KPIS
Main subdivisions: Tools & Pipeline TA: develops tools to make content creators more effective Content TA: Manages content for both runtime efficiency and production sanity Animation TA: Supports animators and supplies technical animation Shader / Effects TA: Creates shaders and special effects
- primary resonsibility is developing tools and data pipelines for content creators
- this role is defined by:
- attentive service to "customers"
- enhancing user productivity
- educating users to be self-supporting
- good programming practice
- Shows strong familiarity with DCC tool(s).
- Understands essentials of production process and source control.
- Learns performance characteristics of our engine.
- Listens and commnicates well.
- Writes simple DCC scripts for automation and batch processing in at least one language.
- Makes content for demos and prototypes.
- Can instruct new artists on effective use of DCC tools.
- Is familiar with our pipeline / OR: has good working knowledge of pipelines from other studio(s).
- Spots and improves inefficient workflows.
- Educates artists about engine memory and performance constraints.
- Assists new production artists with onboarding.
- Coaches artists on best practices.
- Knows and teaches good source control habits.
- Writes DCC scripts in at least one language -- able to design and implement simple tools without handholding.
- Demonstrates expert level knowledge of at least one DCC tool.
- Demonstrates effective, systematic debugging skills.
- Uses diagnostics tools (PIX, memory reporting) to optimize content.
- Writes complex scripted DCC tools with full use of available libraries, object-oriented design patterns, and GUI.
- Cooperates with art and engineering to design new pipelines and tools.
- Support for content creators working on difficult or unusual problems
- Writes clear, useful documentation.
- Contributes to middleware technical evaluations.
- Participates helpfully in code reviews.
- Extends and debugs our pipeline without assistance.
- Writes tools for the editor in C++
- Debugs performance problems with Telemetry and PIX.
- Leads the ionmplementation of new pipelines or tools / OR: Provides expert implementation of difficult data flow problems.
- Mentors junior pipeline TAs
- Leads the design of new pipelines or tools. / OR: Provides technical support and enhancement for a large cadre of content creators
- Contributes to curriculum and standards for pipeline TAs / OR: Implements highly challenging technical solutions for advanced tools
- Negotiates effectively with art and engineering to create new workflows.
- Leads evaluation and contracting of external tools and middleware
- Keeps studio abreast of changes in engineering, graphics and hardware
- Contributes to forecasting, costing and budgeting for technical art
- Coordinates technical direction for the pipeline of an entire product. / OR: coordinates end-user education and documentation for an entire project.
- Leads curriculum development for pipeline TAs / OR: Consistently Implements studio-critical functionality with minimal guidance
- Contributes materially to making the studio profitable and efficient.
- Contributes to the long-term technical direction of the studio.
- Contributes to forecasting, costing and budgeting for the entire studio.
- primary responsibility is grooming game content for runtime efficiency and artistic quality
- this role is defined by:
- attentive service to "customers"
- educating users to be self-supporting
- strong understanding of what makes the game run well
- keeping the entire team focused on hitting memory and performance targets
- Shows strong familiarity with DCC tool(s).
- Understands essentials of production process and source control.
- Learns performance characteristics of our engine.
- Listens and commnicates well.
- Writes simple DCC scripts for automation and batch processing in at least one language.
- Makes content for demos and prototypes.
- Is familiar with our pipeline / OR: has good working knowledge of pipelines from other studio(s).
- Spots and improves inefficient workflows.
- Educates artists about engine memory and performance constraints.
- Assists new production artists with onboarding.
- Coaches artists on best practices.
- Knows and teaches good source control habits.
- Uses databases and spreadsheets for tracking budget and performance data
- Educates the team on budget and performance data
- Helps develop and document content standards.
- Demonstrates effective, systematic debugging skills.
- Uses diagnostics tools (PIX, memory reporting) to define content guidelines.
- Writes tools for offline analysis of resource usage.
- Writes tools to validate and ingest outsourced content.
