SIE Bend Studio’s Next Project Targets “Cinematic-Quality” Facial Animation, 3D Audio, and Online MP
SIE Bend Studio has released Days Gone last year, which was their first major new open-world IP for the PS4. They are now hiring for a new project.
Sony Bend Studio has previously worked on the PlayStation Vita Uncharted spin-off and Syphon Filter series. They developed a brand new IP for the PlayStation 4 with Days Gone, which was released last year. They have been aggressively recruiting for new job opening since then and their latest job descriptions spill some details on what they are planning for the PS5.
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The official careers page for Sony Bend Studio has job openings for Senior Staff Engine Programmer, Rigging Technical Artist, Senior Gameplay Programmer, Pipeline Technical Artist, and Senior Audio Programmer. They also have a job listing open for a Senior Network Programmer on Linkedin, although it mentions Days Gone as the AAA game despite the game launching a year ago.
The description for Rigging Technical Artist mentions a focus on high-quality character animations including expressions and deformations.
“Create high quality character rigs with cinematic-quality facial articulation, ” reads the job description. Another one point mentions realistic deformations for the character model.
“Develop and implement skinning methods to achieve realistic deformation for faces, bodies, and clothes, including the creation of tools and scripts to assist in completing these tasks quickly and efficiently during production.”
Senior Audio Programmer description meanwhile lists “experience working on environmental audio, sound propagation and 3D audio” as one of the desirable skills. This could point towards their next project supporting the 3D Audio feature for the PS5.
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Lastly, they still have a Senior Network Programmer job opening but the description has no mention of a new AAA project. It simply talks about Days Gone despite the game already being available for close to a year. It is hard to imagine Bend Studio creating multiplayer for Days Gone at this stage, so either it is for a sequel to the game, or an entirely new project.
