Associate Technical Artist

About the Role

At Light & Wonder, the Gaming team builds cutting-edge technology, products, and content for the most iconic casinos and operators across the globe. The Associate Technical Artist acts as a translator between art and engineering, supporting the studio in achieving the player-facing vision for each game theme under the guidance of technical artists and engineers.

Key Responsibilities

• Create, edit, and implement the technical components of artistic visual elements and animations used in games, following established pipeline standards for import settings and technical requirements.
• Assist with setting up and troubleshooting animation in engine, including rigs, skinning, animation clips, state transitions, and playback timing.
• Use programming languages and 3D graphics packages such as 3ds Max and Maya to modify art and animation assets for technical viability and performance.
• Evaluate asset rendering and animation playback, and modify models, rigs, and animations to improve performance, memory footprint, and responsiveness on supported hardware.
• Build and test prototypes of game functionality, animation behavior, and theme dynamics under direction.
• Identify and fix asset, animation, and code errors, escalating complex issues to senior team members.
• Assist Artists, Animators, and Engineers with routine technical issues related to the art and animation pipeline, and help document best practices.
• Actively seek feedback and mentorship to grow technical and pipeline skills.
• Follow and help improve the content and animation creation pipeline.
• Assist game artists and animators with asset implementation.
• Build familiarity with current game industry tools and processes.

Requirements & Tech Stack

• Working knowledge of a modern game engine and its scripting language.
• Solid coding fundamentals.
• Good eye for detail.
• Unity familiarity, including Prefabs, Particle Systems, and Materials (preferred).
• Fluency in other coding languages, especially JavaScript, MAXScript, and C++.
• Working knowledge of C#.
• Proficient in Photoshop.
• Familiarity with motion graphics & compositing editors (After Effects preferred).
• Familiarity with 3D animation & rendering applications (3DS Max preferred).
• Working knowledge of versioning software (Perforce preferred).
• Experience writing art tools.
• Experience writing shaders (Cg preferred).
• Understanding of UI / UX principles across various platforms.
• Familiarity with technical documentation.
• An understanding of artistic concepts and pipeline.
• Working knowledge of animation state machines.
• Strong problem-solving skills.
• Excellent organizational skills.
• Ability to interact and collaborate with immediate peers.
• Experience working with a team under tight deadlines.
• Self-motivated and able to work on multiple projects with minimal direction.
• Familiarity with AI tools is a plus.

Qualifications

• Bachelor of Arts in art, animation, computer science, or equivalent experience.