Gameplay Animator – Calypte – A Virtuos Studio

Position Summary

As California studios are continuing to grow with new and exciting opportunities for Console & PC titles, we are seeking a Gameplay Animator to be part of our creative team. We are looking for an animator that can create high-quality animation including biped, animal and environmental animation across a wide variety of styles. This is a full-time position which involves collaborating in an international environment.

The ideal candidate has a strong aesthetic eye and a solid understanding of AAA game production. They can communicate easily with other disciplines and studios and take creative and artistic direction as well as support the Art and Design team in maintaining the animation style and quality on a variety of projects for external or co-development work. Qualifications for this role are listed below, but please do not hesitate to apply if you don’t meet 100%

Responsibilities: 

• Working directly with the art and design teams to creating high quality AAA animation for gameplay experiences that are technically sound and optimized.
• Working on animation move sets both keyframe and motion capture, creating rigs, skinning and integrating into the game.
• Proven ability to demonstrate animation specifically for action and gameplay sequences (fight moves, character interaction).
• Expert knowledge in a 3D animation software package such as Maya, Motion Builder, Character Studio, Blender.
• Excellent knowledge in how to build and manipulate custom animation rigs, deal with motion capture data, and animation blending.
• Strong sense of animation timing, weight and both realistic body mechanics and stylized character motion.
• Good technical skills with knowledge of game engines (Unreal) and integration workflows.
• Collaborate with your teammates as well as other teams related to the development, whether local or remote.
• Suggest improvements on existing features for the sake of final game quality.
• Provide accurate time estimates for tasks, report work in progress and deliver the result completed on time.
• Suggest practices and techniques which can help improve quality or efficiency.
• Be able to communicate in different time zones with overseas Virtuos studios and artists.

Qualifications:

• An outstanding portfolio demonstrating high quality 3D animation work.
• Should be used to working closely with the art and design teams doing rapid prototyping and iteration on gameplay features.
• Demonstrable classical animation skills (a plus).
• Creature animation experience (a plus).
• Facial animation experience (a plus).
• 4+ years’ Experience working on AAA titles and PC/console games is preferred.
• Excellent eye for animation quality and knowledge of techniques used to achieve visual targets.
• Passion for video games, as much to make them as to play them.
• Good understanding of the game development process for innovations and limitations.
• Be autonomous, rigorous, proactive, and have an efficient work ethic.
• Motivated to excel and achieve a high quality and optimized result.

People matter. Diverse opinions and experiences matter. At Virtuos, our talented teams are the cornerstone of our success, and we recognize that fostering and advocating for inclusivity is at the center of what we do best – we make games better, together. Virtuos is proud to be an equal opportunity employer that embraces diversity of thought, expression, culture, and backgrounds.