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Melee / Gameplay Animator

Melee / Gameplay Animator

Demo reel submissions for this position MUST INCLUDE GAME FOOTAGE

Summary:

For over 30 years, Naughty Dog has been crafting best-selling, critically acclaimed games that constantly push the boundaries of narrative, gameplay, and technology. Our most recent game, The Last of Us Part II, has received over 300 Game of the Year awards and three of our games are among the top 10 highest scored games on the PlayStation 4. As a part of the Naughty Dog legacy, you’ll become a part of continuing the development of extraordinary and enduring experiences for a broad, global range of audiences.

Naughty Dog has spent the last decade+ carefully curating some of the top gameplay animators and technical minds in the world. This group of individuals is what allows us to create characters with the fidelity and believability that we put into games like The Last of Us and Uncharted series. We are looking for talented gameplay animators to help us create compelling systems for our future project(s). Work may include helping shape the hand-to-hand combat system and/or bringing the various enemy archetypes and supporting cast to life.

Responsibilities:

• Create character motions through a blend of key-frame animation and motion capture with our proprietary animation tools
• Work with designers and programmers to implement and iterate on these motions to create compelling, entertaining, and visually appealing gameplay and/or cinematic events
• Learn and utilize custom tools and basic scripting
• Additional responsibilities may be assigned as needed

Requirements & Skills:

• Have experience animating with motion capture
• Have experience working on gameplay and/or interactive animation
• Have extensive experience animating realistic humans
• Have a good sense of weight and timing in your animation performances
• Have a good understanding of acting principles and basic camera staging.
• Be comfortable working with minimal direction
• Be a creative, innovative problem solver
• Be organized, productive, and a good communicator
• Be flexible with making edits and revisions based on gameplay requirements
• Have the ability to grasp new technology quickly and get the most out of it
• Must be able to provide a demo reel or examples of professional work (online preferred), a breakdown of your contributions to the shot, and an accompanying resume

As a part of the Naughty Dog application process, candidates will be expected to provide a portfolio or demo reel of their work and may be asked to complete an animation test.