Blackbird Interactive is looking for a passionate and experienced technical artist to join our team to be a key part of our art and engineering backbone. We want someone to collaborate with a tight-knit team of highly dedicated and talented developers on BBI’s newest IP. This is a chance to get involved from day 1 of this project’s life cycle! Do you want to build stylish and compelling experiences?
Do you love working with a team of talented designers, artists and programmers to create ambitious in-game content? You will be part of a small, high performing team who can crunch ideas quickly and come up with dazzling solutions to challenging problems. You will have a collaborative approach and be directly involved in the day to day decision making that will help us design and ship a high quality game.
Responsibilities
- To act as a bridge between Art, Engineering and the game engine.
- Agile, flexible, and comfortable dealing with the ambiguity of new concepts.
- Work closely with rendering programmers and art direction to share feedback on tools as well as prototype results.
- Problem solve and determine out-of-the-box solutions for complex technical requirements.
- Technical proficiency in areas such as lighting, rendering, texturing, and shader programming languages.
- The creation of a procedural system that assembles levels from a library of modular assets while maintaining visual cohesion and structural integrity.
- Ability to optimize and increase efficiency and reduce the expense of game assets while preserving visual quality
- Able to work with minimum supervision, work well in a small team and take ownership for problems.
- Document tools and production pipelines that are clear and understandable.
Requirements
- 4 + years of experience as a Technical Artist or similar role
- At least 1 published AAA game or sufficient demonstration of skillset.
- Strong understanding of the VFX production pipeline/tools/etc
- Must have an active, passionate interest in current video games to help drive the game to the next level.
- Familiarity with scripting (Blueprint, Python and MEL)
- Understand rendering and shader creation
- Optimization and performance profiling is a must
- Asset creation and management
- Excellent ability to self-manage and meet deadlines
- Shows initiative for creative problem solving and unorthodox solutions
- Experience working with 3D software (Maya, Houdini , Blender)
- Experience working with Unreal Engine 4
Pluses
- Rigging and animating
- P4V experience
- Modeling skills and game asset building
At Blackbird, we’re all about being true to our roots. We started small in our CEO’s garage, and even though we’re expanding, our desire is to stick to that foundation of creativity, community, and collaboration. Our team has proved that great ideas can come from any position in any discipline, so it’s important to us to make sure every voice is heard.
Work/life balance is extremely important to us, and we’ve demonstrated that over the years by severely limiting over-time requirements. We want people to be happy about coming to work every day, and to that end we offer lots of opportunities for growth and development; whether it’s lunch and learns, team events, or our generous vacation days, paid holiday closure and flexible schedules. We also try to provide every opportunity possible for our employees to spearhead R&D initiatives through our BlackOps program. In short, don’t expect to feel like a cog in a machine working for BBI.
Due to COVID-19, applicants must be eligible to work in Canada, or currently in Canada on a work permit/visa. With the exception of specifically on-site roles, all roles will commence as a work-from-home arrangement. This arrangement will be revisited as COVID-19 government regulations are eased.
Please send a cover letter with your resume and application. If applying for an artistic role, please provide a link to your portfolio and/or demo reel.
If you are interested in the role, please apply even if your experience and skills don’t perfectly match our ideal credentials. We are committed to diversity and especially encourage members of underrepresented communities to apply. As an equal opportunity employer we encourage applications from all qualified individuals. BBI does not discriminate against applicants based on genders, races, national and ethnic origins, religions, ages, sexual orientation, marital and family status, and/or mental or physical disabilities.