Blue Zoo Animation Studio Blender Character TD

Blue Zoo Animation Studio is seeking a highly skilled and experienced Blender Character TD (Technical Director) to play a pivotal, anchoring role on an unannounced, high‑profile project. In this position, you will take full creative and technical ownership of our rigging, structural deformation, and digital puppeteering frameworks, establishing the core technical foundation that enables our animation teams to bring complex characters to life.

This is a premier opportunity for a specialist who lives at the intersection of advanced anatomy simulation, procedural logic, and tool development. You will design next‑generation rigs built to withstand the rigorous demands of shortform, commercial, and cutting‑edge live‑capture workflows. As a senior technical voice within the department, you will collaborate heavily across disciplines, turning creative character designs into expressive, highly performant digital puppets while maintaining impeccable pipeline hygiene.

Category
Details

Studio Blue Zoo Animation Studio (B Corp Certified)

Location London, United Kingdom (Flexible Hybrid / Remote arrangements)

Department Shortform / Commercials & Digital Puppetry

Employment Type Full‑time

Core Software Blender (Advanced Rigging, Deformation, Geometry Nodes)

Programming Python, Blender Python API, Modular Development, Git

Specialization Character Rigging, Modular Systems, Digital Puppetry & Performance Capture

Key Accolades Multiple BAFTA, Emmy, and Annie Award Winner; Broadcast Best Places to Work in TV )

• End‑to‑End Asset Rigging: Conceptualize, build, test, and maintain a highly diverse array of asset and character rigs, ensuring they meet strict studio benchmarks for deformation quality, structural flexibility, and anatomical accuracy.
• Modular Rigging Pipelines: Implement and expand modular rigging systems (such as Rigify or Cloud Rig
  ), optimizing asset turnaround times and allowing for rapid, procedural iterations across a high volume of characters.
• Geometry Nodes Innovation: Leverage Blender’s Geometry Nodes workflow to build procedural rig components, dynamic secondary motion systems, and optimized utility drivers that bypass heavy computational overhead.

• Animator‑Centric Design: Collaborate directly with the animation department to design intuitive, ergonomic, and user‑friendly control interfaces. Proactively address layout feedback to minimize technical friction during high‑speed production cycles.
• Performance Capture & Puppetry: Partner with specialized technical teams to architect digital puppetry and performance capture pipelines, ensuring real‑time data inputs stream seamlessly into character skeletal structures.
• Interdepartmental Support: Provide proactive technical feedback and troubleshooting support to upstream (Modelling/Look Dev) and downstream (Animation/Layout) departments, aligning technical deliverables with macro production schedules.

• Blender API Development: Read, debug, extend, and rewrite existing studio tools using Python and the Blender Python API
  . Build bespoke add‑ons and UI extensions that streamline the rigging and animation layout environment.
• Version Control & Code Hygiene: Maintain pristine file architecture, strict nomenclature standards, and robust version control habits within shared group repositories, ensuring flawless asset deployment across distributed teams.
• System Diagnostics: Act as the primary tier of defense for rigging‑related technical hurdles, conducting meticulous debugging to keep studio animation pipelines reliable and crash‑free under tight deadlines.

• Industry Track Record: Verifiable professional experience working in a dedicated capacity as a Character TD, Rigging Artist, or Technical Animator within a high‑output commercial, VFX, or feature animation studio.
• Advanced Blender Expertise: Deep, comprehensive knowledge of Blender’s internal deformation matrices, constraint systems, drivers, armatures, and…