This job might no longer be available.

Senior Storyboard/Animatic Artist and Editor

Senior Storyboard/Animatic Artist and Editor

Term: 6 months - 1 year

Location: Redwood City, CA | Open to most US Locations

High Level

We're looking for a gifted visual storyteller to help us visualize our designs, gameplay experiences, and technology solutions through animatics and storytelling. Maxis creates life simulations that tell stories through characters in every-day or extravagant situations. As such, we need someone who can help us explore body language, visualize relationship dynamics and play with timing and spacing between characters.

We're interested to know:

• How do a couple watch a romantic movie together when one is upset with the other?
• How does a husband engage in a conversation with his wife, while he almost breaks a new record on his favorite video game?
• How does a family cook together in the same kitchen while carrying out a conversation?

Our ideal candidate is someone who is thrilled to contribute visually and share ideas, in a collaborative environment with several disciplines, and who loves telling stories about every-day life.

You will report to a Studio Development Director.

Responsibilities:

• Creatively tackle challenges in story and explore ways in which to bring characters to life, visualize game dynamics and support story expectations.
• Brainstorm and create storyboard panels against a specified vision or problem space.
• Produce illustrations and sketches evoking the project's style and aesthetic.
• Apply emotion and humor to characters.
• Apply dynamic action and exaggerated gestures.
• Work within staging and composition of the scene.
• Emulate character designs, from our character team, within boards.
• Bring life to each character and emphasize on their personas.
• Translate storyboards into Animatic sequences that highlight and bring the characters to life.
• Edit and refine the timing of Animatic sequences to maximize emotional impact and convey appropriate audience response.
• Partner with peers from different disciplines to understand challenges and suggest improvements.
• Team up with creative supervisors on deliverable goals within the limitations of the story/script.
• Communicate work progress, identify blockers and dependencies, and identify impact on deliverables.
• Independently manage time of deliverables and provide estimates on tasks.

Qualifications:

• Excellent foundation in art production, and experienced in developing drawings and sketches that demonstrate:
• Characters that portray emotion, humor, and appeal.
• Clear storytelling with action, mechanics, and interaction.
• Expert sense of camera, staging, perspective, and composition skills.
• Expert sense of anatomy, dynamic motion posing and exaggerated gestures.
• A high level of experience with digital editing software
• Experience in hands-on timing and editing of focused animatics to create lively and dynamic story sequences that inspire gameplay implementation. For example:
• A conversation between multiple characters
• A dinner sequence involving an extended family
• A lively sidewalk scene outside a store
• Experience collaborating and communicating in a diverse environment of different disciplines.
• 5+ years of professional experience on either Feature Films, Television Series, Advertising, Comics, Games (as a Story Artist), or Cinematics.
• Bachelor's degree or equivalent experience is a plus.
• Estimates work, communicates changes, and works within a deadline structure.
• Succeed in a remote working environment.
• Submissions:
• Demo-reel or video of Storyboard Animatics (accompanied with voice / sound)
• Portfolio containing Images of Storyboard sequences
• Advanced knowledge of software:
• Photoshop
• Toon Boom Storyboard Pro / Adobe Premiere (Comparable tool)

Our Global Benefits package is not included for this particular role.