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Animator - Maxis

Animator - Maxis

Welcome to Maxis, home to tinkerers, craftspeople, & storytellers. Our drive is to inspire everyone to make a better world through creative play. As the developer of the Sims, we create games and experiences for millions of people around the world and are always looking for new ways to inspire our players. Maxis is a place where you can do what you love and help others grow while doing it; a place where your unique voice can be heard and seen. We put creativity and inclusivity at the core of our work and don't settle for seeing the world only as it is, but strive to build a world as it could be. Read on to see how you can join our team and dream big.

You will be reporting to the Development Director .

Job Summary

Location: Remote North America - open to most North America locations

As an Animator, your primary role will be to create and iterate on animation content to support both visual targets and prototyping in a pre-production environment. You will be creating and modifying human character animations that express a wide range of emotions and personality. You have skills in both traditional keyframe and motion capture animation workflows. Your secondary role will be to test new animation tools and provide rig feedback. You have knowledge in Maya, Unreal, and motion capture workflows. You will receive direction and feedback directly from Senior Animators and the Animation Director.

Responsibilities:

• Work with Animation Lead and Director to create high-quality keyframe animation with heavy emphasis on full body character acting.
• Produce content under tight game development deadlines.
• With guidance from your Lead, collaborate with other essential contributors of the Production process to fulfill Design Goals. Essential contributions include:
• Work with different technical and art disciplines to solve implementation challenges.
• Estimate and provide scoping options for content.
• Design animation assets and state machines using our proprietary engine.
• Present implementation strategies alongside other contributors.
• Use both Maya and art tools to implement animated characters and objects in a proprietary engine.
• Use proprietary engine and pre-vis tools to technically verify animation content for self and others.
• Work with other essential disciplines to solve complex game bugs.
• Maintain and track animation assets related to your implementation designs.
• Create technical documentation of your implementations.
• Hold focused discussions concerning technical implementations you have contributed to, to spread knowledge across the animation team.

Qualifications:

• 5+ years of experience as a Gameplay Animator working with and designing animation state machines in a game engine such as Unity, Unreal or similar.
• Exceptional skill creating keyframe animation with a primary emphasis on full body character acting.
• Proficient understanding of both game animation and in-engine state machine design.
• Excellent technical comprehension regarding game animation implementation.
• Excellent collaborator with a passion for working across diverse groups to find creative solutions.
• Passion for learning new workflows, processes, and technology.

Bonus Experience

• Experience in the Simulation genre of games
• Comfortable creating entertaining acting performances for reference for your animations or others.
• Experience working with motion capture processes
• Experience with Atlassian Confluence, Jira software, Shotgun or similar tools