About The Company

Yuga Labs is a web3 company exploring big ideas in identity, ownership, utility, and interoperability to push the crypto and NFT space forward.

The Yugaverse is made up of: Bored Ape Yacht Club Mutant Ape Yacht Club Bored Ape Kennel Club CryptoPunks Meebits Otherside

Plus dozens of community projects using Ape, CryptoPunks, and Meebits IP.

As The Defiant recently said, "The story of Yuga Labs is one where the improbable has become reality in the blink of an eye." Our flagship collection, Bored Ape Yacht Club, debuted in April 2021. Since then, we’ve created new IP for the ape ecosystem (Mutant Ape Yacht Club, Bored Ape Kennel Club), acquired top collections (CryptoPunks and Meebits), and made both web3 and gaming history with the biggest NFT mint ever followed by a game demo with record-breaking synchronized player participation (Otherside). We also found some time to see old friends and make new ones with headline-making events (ApeFest, VMAs) and partnerships (Rolling Stone, Adidas).

Along the way, the Yuga team has grown from 4 to 100+ people, and we’re still on the lookout for brilliant thinkers and doers who can grow alongside us, push us forward, and create work that makes history. If that sounds like you, apply to one of our open roles or reach out.

Job Short Description

Our Team

We’re a highly creative and technical team that’s working to create new NFT collections and bring those collections to life in immersive ways. We work with other best-in-class teams around the world, and pride ourselves in being able to find innovative solutions to the unique challenges presented at the intersection of web2, gaming, and web3.

Who We’re Looking For

We are seeking a talented and experienced Character Rigger/Animator to join our team of tech artists in creating lifelike and expressive characters for our video games. The ideal candidate should have expertise in rigging and animating faces in Maya.

The Job

• Setup, rig, animate and maintain bone-driven facial features for characters in Maya that are runtime compatible.
• Collaborate with the character modeling team to ensure facial rigging is compatible with character models and create rigs that satisfy animation and game engine requirements
• Develop new techniques and processes to create realistic and expressive facial animations while advancing quality
• Optimize facial rigs for performance and efficiency in-game.
• Stay up-to-date with the latest techniques and tools for facial rigging and animation.
• Design, build and test advanced animation rigs, setups, systems and workflows
• Assist in development & maintenance of systems and workflows for animating and rigging characters which expedite our character setup and animation process, as well as writing scripts to facilitate art production when required
• Consult in development of breakdowns, task lists, estimates, schedules, milestones and overall project goals as necessary; participate in project stand-ups, meetings, and reviews

Your Skills

• 5+ years experience as a Technical Artist-Rigger or Technical Animator role for AAA game development, directly supporting the production with rigging, scripting & tool development
• Strong experience in rigging and animating facial features using procedural rigging systems such as AdvancedSkeleton5 and mGear in Maya
• Strong understanding of anatomy, kinematics, deformation and facial expressions
• Excellent problem-solving and communication skills
• Ability to work collaboratively with other artists and developers
• Strong attention to detail and ability to deliver high-quality work within deadlines
• Up to date on the industry standard tools and systems (in Unreal Engine, Maya, MotionBuilder, Houdini, etc.) and constantly curious about promising new techniques for skeletons, facial animation methodologies, and constraints used for character animation
• Excellent working knowledge of scripting - Maya Python/PyMEL, C++ API, and PySide/PyQt GUI design experience
• Knowledgeable of the real-time art production pipeline & process for different types of asset creation - especially of potential pitfalls and other risks involved with movement mechanics & deformation
• Extensive experience with integration of performance capture animation for both body & face
• Experience with run-time, blend-tree based animation systems
• In-depth knowledge of character/prop rigging techniques and principles
• Familiarity with multi-platform performance efficiency and optimization

Bonus

• Experience working with web3 technologies and blockchain
• Experience with Unreal, Unity or other game engines
• Keyframe Animation Experience
• 3D modeling, animation and texturing skills a strong plus

If you are passionate about creating amazing characters for video games and have the required skills and experience, we encourage you to apply for this exciting opportunity.

The annual salary for this position ranges from $125,000 to $150,000. The actual annual salary paid for this position will be based on several factors, including but not limited to, skills, prior experiences, training, company needs, and current market demands.  The annual salary range for this position is subject to change and may be adjusted in the future. This position may also be eligible for salary increases, bonuses, equity awards, and benefits.