Sony Interactive Entertainment is hiring a
Senior Facial Character TD

Summary

The Senior Facial Character TD will be responsible for authoring facial rigs from scratch or utilizing scan data, participating in facial research & development efforts, and contributing to tools for authoring and editing facial rigs. The role requires expert-level experience with Maya, ZBrush, Mudbox, Wrap3, and machine learning solutions for facial scanning/authoring/solving. The role is eligible for top-tier benefits including medical, dental, vision, matching 401(k), paid time off, wellness program, employee discounts, and a bonus package.

Requirements

• Strong understanding of state-of-the-art approaches to rigging photorealistic faces for film or games; of FACS, how it relates to facial anatomy, and ability to identify primary action units on sight
• Understands current approaches to facial performance capture & solving
• Of modern approaches to scanning including lightstage and 4D scanning
• Expert understanding of facial skeletal and muscle anatomy
• Passion for achieving highest quality detail through iteration and refinement. Ability to think outside the box to achieve more realistic solutions or optimize runtime performance
• Passion for collaborating and sharing knowledge across teams

Responsibilities

• Authors high quality photorealistic facial rigs based on FACS using blendshapes
• Authors rigging systems to augment or support blendshape-based facial rigs
• Authors or contributes to systems/workflows for integrating head and body rigs
• Collaborates with Character Art, Animation, and Engineering teams to deliver the highest quality assets with animator/mocap friendly interfaces that run smoothly in engine
• Contributes to tools for authoring and editing facial rigs (python/pyqt/pyside)
• Contributes to automated tools and workflows for runtime optimization
• Contributes to tools for ingesting 3rd party facial rigs
• Contributes to facial animation systems such as facial solvers and R&D (python/C++/Machine Learning)
• Sculpts FACS (from scratch if necessary) using deformers and/or sculpting tools
• Processes and cleans 3D or 4D scan data from FACS sessions

Preferred Qualifications

• Preferred experience with machine-learning based solutions for facial scanning/authoring/solving (TensorFlow, PyTorch, etc)
• Authoring plugins that aid in facial deformation transfer or solving (python or C++)
• Working with faces in realtime (Unity, Unreal or other)

Benefits

• Medical, dental, vision
• Matching 401(k)
• Paid time off
• Wellness program
• Coveted employee discounts for Sony products
• Bonus package