Sr. Software Engineer, 2D Animation

Walt Disney Animation Studios has been combining the best in artistry and storytelling with cutting-edge technology to bring wonderful new characters and adventures to the big screen for audiences around the world. We currently have a number of all-CG productions underway and are innovating in many new, challenging and exciting areas of computer graphics.

Our next film is a return to traditional animation with “The Princess and The Frog” directed by John Musker and Ron Clements. Also in production are the CG productions “Rapunzel,” directed by Byron Howard and Nathan Greno, and “King of the Elves,” directed by Bob Walker and Aaron Blaise.

We currently have an exciting opportunity for a 2D Animation Senior Software Engineer to join the studio technology group at our Burbank, CA studio.

Senior Software Engineers are responsible for analyzing the challenges and goals for our animated films, evaluating the effectiveness of algorithms or systems, making effective requirements decisions to improve quality, efficiency, and workflow, and ultimately developing graphics software, plug-ins, scripts and tools directly used for animation production. They partner with technical directors and artists across multiple films to determine user needs and decide what development needs to be made within existing systems and when new algorithms must be invented or new systems or tools must be added.

Responsibilities:

• Implement software relating to a variety of subjects in the area of traditional animation technology, including but not limited to: vector and bitmap-based line and stroke representation, inkline rendering, shape interpolation algorithms, 2D painting techniques, Xsheet data management, layer compositing, image processing tools, hardware input devices and writing plug-ins for commercial 2D software packages.

• Correlate the knowledge of practical animation production requirements with mathematical, geometric or physics based methods for advanced research topics – as well as practical script-based pipeline and process automation, and user interface design for artist-friendly tool workflows.

• Keep abreast of cutting edge technology in academia and industry that pertains to the area of 2D animation technology, for the purpose of evaluating and driving forward the general studio tool requirements.

• Oversee, prepare, and conduct special studies and research projects in addition to production-driven duties.

• Work with a broad cross-section of Disney Animation employees and affiliates including technical directors, engineers, interns and external research consultants in pursuit of solutions to production problems and research and development ideas.

• Create, test and evaluate new technologies and techniques for use in the production of animated movies, including making recommendations for alleviating and improving problem situations.

Qualifications:

• Master's degree or PhD in Computer Graphics, Computer Science, or equivalent work experience.

• Seven years experience in 2D animation production or related academic research doing computer graphics related development, using multiple languages and API's, including C++ (required) on UNIX/Linux. Experience with OpenGL, Python, and PyQT are all highly desirable.

• Experience in the development of practical applied workflow / pipeline automation tools is a necessity.

• Experience with algorithm optimization, including GPU acceleration, parallelization with OpenMP or TBB, and use of performance analyzers such as Vtune, is highly desirable

• Experience with commercial 2D animation packages such as ToonBoom Harmony, or Adobe Flash desired.

To apply, please visit https://careers.disneyanimation.com/job_groups/job_description?id=23.

Thanks!

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The Walt Disney Company is an Equal Opportunity Employer.