Technical Director

Description

Reports to: CG Supervisor, Head of Production Technology

Position Description:

A Technical Director (TD) provides critical support to a production's artists, team leads and supervisors. A TD will design, develop, implement and maintain new tools and processes for a particular project or department. As well, during production a TD will troubleshoot and resolve technical issues as needed to keep production moving forward. Additionally, a TD may be tasked with shot production work, when needed, and where the shot work appropriately matches the skill set of the TD.

Principal Duties and Responsibilities:

Research, design and develop production pipeline tools, work-flow and processes in support of stereoscopic CG animated feature films in addition to any other ongoing studio projects.
Maintain studio production tools with bug fixes, documentation and feature updates as needed.
Assist animators and artists with troubleshooting production issues in asset creation and shot production across the entire production pipeline, and help resolve those issues with data or tools fixes as required.
Support and work with multiple departments, including Modeling, Animation, Lighting, VFX, and R&D.
Work effectively in a dynamic and collaborative team environment.
Ensure that all software development follows studio policies and guidelines.
Work closely with other other Technical Directors, Creative Supervisors, and Production Engineering to maintain and further the production pipeline.
Assist in training and mentoring of other Entry Level or Assistant Technical Directors.

Requirements

Production experience in computer animation, visual effects or game development.
Experience with artist tool development and tools integration within existing or new pipelines.
Experience with Deadline, Qube or other render farm management software.
Experience working with and building tools for Maya as well as any other production modeling, animation or effects software.
Strong programming skills, including proficiency in Python, PyQt, MEL, and Linux shell scripting; C++ or C are a plus.
Experience with source control systems like Mercurial, SVN, Git or other similar systems.
Experience with Fusion, Nuke or other compositing software.
Experience with Renderman, 3Delight or other Renderman compliant renderers.
Ability to establish priorities, work independently or within a group, and work with minimal supervision.
Exceptional communication skills in dealing with both technical and artistic groups.
Exceptional trouble-shooting and problem solving skills.
Experience with software development in 2D and 3D computer graphics.

Education:

B.S. or M.S. in Computer Science, Engineering (or equivalent) is preferred.

Desired Skills / Extras

A strong combined technical and creative background with in-depth knowledge of current 2D and 3D computer graphics techniques as they are used in the feature film and media production industries.
A professional history of collaboration on projects with teams of varied sizes and disciplines.
Strong R&D experience in artist tool and pipeline development in production environments, as well as a some proficiency in mathematics.
Production experience in feature films, television or games.
RI filtering experience with Renderman compliant renderers.
UI development experience with PyQt or wxPython.

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