Maya Developers, ahoy!
Hello!
We've recently launched our animation software Ragdoll Dynamics and are on now the lookout for a motivated Maya Developer, on either a full-time or part-time basis.
About Us
At the time of this writing, Ragdoll is me - Marcus - doing all things Maya along with handling just about every other aspect of running the business - like marketing, licencing, web development, design, animation, documentation.. too many things! And recently Kostas, doing secret things related to robotics in Maya.
What I'd like to do is hand over my Maya-development role to you. It would involve all manner of challenges, from UI and UX to physics and low-level optimisations to workflow enhancements and tools development. The more you fancy the better.
You will be given a great deal of agency and resonsibility that shape the future of Ragdoll in these early days. How should animators interact with physics? What parts of their workflow can be enhanced or even replaced with physics? These are questions you and I will explore, and the earlier you get involved the greater your influence.
About You
What I'd like to see from you is examples of your work along with some motivation for wanting to come on this journey. Startup-life is unlike corporate-life in a few key ways, primarily in being able to create and execute your own set of tasks, of not only implement a solution but also understanding the problem and finding a optimal solution to an otherwise muddy and unexplored problem. It also heavily relies on our pace and progress; if you and I don't make it, it's all over! Hah! On the upside it also means that our success is ours alone, and let me tell you that is incredibly rewarding!
To cope with this, you should have some of these.
- ✔️ 3+ years of experience with the Maya C++ API, enough to be dangerous
- ✔️ Experience working in production on relevant tasks, like at ILM or Dneg or Framestore
- ❓ (Optional) Some years of experience with Python, to either understand or evolve the artist tools
- ❓ (Optional) Some experience at the other end of the spectrum, in rigging or animation
- ❓ (Optional) Experience with continuous integration, such as GitLab CI or GitHub Actions
Bonus Points
If you have experience or interest in one or more of these, you're in.
- 🕯️ Data-oriented programming, specifically EnTT
- 🕯️ Graphics programming, ghosting and trajectories, tool UIs
- 🕯️ Maya Evaluation optimisation, about 90% of Ragdolls performance is on the table
- 🕯️ Black-box optimisation, specifically ES but also RL
- 🕯️ Parallel programming, performance is key and people have cores to spare
The Offer
Like the position, the offer is flexible.
- ✔️ Part-time, full-time or contract work. Whichever works for you.
- ✔️ Anywhere between
£50,000-80,000/yearis fair game. - ✔️ For short-term work,
£300-600/dayis fair game. - ✔️ Remote, or in-office (once there is one).
- ✔️ We're in Europe, so for the sake of timezone you should too.
Next Step
And that's it! If this tickles your curiosity, feel free to get in touch. We can setup a call and talk things through. Maybe all you do is low-level optimisations in x86 assembly, and none of that fancy-pants UX and Python stuff? Or maybe you've got the fanciest pants in town? As an early part of the Ragdoll Dynamics team there's plenty of space in all manner of pants.
Best,
Marcus