming skills.
  
• Strong 3D math skills.
  
• Knowledge of character animation technology, particularly retargeting and IK systems.
  
• Familiarity with common optimization and multi-threading techniques.
  

PLUSES - Please note that these are desirable skills and are not required to apply for the position.

• Industry experience working on AAA character based games, or character based VFX animation.
  
• C# or python programming skills.
  
• Experience developing within a large existing codebase, collaborating, or working independently within a large team.
  
• Experience with motion synthesis or style transfer.
  
• Practical success optimizing or debugging large/complex multithreaded C+

How To Apply

Please apply with a resume and cover letter demonstrating how you meet the skills above. If we would like to move forward with your application, a Rockstar recruiter will reach out to you to explain next steps and guide you through the process.