Software Engineer, Cinematics

Description

The infinite care and detail put into every aspect of our games and cinematics is something we take seriously and pride ourselves on delivering to our players. Are you are passionate about software tools that enhance game and cinematic development? Do you love working in a high energy collaborative environment that creates software to serve the arts and artistic workflows? Do you want to play a pivotal role in developing software that empowers artists to bring the Blizzard universe to its fans?

Blizzard Animation, which creates Cinematics that breathes life into the various Blizzard Franchises, is seeking an inventive software engineer for our Front End R&D Team. This engineer will be responsible for creating software tools and workflows for front-end departments such as previz, modeling, rigging, animation, simulation etc. for all Blizzard Cinematic projects. Specifically we are looking for a software engineer to help develop custom software tools for our front-end departments and also extend and maintain existing tools. We use Autodesk's Maya (with custom plugins and workflows) to build our worlds and animate characters. You are fluent in 3D math and 3D geometry, conversant with Maya C++ APIs and Python APIs, and will need to partner with the creative artists and TDs to build tools that scale our front-end production processes. This is a full-time position at our Blizzard central office in Irvine, California.

• Develop new 3D graphics tools as well as maintain existing software tools for front-end production. These software tools relate to manipulating 3D geometry (deformations, transformations, skinning, simulation etc.)
• Partner with front-end artists and TDs to understand production requirements and workflows, propose and implement software tools for them.
• Work with the following technologies and toolsets
• Maya, C++ API
• Python (with PySide / PyQt)

• College degree in Computer Science (or equivalent) showing coursework, projects that relate to 3D computer graphics.
• Professional industry experience with computer graphics demonstrating software skills with respect to 3D graphics, 3D mathematics, debugging 3D problems.
• Passion for programming and software development.
• A minimum of 2 years working with Autodesk Maya's C++ API to design or maintain plugins, understand DAG architecture and evaluations.

• Production experience with vfx or animation pipelines
• An understanding of how technology empowers artists

• Resume
• Cover Letter which should include:
• Why you are interested in working at Blizzard
• Indicate why you might be passionate about 3D animation, visual effects or gaming

Blizzard Entertainment has been rated by Fortune as one of the "Best Places to Work" for several years running (and our ranking continues to rise!). We are a community of 4000 global employees who are passionate about not only gaming, but entertainment and the technology that drives our users experience. Our goal is to delight our customers by never settling for anything but the highest quality and providing worlds filled with creativity and adventure around every corner. You are bright, engaging, eager to learn and ready to make an impact. We've been waiting for you!

We are an equal opportunity employer and value diversity at our company. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status.