Senior Animator

Job Description

Capital Games is a world-class mobile studio, best known for creating the most successful Star Wars game of all time - Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes. We're game makers first, telling stories through some of the most beloved IPs in the world, and igniting players' imagination and competitive spirit. We believe in a culture of excellence, always driving to be the industry leader in mobile RPG and encouraging a team atmosphere of learning, collaboration, and creativity. Most importantly, we never forget that making games and entertaining our passionate players is fun!

Role Overview:

We are looking for an accomplished Animation Lead for our new mobile title Heroes of Middle Earth. You will guide distributed teams of animation and combat VFX artists with your mastery of animation principles to create industry-leading combat and cinematic experiences. You will work as a hybrid individual contributor and team lead. You will create best in breed examples to support in-development features and provide visual targets for partnered resources, while also overseeing the daily submissions of IC's across multiple teams. We are looking for a candidate who can put a plan in motion and then context-switch to provide feedback and guide a team of animators and VFX artists over the finish line.

You will report to Senior Animator II.

Responsibilities
• Develop an understanding of the game's combat systems to guide feature development in animation and VFX.
• Maintain and improve upon the established style and aesthetic of the games animation and VFX while working with the AD.
• Integrate and make minor adjustments to assets on behalf of OS partners to ensure functionality and maintain quality in game.
• Periodically utilize studio motion capture equipment (Xsens Motion Capture system) to create safe and simple motion capture assets for high fidelity idles, fidgets and simple gestures. These assets are used by the animation team as reference or retargeted as animation bases for character details screen animations or character abilities.
• Lead the multiple small pods of animators and VFX artists daily, providing feedback to outsource partners and holding weekly reviews.
• Be the bridge between Animation and Design by working with the Development Director to digest feature requests and identify clear executable tasks for the art team.

Required Qualifications
• Expert mastery of animation principles and their application to game animation and VFX.
• 5+ years of production experience, with mobile game development a big plus.
• Expert knowledge of Maya and Unity3d.
• Experience creating Unity3d character prefabs and animation controllers.
• High level of familiarity with version control and asset management solutions (Perforce, git, etc).
• Experience with Mecanim and in-game cinematics systems such as Timeline and Cinemachine.
• Outsource management experience, with an emphasis on providing animation breakdowns, reference material, and draw-overs.
• Xsens Motion Capture system or equivalent mo-cap experience a plus.

Please apply with as many examples of the following as you can:
• Recent examples of your 3D Animation work.
• Please include both bipedal and creature animation.
• Storyboards, breakdowns or draw overs you have created that demonstrate your ability to provide feedback and direction to Junior Animators or potential outsource partners.
• In engine examples of developed character animation sets. Emphasis on transitions and state machine competencies.

Remote friendly or hybrid work environment.

#LI-Remote, #LI-Hybrid

#FlexibleWork

'US COMPENSATION AND BENEFITS

The base salary ranges listed below are for the defined geographic market pay zones in these states. If you reside outside of these locations, a recruiter will advise on the base salary range and benefits for your specific location.

EA has listed the base salary ranges it in good faith expects to pay applicants for this role in the locations listed, as of the time of this posting. Salary offered will be determined based on numerous relevant business and candidate factors including, for example, education, qualifications, certifications, experience, skills, geographic location, and business or organizational needs.

BASE SALARY RANGES
• California (depending on location e.g. Los Angeles vs. Sacramento):

º $113,300 - $171,700
• New York (depending on location e.g. Manhattan vs. Buffalo):

º $111,500 - $171,700
• Jersey City, NJ:

º $126,700 - $171,700
• Colorado (depending on location e.g. Denver vs. Colorado Springs):

º $111,500 - $144,000
• Washington (depending on location e.g. Seattle vs. Spokane):

º $111,500 - $157,300

Base salary is just one part of the overall compensation at EA. We also offer a package of benefits including paid time off (3 weeks per year to start), 80 hours per year of sick time, 16 paid company holidays per year, 10 weeks paid time off to bond with baby (following 1 year of service), medical/dental/vision insurance, life insurance, disability insurance, and 401(k) to regular full-time employees. Certain roles may also be eligible for bonus and equity.'

Jobcode: Reference SBJ-gmjjn3-18-220-16-184-42 in your application.