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Senior Previs / Layout Artist (Cinematic)
2 years ago
Overview
id Software, part of the ZeniMax Media Inc. family of companies, is seeking a Senior Previs / Layout Artist to join our team.
id Software is looking for a full-time Senior Previs / Layout Artist to join our legendary team to create eye-popping cinematics for our games. As we continue to evolve the cinematic storytelling in our games, this role will play a critical part in laying the creative foundation for our in-game cinematics. This position reports to the Cinematic Supervisor and works closely with the Game Director, Art Director, storyboard artists and animation teams.
Responsibilities
The Senior Previs / Layout Artist is responsible for all facets of cinematic layout and pre-visualization. The successful candidate is responsible for, but not limited to:
- Camera placement and lens choices to support the story with strong shot composition and cinematic flow. Candidates must have a great sense of scale and the ability to realize background, characters and objects that work in proportion with each other to create a believable and cinematic world.
- Researching the cinematic genre, reference shots and style of current projects.
- Ingesting storyboards, temporary audio, and then using strong editorial skills to create pre-viz animatics that establish pacing and support creative iteration of early cinematic ideas.
- Reading and interpreting 2D storyboards and translating them into a 3D space/environment.
- Modeling and building early hard-site sets for blocking. Later working with the World Building team to ingest environment and set updates.
- Working with the Animation Lead and Game Director to plan and execute motion capture used in the cinematics.
- Using strong key-frame animation skills and motion capture performance blending to block out sequences and shots.
- Using available tools in Maya viewport to create viewport playblasts that represent varying FX elements, lighting, atmosphere etc.
- Providing various rough versions of scenes and shots, giving directors and editors options during the editing process.
- Maintaining the pre-viz edit.
- Updating cameras and blocking to support downstream creative changes and animation.
- Identifying any story, creative or technical issues that sets and cameras might have with the production and communicate it to the team.
- Working closely with the Cinematic Supervisor and Production team to establish and advocate schedules, hit deadlines and juggle priorities.
- Additional responsibilities include layout for marketing materials & creating cameras for game level flythroughs.
Qualifications
- Very high level of skill and understanding of filmmaking techniques including cinematography, lighting, acting, blocking and action sequence choreography. A deep knowledge of cameras, lenses, exposure, depth of field, shot composition are required.
- Software: High level of skill and experience with Maya and editorial software like Premiere and Resolve.
- Basic modeling and texturing skills required (Modo and/or Maya)
- Ability to keyframe animate humanoid and quadruped creatures.
- Motion capture clip ingestion, organization and blending to support shot creation.
- Editorial: Candidate must have a great sense of editorial constructs including pacing and understanding of continuity editing and the effects that editorial choices have on storytelling.
- Clear communication skills and ability to interpret and prioritize feedback.
- Minimum 5 Years of experience as a Layout artist on long-form animation, AAA game cinematics or film projects.
Preferred Skills
- Experience with production tracking software: ShotGrid and Jira.
- Highly organized
- Comfortable contributing to the creative process and offering new ideas
- Familiarity with film and animation genres
- Experience in photography is an advantage
- Awareness of the history of animation and filmmaking
- Comfort with data management, coding and tool creation a huge plus (Python).
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