- Works with engineering to understand hidden resource costs.
- Contributes data for domain budgets (ie, texture size, asset count).
- Participates helpfully in code reviews.
- Curates standards documentation for team and outsourcers.
- Educates users about content standards.
- Proposes runtime content optimizations.
- Writes content checkers and budgeting tools for the editor in C++
- Debugs performance problems using Telemetry and PIX.
- Helps negotiate domain budgets with engineering.
- Collaborate with production and art to ensure budgets are followed.
- Delivers live budgeting and content health tools to the the team.
- Documents and evangelizes content standards.
- Provides regular reporting to engineering and art about content status.
- Implements runtime optimizations for memory or streaming.
- Mentors junior content TAs
- Drives the design of outsource ingestion pipelines.
- Technical liason with outsource vendors.
- Leads the design of large-scale production tracking tools / OR: Provides technical support and enhancement for a large cadre of content creators
- Contributes to curriculum and standards for content TAs / OR: Implements highly challenging technical solutions for advanced tools
- Drives budgeting process for an entire product
- Leads evaluation and contracting of external tools and middleware
- Leads curriculum development for content TAs / OR: Consistently Implements studio-critical functionality with minimal guidance
- Helps negotiate with outsourcers on technical constraints.
- Contributes materially to making the studio more profitable and efficient.
- Contributes to the long-term technical direction of the studio.
- Coordinates content budget process across multiple projects
- primary responsibility is keeping animators productive
- this role is defined by:
- attentive service to "customers"
- educating users to be self-supporting
- ability to deliver tools and rigs which enhance animator productivity
- contributions to runtime animation systems
- Demonstrates strong familiarity with Maya animation tools and/or MotionBuilder.
- Understands essentials of production process and source control.
- Learns performance characteristics of our engine.
- Listens and commnicates well.
- Demonstrates new rig features to animators.
- Builds new rig components by hand.
#2
- Educates users on rig features.
- Able to debug and fix rig problems in production.
- Spots and improves inefficient animation workflows.
- Assists new animators with onboarding.
- Coaches animators on best practices.
- Knows and teaches good source control habits.
- Builds entire rigs by hand for special purposes.
- Contributes to rigging-related scripting.
- Contributes to Unreal animation graphs.
- Supports animator prototyping in Blueprint.
#3
- Advanced user of Maya animation tools or MotionBuider.
- Supports motion capture and dense data workflows.
- Writes procedural rigging tools and systems.
- Writes animator support tools.
- Debugs and enhances Unreal animation graphs.
- Debugs runtime animation issues using native Unreal tools.
- Contributes to the design of animation graphs / OR: Provides complex technical animations / OR: Provides custom support to cinematic camera and effects.
- Writes clear, useful documentation for animators.
- Contributes to middleware and performance capture technology evaluations.
- Participates helpfully in code reviews.
- Leads the implementation of new rigs / OR: leads the design of animation state graph / OR: implements highly challenging technical animations.
- Able to extend Maya / MotionBuilder functionality using C++ API
- Optimizes animation graphs for quality and cost / OR: provides new runtime animation functionality using Blueprint.
- Audits animation graphs to ensure content health.
- Automates rig changes to minimize disruptions during production.
- Negotiates with engineering on behalf of animators for new features.
- Mentors junior rigging TAs
- Lead the design of studio-wide rigging infrastructure / OR: implements high-performance custom components using C++ API
- Lead pipeline development for new animation features / OR: implements new animation features in Unreal C++
- Able to debug complex animation problems using C++.
- Coordinates user education for animation tools and features
- Sources and contracts for performance capture or performance capture techology
- Coordinates curriculum and training for animation TAs / OR: implements industry-leading animation technologies
- Contributes materially to making the studio more profitable and efficient.
- Contributes to the long-term technical direction of the studio.
- Contributes to forecasting, costing and budgeting for the entire studio.
