Senior Technical Artist - Expression of Interest - ILM San Francisco

Senior Technical Artist

This posting is an opportunity to submit your resume for future consideration; this is not a role that is open at this time. We anticipate this role may be open in the future, but we are not actively hiring for the position. If you would like to be considered for this potential role, please submit your resume. If the role becomes available, you may receive an email or call from a recruiter.

ILM's Interactive team advances the studio's legacy of innovation by developing original immersive experiences across virtual reality, augmented reality and location-based platforms. Known for blending best-in-class visuals, sound and narrative, the team has delivered award-winning projects such as What If…? – An Immersive Story, Vader Immortal: A Star Wars VR Series and the Oscar-winning CARNE y ARENA. Our work continues to push the boundaries of immersive entertainment and redefine how audiences engage with story.

We are seeking a Senior Technical Artist who reflects the innovative spirit, creative talent, production excellence, and passion for great storytelling that defines ILM.

The Senior Technical Artist is instrumental in creating, building, and delivering key content and workflows contributing with artists, designers, and engineers to achieve both artistic and optimization goals in the creation of next-generation immersive experiences. This role acts as a key liaison between the content and engineering teams and facilitates problem solving, strategies, and implementations between departments.

We are looking for a creative technologist who is passionate about bringing the latest technical trends in real-time development to their craft, and who reflects the innovative spirit and immersive storytelling that defines ILM Immersive.

What You'll Do

• Conceive, prototype, implement technically advanced visuals and procedural systems.
• Contribute to look development of the highest-caliber real-time art by creating shaders, lighting and particle effects, and partnering with character and environment artists on asset lookdev.
• Partner with the art and engineering teams to understand, define and manage project technical requirements and project asset production.
• Assist artists and designers via tool development, and in concept testing of new ideas, and building of rapid prototypes.
• Look/dev passes of environmental supporting elements, atmospherics, lighting, post-processes and other VFX for scene / level. Actively participate in optimizations, identify, triage, and fix bugs as required.
• Explore and implement new tools and techniques to continuously push the visual bar to the leading edge using scripting (Blueprints, Python) and rapid prototypes.
• Mentor and collaborate with other Technical Artists to improve studio tools and pipelines.
• Proactively identify problems, propose solutions, and seek out buy-in from the team regarding implementation strategy.
• Provide hands-on support to the development team for asset performance profiling and optimization. Identify, triage, and fix bugs as required.
• Standardize and improve best practices for production of assets, materials, shaders, LODs, asset streaming, collisions, and interactions.
• Innovate discipline workflows and keep up to date on new tools/applications/trends in the industry.

What You'll Need

• 5+ years experience in games, film, television, AR/VR or related fields.
• Experience with programming/scripting languages such as Python, C++, C#, Java, VEX, or MEL and a proficiency with linear algebra.
• Strong 3D art skills with experience and deep understanding of optimizing and constructing modeling, texturing, uv mapping, animation, shading, lighting and particle effects for real-time workflows.
• Proficient in Maya, Houdini, Blender, Substance Designer, Substance Painter, and/or Photoshop.
• Unreal Engine: extensive experience working with UE workflows: Blueprints, material networks, real-time lighting and simulations, post processing.
• Shaders: in-depth knowledge of real-time shader implementations, limitations of shaders in VR, strong knowledge of PBR pipelines and subsurface shaders.
• Materials: extensive experience in the development, authoring & organization of efficient node-based materials, hierarchies, material functions, and custom shaders via the UE4 material editor.
• Familiarity with profiling tools in the examination & diagnosis of performance issues.
• Team-player mindset: open & receptive to ideas, constructive feedback, direction and changes.
• Ability to work independently and efficiently under tight deadlines. Works well with direction, but also is self-motivated and will seek out or devise solutions to unexpected challenges.

Desired Skills And Experience:

• Passion for playing and making games, experience or interest in VR and AR.
• Visual Effects production / pipeline experience.
• Interest and capacity to work with proprietary toolsets.

* A portfolio / reel submission - including a detailed breakdown of your work in each section - is required with all applications

The hiring range for this position in San Francisco is $134,300 to $171,800 per year. The base pay actually offered will take into account internal equity and also may vary depending on the candidate's geographic region, job-related knowledge, skills, and experience among other factors. A bonus and/or long-term incentive units may be provided as part of the compensation package, in addition to the full range of medical, financial, and/or other benefits, dependent on the level and position offered.

About Industrial Light & Magic:

Founded in 1975 by George Lucas, ILM is the leading effects facility in the world, serving the motion picture, commercial production, and attraction industries. ILM has created visual effects for over 325 feature films and has played a key role in seven of the top 10 worldwide box-office hits of all time and has contributed to 25 of the top 50. ILM has set the standard for visual effects, creating some of the most stunning images in the history of film. At the forefront of the digital revolution, the company continues to break new ground in visual effects, VR, AR, and Immersive Cinema.

About The Walt Disney Company:

The Walt Disney Company, together with its subsidiaries and affiliates, is a leading diversified international family entertainment and media enterprise that includes three core business segments: Disney Entertainment, ESPN, and Disney Experiences. From humble beginnings as a cartoon studio in the 1920s to its preeminent name in the entertainment industry today, Disney proudly continues its legacy of creating world-class stories and experiences for every member of the family. Disney's stories, characters and experiences reach consumers and guests from every corner of the globe. With operations in more than 40 countries, our employees and cast members work together to create entertainment experiences that are both universally and locally cherished.

This position is with Lucasfilm Ent Co Ltd, LLC Payroll Svc, which is part of a business we call Industrial Light & Magic.

Lucasfilm Ent Co Ltd, LLC Payroll Svc is an equal opportunity employer. Applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, religion, color, sex, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, gender expression, national origin, ancestry, age, marital status, military or veteran status, medical condition, genetic information or disability, or any other basis prohibited by federal, state or local law. Disney champions a business environment where ideas and decisions from all people help us grow, innovate, create the best stories and be relevant in a constantly evolving world.

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