Associate Technical Artist

Gaming

Welcome to the world of land-based gaming. At Light & Wonder, it's all about the games, and our Gaming team builds cutting-edge technology, products, and content for the most iconic casinos and operators across the globe.

Position Summary

Help bring our games to life as a translator between art and engineering. Working under the guidance of technical artists and engineers, you will support the studio in achieving the player-facing vision for each game theme. Other duties include following and helping improve the content and animation creation pipeline, assisting game artists and animators with asset implementation, and building familiarity with current game industry tools and processes. Requires working knowledge of a modern game engine and its scripting language, solid coding fundamentals, and a good eye for detail.

Essential Job Functions

• Create, edit, and implement the technical components of artistic visual elements and animations used in games, following established pipeline standards for import settings and technical requirements
• Assist with setting up and troubleshooting animation in engine, including rigs, skinning, animation clips, state transitions, and playback timing
• Use programming languages and 3D graphics packages such as 3ds Max and Maya to modify art and animation assets for technical viability and performance
• Evaluate asset rendering and animation playback, and modify models, rigs, and animations to improve performance, memory footprint, and responsiveness on supported hardware
• Build and test prototypes of game functionality, animation behavior, and theme dynamics under direction
• Identify and fix asset, animation, and code errors, escalating complex issues to senior team members
• Assist Artists, Animators, and Engineers with routine technical issues related to the art and animation pipeline, and help document best practices
• Actively seek feedback and mentorship to grow technical and pipeline skills

Qualifications

Education/Experience

Bachelor of Arts in art, animation, computer science, or equivalent experience

Requirements

• Unity familiarity, including Prefabs, Particle Systems, and Materials preferred
• Fluency in other coding languages, especially JavaScript, MAXScript, and C++
• Working knowledge of C#
• Proficient in Photoshop
• Familiarity with motion graphics & compositing editors (After Effects preferred)
• Familiarity with 3D animation & rendering applications (3DS Max preferred)
• Working knowledge of versioning software (Perforce preferred)
• Experience writing art tools
• Experience writing shaders (Cg preferred)
• Understanding of UI / UX principles across various platforms

Knowledge, Skills and Abilities

• Familiarity with technical documentation
• An understanding of artistic concepts and pipeline
• Working knowledge of animation state machines
• Strong problem-solving skills
• Excellent organizational skills
• Interact and collaborate with immediate peers
• Experience working with a team under tight deadlines
• Self-motivated and able to work on multiple projects with minimal direction
• Familiarity with AI tools is a plus

Physical Requirements

The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. While performing the duties of this job, the employee is regularly required to sit, stand, walk, bend, use hands, operate a computer, and have specific vision abilities to include close and distance vision, and ability to adjust focus working with computer and business equipment.

Work Conditions

Light & Wonder and its affiliates (collectively, "L&W") are engaged in highly regulated gaming and lottery businesses. As a result, certain L&W employees may, among other things, be required to obtain a gaming or other license(s), undergo background investigations or security checks, or meet certain standards dictated by law, regulation or contracts.

In order to ensure L&W complies with its regulatory and contractual commitments, as a condition to hiring and continuing to employ its employees, L&W requires all of its employees to meet those requirements that are necessary to fulfill their individual roles. As a prerequisite to employment with L&W (to the extent permitted by law), you shall be asked to consent to L&W conducting a due diligence/background investigation on you.

This job description should not be interpreted as all-inclusive; it is intended to identify major responsibilities and requirements of the job. The employee in this position may be requested to perform other job-related tasks and responsibilities than those stated above.

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