Animation director job description

Crytek is looking for an inspiring and experienced Animation Director to work on Hunt: Showdown.

The role of the Animation Director is to drive the project towards highest quality in the field of animation. You use your experience and the team to identify, assess, and solve creative problems quickly and frequently. You are a passionate animator with an eye for detail. You understand qualityin animation and how to translate that into the gaming sphere.

Relocation & Remote Work
Although we believe living close to our studio helps foster team spirit and stronger bonds between team members, we understand that people have different needs and expectations for their place of residence. You have a choice of three location options, allowing you to work with Crytek from anywhere you wish:

1. Come to our modern headquarters in Frankfurt and receive an attractive relocation package and have access to all of our benefits.

2. If you are already living in a European Union member state, we are able to offer you a permanent work contract and allow you to work remotely as an employee from there.

3. If you are interested in full-time remote work in any other country outside of the European Union, we can offer you a freelance contract arrangement.
ResponsibilitesDevelop the technical vision, development strategy and roadmap for the animation on the Hunt Franchise and help drive its execution. Push the quality level of the animation to ensure a top of the line first person shooter experience. Supervise the animation department for the Hunt franchise. Work in close collaboration with different departments to assure proprietary implementation of animations within game engine. Ensure timely completion of animation commitments at the desired quality bar. Partner with designers, programmers and other departments involved. Hire and provide mentorship for a team of animation professionals.
Requirements10+ years of professional work experience in the game or movie industry, preferably with 5+ years in a Lead or Director capacity. Shipped at least one AAA title. Experience in 1st Person animation. Excellent knowledge of Maya. Experience with locomotion sets. Experience with both key-frame and motion capture animation processes. A thorough understanding of animation pipelines and the processes involved from the conceptual phase to implementation. Ability to create fluid, smooth, realistic animations with specific demonstration of animation fundamentals. Self-driven team player with strong interpersonal skills, who is able to motivate people and helps the team to exceed expectations. Strong English skills, good communication skills with a strong affinity for transparency.
What you can expect from us

Home Office
Work-life balance is not just a hollow term for us. At Crytek, we offer you the option to either work from home or in our studio.

Career Path
Your professional development is important to us, so we have laid out a career plan to help you progress towards your goals and objectives.

Company Apartment
To help you get settled, we provide you with a fully furnished company apartment during your first three months in Frankfurt.*

Relocation Support
We offer a relocation budget and full coverage of flights to Frankfurt for you and your family.
You can expect extensive assistance with visa, work permits, and communication with authorities during the relocation process, as well as help settling into Germany (e.g. setting up appointments with banks, government agencies, schools, landlords, finding apartments etc.).*

Public Transport Pass
Discover Frankfurt by bus, tram and metro - free of charge.*

Gym Card
A healthy body is a healthy mind. We offer a membership at the premium gym chain Fitness First in Germany. Work out, join group fitness classes, or relax in the wellness facilities.

International Environment
We truly embody diversity at Crytek. With employees from over 42 different countries, we define ourselves by our cultural diversity.

German Classes
Understanding the local culture will make your stay abroad more enjoyable, and Crytek supports that by offering German language courses for you and your family.

Vacation Days
At our Frankfurt office you can enjoy 24 days of vacation per year, and every 2 years you get 1 more (up to a maximum of 28 days). You will also have on average 10 public holidays on top of the days you take off. If you are working from another country, local standards apply.

*only applicable to employees in Frankfurt.

Ever wanted to develop a cutting edge Character and Animation game pipeline from scratch?

We're looking for someone to form a team of Riggers and Tool Developers with the mission to build and maintain the next generation of core tools and rigs to be used across our Studio Development teams.

As a Technical Animation Director at Activision, your focus will be to unlock the creativity of our animators, artists, and mocap staff. You will have the opportunity to do powerful, industry leading work that pushes the boundaries of gaming! If you are passionate about efficient tools, elegantly written code, and well-organized working pipelines, then this is an excellent opportunity to work with some of the best development teams in the industry.

Responsibilities:

• Develop and lead a centralized animation pipeline team
• Build and develop efficient character/weapon/vehicle/prop rigging and pipeline tools for the development teams
• Work closely with each of the development studios including Animation Directors, Lead Technical Animators, and animation teams to ensure partners are aligned in working to shared needs
• Develop and maintain character facial rigs and tools to support the facial animation pipeline
• Work with the motion capture teams to develop more efficient and effective tools and procedures for collection and delivery of motion capture data
• Work with C++/MEL/Python and other scripting languages to automate the animation rigging and workflow process
• Test tools thoroughly prior to full deployment and ensure that they work accurately throughout the production process
• Build online documentation and support materials for existing and new tools, methods, training sessions, processes
• Build, coordinate, and lead training sessions so all animation team members can fully adopt and use the tools and methods

Requirements:

• Experience developing rigs, systems, and tools for Maya
• Computer Programming/Scripting experience (e.g. C#, C++, MEL, Python, Etc.)
• Experience managing and leading others
• The ability to communicate and collaborate effectively with other subject areas and departments
• Familiarity of game engine requirements and rig parameters for game engines
• Passion for playing and making the industry's best videogames
• A love of first-person shooter (FPS) games and knowledge of the Call of Duty games is a huge plus.

Portfolio:

• Reel demonstrating tools and character rigs
• Only submittals with Cover Letters will be considered - we want the best, so tell us why that's you!

We are an equal opportunity employer and value diversity at our company. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, sex, gender, gender expression, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status. We will ensure that individuals with disabilities are provided reasonable accommodation to participate in the job application or interview process, to perform essential job functions, and to receive other benefits and privileges of employment. Please contact us to request accommodation.

