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Animator - Facial Animation

EAs Vancouver-based Motion Capture Studio serves the motion capture needs for all of EAs game development teams world-wide. In our state-of-the-art studio we capture a wide spectrum of data types – 3D scanning, virtual cinematography, and motion capture to name a few. As a member of the team you will be directly responsible for supporting various game development teams with the creation of animation content. In this role you will support the integration of motion data by using EA propriety technologies to maintain the highest quality animation possible. Successful candidates will work closely with the animation teams in both post production, and on the live performance stage.

Key Responsibilities:

• Create high quality facial animation art assets for use in game
• Must have a good understanding of conveying emotion and recreating facial poses
• Experience with facial animation
• Maya (preferred) or similar 3D animation software experience
• Experience with 2D tracking software
• Experience working with external animation partners
• Data wrangling to and from external teams
• Provide animation feedback, and communicate best practice with intention for animation refinement
• Conduct and complete character rig reviews for the purpose of refining it for animation retargeting
• Learn proprietary art pipelines, emerging technology, and processes

• Support the production teams with the acquisition of motion capture data during performance sessions
• Perform daily tasks of performer calibration, directing performer range of motions, QA’ing recorded session data
• Work closely w/ motion capture and animation leads during the production prep / acquisition / post production phases with maintaining visual targets
• Contribute to documenting workflow and pipelines
• Contribute to post mortems, provide feedback, assist with improving motion capture process and data output

Although not required, strong candidates possess

• Minimum 2 years’ animation background in video games, television, film or other related industry
• Minimum 2 years’ experience with Maya
• Understanding of human movement, and detailed knowledge of functional human anatomy
• Knowledge of and experience with Motion capture (preferred, but not required)
• Works well under the pressures of ‘live’ production environments
• On-set production experience in related entertainment industry: Film, TV, Video games, VFX
• Outstanding communication (written and verbal) and interpersonal skills are an absolute must
• Believe in teamwork and collaboration
• Owns a good attitude
• Willingness to work flexible hours
• Strong work ethic
• Ability to identify improvments to existing pipelines
• Highly motivated and passionate about their craft
• Have a fabulous ability to multi-task and prioritize