Technical Artist - High Moon Studios: Activision Blizzard
Great Games Start with Great People! This is a significant time in our company’s history – and one of the most exciting times to join us! We are seeking an imaginative, skillful, and versatile Technical Artist to join our team in Carlsbad, California. If you want to work with a fun, collaborative team on the world’s most popular game franchises, then this may be the position you’ve been waiting for!
As a Technical Artist at High Moon you’d be joining a team of creative problem solvers who are passionate about high-quality content creation, and are dedicated to crafting efficient pipeline and optimization tools in different areas of content development. Those areas of content development may include physically correct art development, lighting and shaders, rigging, animation, or effects.
Our team is a multidisciplinary group serving as a bridge between art, design, and engineering. We provide our teams with effective implementation tools, complex assets templates, and final content which must not only meet the high-quality standard but also be optimized to be as efficient as possible. Our team is also responsible for analyzing content performance, advise on, and provide processes to ensure the final content runs at the expected frame rate.
What you’ll do…
Help define technical quality standards and be responsible for the development of art pipelines
Contribute to the development of artistic techniques and processes used to define and achieve a product's visual style, while encouraging artistic technical evolution within the studio
Provide input on the technical methods to achieve the artistic goals and vision through all phases of the game development cycle
Build tools and processes that assist in authoring environment art, VFX, destruction simulations, animation, lighting, and post process effects
Stay current on industry standard content creation tools and techniques
Create and maintain technical documentation
Work with other tech artists/engineers to identify and implement art-pipeline optimizations and to create technical benchmarks to be used in production
Offer technical support to the art team in day-by-day production issues
Assist in game profiling and generating report to help content creators get their assets within budget
To succeed you must have…
3+ years' experience in technical art or animation roles
Excellent verbal and written communication skills catering to engineers and artists as needed
Thorough knowledge of content creation tools with the ability to create both content and tools to expedite content creation, these can include Photoshop, Maya, Max, Houdini, Substance Designer, etc.
Excellent time management skills, with the ability to break down tasks and assignments and prioritize them into workable pieces on a daily, weekly basis
Object oriented software design skills using Python, Java, C#, or C++
Bachelor’s degree in related fields or equivalent work experience
We’d love it if you also have…
Working knowledge of linear algebra (vector math) as it pertains to 3d environments
Experience building WPF .Net applications using C#
Experience programming in C++
Experience building Houdini assets
Experience creating shader and effects using HLSL
High Moon Studios
Founded in 2002, High Moon Studios is an award-winning studio developing for the Call of Duty® franchise, with past development on over 15 titles including Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War and Warzone, Bungie’s Destiny 2: Forsaken, and Transformers: Fall of Cybertron. We employ more than 170 people in Carlsbad, CA, a seaside city in San Diego County.
Our pride is our people and the experiences we have successfully created for our fans. High Moon's talent is comprised of gifted entertainment and technology professionals responsible for some of the most successful games ever made. We have award-winning developers, published artists and specialists recognized as among the best in their fields. Our studio has a history of using innovative techniques designed to boost productivity and product quality, which in turn enhances our studio's quality of life.
High Moon Studios is wholly owned by Activision. To learn more about our studio, please visit us at www.highmoonstudios.com.
Our World
Activision Blizzard, Inc. (NASDAQ: ATVI), is one of the world's largest and most successful interactive entertainment companies and is at the intersection of media, technology and entertainment. We are home to some of the most beloved entertainment franchises including Call of Duty®, World of Warcraft®, Overwatch®, Diablo®, Candy Crush™ and Bubble Witch™. Our combined entertainment network delights hundreds of millions of monthly active users in 196 countries, making us the largest gaming network on the planet!
Our ability to build immersive and innovate worlds is only enhanced by diverse teams working in an inclusive environment. We aspire to have a culture where everyone can thrive in order to connect and engage the world through epic entertainment. We provide a suite of benefits that promote physical, emotional and financial well-being for ‘Every World’ - we’ve got our employees covered!
The videogame industry and therefore our business is fast-paced and will continue to evolve. As such, the duties and responsibilities of this role may be changed as directed by the Company at any time to promote and support our business and relationships with industry partners.
High Moon Studios is an Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, national origin, protected veteran status, or any other basis protected by applicable law and will not be discriminated against on the basis of disability.