Art, Production Artist

The Previs Artist will contribute to many artistic and technical aspects of Sony Pictures Animation’s previs projects using both Maya and Unreal. They will collaborate with the Executive in charge of Pre Production, the Previs Department Head, and the technology team in developing and maintaining libraries of assets, materials, textures and motion files for use by the pre-production teams including production designers and art directors including rigging and prep assets for previs artists in both Unreal and Maya. Will contribute to the development and support of workflows for artists as part of early pre production through previs for animated feature projects.

Sony Pictures Animation is an animation studio based in Los Angeles, California, creating both feature animation and animated series with artists from around the world. We pride ourselves on empowering filmmakers to lead the creative process, and allowing the hand of the artist to be truly felt, with the goal of producing bold and innovative visual storytelling!

Develop libraries of assets, materials, fx, and motions for previs artist

Support the art and previs teams with asset compatibility between DCC’s

Prep assets for pre production (textures, materials, and rigging)

Build and debug shader and materials graphs throughout pre production

Help with lighting and shading levels in Unreal Engine

Work closely with software development teams in the creation of a new previs pipeline

Work closely with all departments on pipeline improvements and developments

Support supervisors/artists with use of this pipeline and it’s tools

Support artists and supervisors

Work with Unreal Sequencer in terms of assembling shots, animations, camera, etc both in house and with vendor assets

Experience working with Maya or other DCC software

Excellent knowledge of the Unreal Engine asset and animation pipelines

Experience with character rigging and retargeting for Unreal Engine and Maya

An understanding of Camera, Animation and Film Language

A solid knowledge of Previs/VFX/CG shot production and its iteration process

Understanding of Materials and Shader Editor in Unreal Engine and Maya

Software knowledge:

Autodesk Maya

Unreal Engine 5

Autodesk MotionBuilder

Sony Pictures Animation is an equal opportunity employer. We evaluate qualified applicants without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, disability, veteran status, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, or other protected characteristics.