Position Title:
Senior Animator


External Description:


Electronic Arts Inc. is a leading global interactive entertainment software company. EA delivers games, content and online services for Internet-connected consoles, personal computers, mobile phones and tablets.

Create Animation is one of EA's central teams, responsible for bringing characters and performances to life across all of EA's franchises. Led by veterans from film and game industries, we work on award-winning franchises in partnership with teams like Maxis (The Sims), BioWare (Mass Effect, Dragon Age), Respawn (Jedi: Fallen Order, Apex Legends), EA Sports (FIFA, Madden) and other high profile game teams! We work on a diverse catalog of games across many different animation styles, from realistic to stylized, from humans to creatures.

The Senior Animator we are looking for will need to have expert level keyframe animation skills. Additionally, you will need to be comfortable shooting their own video reference, design core poses that convey the story and polish the animation to expected high quality benchmarks set by the team.

• This is a 12-month temporary assignment

You will
:

• Report to Development Director and work with the Animation Director, Leads & team to maintain high-quality animation and technical delivery expectations for the project.
• Collaborate with diverse teams including Design, Production, Engineering, Art, Modeling, VFX, and Audio, to achieve player goals and experience for a product.
• Execute key frame animation with heavy emphasis on full body character acting and performance.
• Shoot video reference, matching believable performance direction with creative vision and style.
• Collaborate with multiple departments including art, tech and production.
• Troubleshoot daily challenges and work with team members to find solutions.
• Contribute to the continued improvements of the techniques and best practices of the animation team and offer mentorship where applicable.
• Ensure all work is clean and organized with regards to assets within each file and file structure and storage.
• Accept feedback and critiques to tailor your work towards the expected game experience.

You have:

• Create feature film quality keyframe animation with heavy emphasis on full body character acting and performance.
• 5+ years of experience as a Senior/Lead Animator in film or AAA game titles.
• Expert keyframe animation ability combined with an excellent understanding of traditional animation principles and fundamentals.
• Mastery of high-end animation software packages like Maya.
• Understand or hands-on experience with animation state flows and blending trees in game engines such as Unity or Unreal.
• Animation background, degree in Fine Arts or Computer Animation.

Pluses:

• Knowledge of MEL, Python or other scripting languages.
• Experience with facial and body motion capture processes.
• Experience in Perforce and Shotgrid tools.
• Enjoy playing games.

City:



State:



Remote?:
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Community / Marketing Title:
Associate Animation Director


Company Profile:


Electronic Arts is the leading interactive entertainment company, powered by innovative technology. We create incredible experiences for millions of players around the world. But what matters most is our people who inspire us, and the world, to play. As we bring new forms of entertainment to people around the world, we need creative, collaborative, diverse and adaptable people to keep making Electronic Arts better.


EEOText:
About EAWe exist to inspire the world to play. Through innovative technology and immersive storytelling, we deliver new ways of experiencing worlds of interactive entertainment for our millions of players worldwide. Our strength lies in the diversity of our people, combining creativity, innovation and passion. We fully champion inclusive culture, and provide opportunities for growing, learning, and leading that allows for the most impactful and rewarding work of our teams' careers. We put our people first, and we make sure they're taken care of both in and out of the office. As we reflect on our learnings and successes from remote work, we aim to provide dynamic, collaborative and flexible work environments for our teams. Our employees connect through our Employee Resource Groups, which are actively involved in driving business decisions every step of the way. But our support doesn't end at the workplace-we also encourage a balanced lifestyle with paid time off and new parent leave, free video games, fitness reimbursement and more. Our goal is to provide a safe, respectful and inspiring workplace for all of our employees. Through our diversity, equity, inclusion and social responsibility programs, we're doing the work to give everyone the space to be their full selves while giving back to our community. We're looking for problem-solvers, game-changers, innovators, dreamers, doers-people that are ready to move the needle and build on our success. As our industry accelerates, we aren't just keeping up-we're staying ahead of the game.Electronic Arts is an equal opportunity employer. All employment decisions are made without regard to race, color, national origin, ancestry, sex, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, age, genetic information, religion, disability, medical condition, pregnancy, marital status, family status, veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law. Electronic Arts also makes workplace accommodations for qualified individuals with disabilities as required by applicable law.


Date Opened:
2022-07-13 17:16:06.74


EEO Employer Verbiage:


About EA

We exist to inspire the world to play. Through innovative technology and immersive storytelling, we deliver new ways of experiencing worlds of interactive entertainment for our millions of players worldwide. Our strength lies in the diversity of our people, combining creativity, innovation and passion. We fully champion inclusive culture, and provide opportunities for growing, learning, and leading that allows for the most impactful and rewarding work of our teams' careers.

We put our people first, and we make sure they're taken care of both in and out of the office. As we reflect on our learnings and successes from remote work, we aim to provide dynamic, collaborative and flexible work environments for our teams. Our employees connect through our Employee Resource Groups, which are actively involved in driving business decisions every step of the way. But our support doesn't end at the workplace-we also encourage a balanced lifestyle with paid time off and new parent leave, free video games, fitness reimbursement and more.

Our goal is to provide a safe, respectful and inspiring workplace for all of our employees. Through our diversity, equity, inclusion and social responsibility programs, we're doing the work to give everyone the space to be their full selves while giving back to our community. We're looking for problem-solvers, game-changers, innovators, dreamers, doers-people that are ready to move the needle and build on our success. As our industry accelerates, we aren't just keeping up-we're staying ahead of the game.

Electronic Arts is an equal opportunity employer. All employment decisions are made without regard to race, color, national origin, ancestry, sex, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, age, genetic information, religion, disability, medical condition, pregnancy, marital status, family status, veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law. Electronic Arts also makes workplace accommodations for qualified individuals with disabilities as required by applicable law.