Technical Art Director

Avalanche Studios Group and its creative division Avalanche Studios in Stockholm and New York are looking for a talented Technical Art Director to join a top-tier, experienced team to help craft cutting edge AAA open-world games.

The Position

The Technical Art Director is accountable for the technical art quality of the project. As someone with a strong understanding of visual quality and the technology, they assure we are using the right tools in the right way to maximize the project’s visual goals within the constraints of our proprietary open-world APEX engine. They are hands-on with implementation and provide technical support to different art teams while guiding and assisting them in using the best practices possible for the tools and features in our engine.

The ideal candidate is not only an artist but at a minimum has a strong technical mindset and ideally general understanding of programming. This paired with a well rounded understanding of the tools and workflows needed to make great art. They feel comfortable in a team environment and are able to contribute on many levels of technical art with an edge towards real time rendering features and procedural solutions.

They will work with the Directors and Leads to help implement, research, and evolve our technology along with the content pipelines required to achieve the maximum potential.

As an employee of Avalanche Studios, you will work in an environment where social skills are just as important as your professional skills. You will work with a team of talented and experienced game developers, who have worked on numerous best-selling and critically acclaimed titles.

• Partner with the Art Director and Rendering Lead to drive and execute the project’s vision.
• Strategy to grow the engine and tools required to achieve the Art Direction and maximize the visual quality of our products.
• Define and document the graphic production pipeline (modeling, animation, characters, lighting, shaders, VFX, etc..) while maintaining them through production.
• Coordinate and act as an intermediary between the Tech Art, Art, and the Programming team, including validation of render and tool requests from the Art Team.
• Reinforce the technical constraints of the product, and reasoning, to the team
• Assure the consistency of art quality throughout the game from a technical perspective.
• Propose and support the right tools to accelerate certain procedural tasks related to visual quality.
• Offer support and spread knowledge to other projects within the Avalanche Studios Group Divisions as needed.

Requirements:

• 10+ years’ experience and shipped titles as a Technical Art Director or Lead Technical Artist in the game industry, potentially including years from pre-rendered industries.
• Strong artistic eye for multiple disciplines such as 3D art, lighting, VFX.
• Experience mentoring a team of artists, engineers, and/or technical artists.
• Strong knowledge of current rendering principles and shaders in a real-time environment.
• Strong understanding of HDR content and rendering pipelines
• Comprehensive knowledge of CG fundamentals: modeling, textures/shaders, rigging, animation, lighting, rendering, compositing.
• Comprehensive knowledge of CG DCCs such as Maya, Houdini, Marvelous, Substance Designer, and Painter.
• Excellent aptitude for troubleshooting technical issues associated with lighting, shaders, performance, tools and pipelines.
• Knowledge of Python and the Qt Framework
• Competency with architecting and developing tools and pipelines for artists
• Ability to communicate effectively with artists, designers, engineers, and other members of the development team.

Nice to haves:

• Experience with pre-rendered pipelines
• Knowledge and experience using C++
• Experience in creating and optimizing real-time shaders
• Experience with Houdini and procedural pipelines
• A foundation in traditional art