Senior Creature / Rigging Artist (CFX & Tech Anim)

About Barnstorm

Barnstorm is an Emmy and VES-nominated visual effects studio with locations in Burbank, CA and Vancouver, BC. We provide photo-realistic visual effects for television and streaming projects across genres. Our studio culture is built on creativity and collaboration. As we grow, we are committed to preserving our scrappy, artist-driven DNA while evolving our structure, workflows, and leadership. 

Who You Are

You are a Senior Creature/Rigging Artist who is experienced in CFX and Tech Anim, ready to bring your technical artistry and problem-solving mindset to a team that values flexibility, clarity, and ownership.

You’ve worked across stylized and photoreal pipelines, from character deformation to cloth and hair simulation — with an understanding of how it all connects downstream. You’re fluent in Maya, Houdini, mGear, Python (plus a few tricks up your sleeve), and know how to debug a broken rig or sim without skipping a beat.

You’re hands-on, solutions-oriented, and thrive in environments where the work is collaborative and fast-moving. You want to mentor artists, contribute to process and pipeline improvements, and still dive into shots when the team needs it.

What You’ll Do

Process (50%)

• Build, maintain, and troubleshoot high-quality body and facial rigs using mGear and Maya.
• Simulate realistic cloth, hair, muscle, and skin using Houdini or Maya
• Optimize and prep rigs for animation and shot-based simulation, including grooming integration and cache publishing.
• Develop and maintain internal tools, scripts, and workflows in Python or VEX
• Handle shot-level CFX/tech anim tasks including shot sculpting, deformation cleanup, and collision fixes.
• Debug, version, and publish rigs, caches, and simulations using Alembic and USD within the pipeline.
• Use ShotGrid/Flow to track your tasks and any creature artists you are supporting, to keep to production's schedule.
• Expected to take on rigging, simulation, and shot work as needed.
  

Pioneering (20%)

• Prototype new rigging and sim systems, improve solver setups, and test pipeline integrations
• Collaborate with Pipeline and CG Supervision on next-gen creature workflows across Houdini, Maya, mGear
• Build procedural systems to scale with show demands, including auto-rigging tools, sim libraries, and caching solutions
• Create documentation, tools, and workflows that support groom, layout, and lighting handoff
  

People (30%)

• Mentor junior and mid-level rigging/CFX artists and support their growth within the department
• Work closely with animators, FX, and lighters to ensure character fidelity and shot continuity
• Lead technical reviews, QC passes, and best practices documentation
• Collaborate and communicate with Production on show/task updates.
• Collaborate with Artist Management on crewing, team feedback, and any show hindrances that department leadership should be aware of.
• Provide technical support and guidance to Production for bidding and scheduling rigging/CFX tasks
• Report to the Head of CG

What You Bring

• 8+ years experience in high-end VFX for episodics or features
• 2+ years experience leading or supervising rigging/CFX teams
• Strong proficiency in Maya, Houdini, and Python — plus experience with MGear, Alembic, USD, and VEX
• Comfortable building and debugging custom rigs, cloth/hair sims, muscle systems, and custom CFX tools
• Experience working closely with animation, and downstream teams to ensure seamless asset handoff and shot success
• Experience building simulation-ready proxy assets, sim attachments, and layered garments
• Strong understanding of version control, shot-specific caching, and tech animation data prep
• Comfortable in fast-paced environments and capable of balancing priorities across multiple shows
• Strong communication and collaboration skills — you value feedback, clarity, and good-faith problem solving

About This Role 

This role is open to Canadian based talent . Candidates must be legally authorized to work in their country of residence and be willing to work on-site/hybrid as required by production and studio location. 

The posted pay range is aligned with what we believe is fair pay at the time of posting this role. An applicant’s relevant education, experience, skills and qualifications, location and currency may all be considered when deciding pay position within the range. Pay ranges may change.Benefit plans are dependent on the local plan offering and employment status but all US and Canada plans include a comprehensive health insurance plan, retirement savings, and paid time off.

Barnstorm VFX is committed to fostering a diverse and inclusive team that provides a meaningful work environment free of discrimination and harassment. We seek to recruit, develop and retain the most talented people from a diverse candidate pool. Indigenous people, people of color, people of all genders or non-genders, and people with disabilities of all types are encouraged to apply. We thank everyone for their interest and application, however only those selected for an interview will be contacted.

We thank all applicants for their interest. Only those selected for an interview will be contacted.