Senior Animator

Job Description

Senior Animator (Apex Legends)

Founded in 2010 by the original creators of the Call of Duty Franchise, Respawn was created with the philosophy that when talented people have creative freedom, they'll make extraordinary games that achieve the unexpected. From our roots as an indie studio to joining the expansive roster of studios at Electronic Arts, this remains our guiding principle. We truly love what we do and want to share our passion with players worldwide. Our shipped titles include critically acclaimed multi-platform games Apex Legends, Titanfall, Titanfall 2, Star Wars™ Jedi: Fallen Order and Medal of Honor: Above and Beyond. Join us for the opportunity to create groundbreaking games with some of the best developer talent in the industry.

You can learn more about our studio and values at respawn.com/studio.

We are looking for a talented and experienced Senior Animator to join the Apex Legends animation team at our Vancouver location. We are picturing someone who is passionate about making games in a collaborative environment, with a team of experienced developers. In this role you will help to establish and realize an immersive experience through remarkable animations and gameplay.

What you'll do…
• Create high quality, believable animation content for APEX that both looks and feels amazing!
• Truly own the content that you're responsible for, from conceptualization (blocking, directing/co-directing mocap talent) through to realization (polished key-framing/motion editing, implementation in the game)
• Work closely with Designers to ensure that we achieve responsive, immersive gameplay that feels rewarding to our players.
• Work closely with the animators across Vancouver and LA to push our quality, share knowledge and inspire creativity.
• Maintain communication across all relevant disciplines (production, design, art, audio, VFX) throughout the development of your areas of responsibility.
• Work together with Artists and Riggers to establish both core and secondary functionality of our characters, weapons and abilities.
• Help to establish efficient pipelines and procedures across the animation teams
• Be proactive in assessing and evolving the experience of playing APEX

Ideally you will have…
• 5+ years of professional game development experience
• A strong understanding of video game animation development
• A high level of proficiency with Maya (and ideally Motion Builder)
• Experience with first person weapons/behaviors and full body/bipedal animations
• An advanced understanding of motion editing (re-posing, re-timing and plusing mocap data)
• Experience animating cameras, together with an understanding of cinematography.
• Experience working closely with other domains - especially Designers, Engineers and Artist's
• Proactive work ethics and will take pride and responsibility for the continued success of Apex Legends

What's it like to be an Animator at Respawn?

Feel - Our studio puts a big emphasis on fun gameplay. We want responsive, immersive gameplay that just feels right. Our animators contribute directly to this effort through their high quality, believable animations. They work closely with game designers to help make gameplay aspects such as combat and traversal look and FEEL amazing.

Inspiration - Our animators inspire the rest of the team and each other. We have regular show-and-tells and seeing animators take things to the next level with their great work energizes everyone. The animation team is constantly working to evolve our animations to raise the industry bar.

Resources - We have our own mocap stage and Xsens suits for quick prototypes. Our animation team members are directly involved in seeing their vision through on the stage. Our animators can throw on the suit themselves and act out their ideas, or they can work with actors to get the data they need. You can see how our team uses mocap in this video (which features one of our Lead Animators, Shawn Wilson, acting in many of the shots) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5zl07Zgy6tA&feature=youtu.be

Values - Our animation teams are aligned on their values. They share their inspiration, knowledge, and passion with the others in their department. They aspire to treat everything they work on as a personal masterpiece. They play the game and are encouraged to speak up if they see anything that is not up to our high standards. They put their time and passion into what will have the biggest payoff for players. Our leads also make a lot of effort to ensure that the animators work on assignments they are excited about.
Ownership - Our teams are small and everyone has a lot of ownership over their work. While reporting to our Lead Animator, our animators take their work from conceptualization to shipping. As part of a small team you will have the opportunity to shine here.

What do we look for in Animator candidates?

Hand Keyed Animations - We look for accomplished key frame animators. Although we do use mocap as a powerful tool, our animators will often hand key their work from scratch or use key-frames to improve or add their own personal flair to mocap data.

Realism/Believability - Our work tends to be realistic as opposed to highly stylized. We love seeing realistic, key-framed human motion in reels. That's the best way for us to understand how well you could deliver similar work here. If your reel contains mainly stylized animations, we look for the same signs of quality such as believability, polish, and impressive acting.

Passion - We look for animators who are highly passionate. Our animation team is constantly sharing inspiration and working to raise the quality bar. No one is phoning it in here – our team loves what they do and it shows in their work.

Potential Over Experience - We value talent over years of experience. Experience counts, but potential is important too. We look for motivated developers with a keen eye for quality.

Teamplayer - Positivity and a great attitude help to fuel greatness. The ability to accept feedback and critiques will help you tailor your work towards what's best for the game. Making games is a group effort and you will work closely with other departments such as design, vfx, audio, engineering, and art. Teamwork is very important to our success.

If this opportunity sounds like a great fit for you, please submit your resume and we will get back to you once we have reviewed.

In addition to opportunities for creative impact and professional growth which come with being a member of our team, working at Respawn has many other perks and benefits! Learn more at respawn.com/perks.

Jobcode: Reference SBJ-roep04-52-14-0-24-42 in your application.