- Primary focus of this role is on graphics tech
- This role is defined by
- A good balance of aesthetic and technical skills
- Ability to deliver performant graphics
- Strong math skills
- Interest in graphics R&D
- Shows strong familiarity with DCC tool(s).
- Understands essentials of production process and source control.
- Learns performance characteristics of our engine.
- Listens and commnicates well.
- Able to create simple shaders using Unreal shader graph.
- Able to create simple particle effects using Unreal.
- Instructs new artists on effective use of DCC tools.
- Is familiar with our shader library / OR: has good working knowledge of shader toolkit from another studio
- Understands basics of shader performance on Xbox and PC
- Educates artists about shader performance constraints.
- Helps train artists to use our shader library.
- Able to create runtime and post-effect shaders using the Unreal shader graph.
- Able to produce production-quality effects.
- Uses Unreal shader graph to prototype special purpose shaders.
- Demonstrates (and shares) solid 3d math skills.
- Writes basic shader graph nodes using HLSL.
- Uses PIX to identify runtime bottlenecks.
- Prototypes possible solutions using advanced Unreal features, such as distance fields or raymarching / OR: Able to design and deliver production-quality effects.
- Assists artists with look development
- Supports content creators working on difficult or unusual problems
- Writes clear, useful shader documentation.
- Contributes to graphics performance budgeting.
- Leads design of special purpose shaders requiring dedicated R&D / OR: Delivers special purpose shaders within performance budgets
- Leads design of effect families / OR: Delivers challenging effects in cooperation with art and design
- Conversant with industry advances in graphics
- Extends and debugs our pipeline without assistance.
- Debugs graphics problems using PIX and shader assembly.
- Educates artists to make sure shaders are being used effectively and to spec
- Debugs complex platform-specific graphics problems.
- Extends Unreal shader pipeline using HLSL and C++ / OR: Delivers mission-critical shaders within performance budgets
- Leads the design of new shader families or techniques / OR: Provides technical support and enhancement for a large cadre of content creators / OR: leads training and education for shader technical artists
- Keeps studio abreast of changes in engineering, graphics and hardware
- Contributes to forecasting, costing and budgeting for technical art
- Coordinates graphics technologies for an entire product / OR: coordinates graphics education and documentation for an entire project. / OR: Establishes the studio as an industry leader in graphics techniques
- Contributes materially to making the studio profitable and efficient.
- Contributes to the long-term technical direction of the studio.
- Contributes to forecasting, costing and budgeting for the entire studio.
- This role focuses on user support and communications
- This role is defined by:
- excellent communications skills
- "customer service" mentality
- education and training
- Because this role is oriented towards education and traning there is no 'level 1' version. The most junior hires will still need to be experienced artists or TAs who are able to convincingly mentor and support production artists.
- Experienced user of multiple DCC tools
- Communicates well with the rest of the team
- Trains new users in best practices for content creation, source control, and bug reporting
- Helps users work with DCC tools
- Tackles repetitive probems and bulk edits on behalf of production artists
- Monitors TA and studio tools for effectiveness and reliabiity in the field
#3
- Delivers high-quality training materials for studio tools
- Builds good relationships across the studio to effectively route user problems to the best resource
- Evangelizes for new tools from pipeline TAs
- Trains users to work with budgeting tools from content TAs
- Can provide lightweight quality-of-life scripts to individual users
- Works closely with QA to ensure bugs are correctly assigned and managed
- Ensures that the TA team is aware of potential workflow improvements and optimizations
#4
- Guides user story collection for new tool projects
- Coordinates other TA responses to user feedback
- Represents 'user perspective' in tools and workflow planning
- Coordinates with production to ensure work estimates are accurately tracked
- Works with content TAs to make sure that budgets are being followed
#5
- Designs and monitors metrics for in-house tool products
- Coordinates project-wide artist onboarding and training
#6
- Coordinates studio-wide artist onboarding and training