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Lead Technical Animator
2K
Novato, CA, United States
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LEAD TECHNICAL ANIMATOR
Who We Are:
Hello!
We’re starting up a new team here at 2K to – surprise! – make a video game. We are a small, scrappy group with a ton of ambition AND the resources to see it realized. That’s pretty rare these days. Think of us like a well-funded startup but without all the gross tech culture trappings. This is an opportunity to join an incredible project on the ground floor.
We’re also hard at work creating a supportive and inclusive culture. Here’s what’s important to us:
Honesty.
We do our best to tell it like it is. No information hoarding. No passive-aggressive manipulation. We care about keeping the lines of communication open and uncluttered.
Diversity. Games are better when they are created by people of diverse backgrounds and experiences. Accessibility matters to us – and this is just about mechanics. All players should be able to relate to the experience we’re creating. And we can’t be more accessible if we’re not actively trying to increase representation on the team and in our game.
Collaboration. So this is on every job posting ever and then the experience is totally the opposite. We’re going to do our best to mean what we say. We’re not sticking people into discipline silos. You’ll probably be working in a pod – collaborating (see!) with people from diverse disciplines and backgrounds.
Opportunity. We believe that people good at what they do shouldn’t be promoted out of their discipline. They should be recognized and rewarded for their talents, not prevented from doing what they excel at. As a result, we’ve instituted a Principal track. You can continue being amazing at what you do without feeling like you’ve hit a dead end or missed out.
Your well-being.Work-life balance is important to us and assume it’s important to you. We’re going to do our best to avoid a lot of the traditional pitfalls that lead to crunch. We’re not into negative reinforcement or creating a culture of fear.
What We Need:
Do you love inspiring others and tackling challenging technical assignments head on? We want you to set the example, leading efforts to help us breathe life into a new and fantastical world.
• Work side by side with directors & leads to carry the vision forward. Together we will set the stage for a stunning narrative and systems driven experience.
• Your primary responsibility will be acting as a bridge between the Artists and Programmers to create the asset pipeline that gets animations from motion capture into the engine and onscreen. You will also be in charge of identifying--and working with the engineering team to realize--opportunities for automation for animation and rigging.
Who We Think Will Be A Great Fit:
• Must have shipped multiple titles, ideally using Unreal or a comparable engine. (e.g. Frostbyte, Crytech, idTech, etc.) Experience developing/shipping AAA first person shooters a plus!
• Lead experience managing process across departmental disciplines. You are someone who sets an example for positive collaborative process. Self-motivation, good communications skills, and a great team-player attitude.
• Fluent in Maya and MotionBuilder with experience writing MEL scripting for both animation export tools and UI customization.
• A strong understanding of form, gesture, and silhouette in regard to motion. An exceptional understanding of anatomy and caricature.
• Exceptional skill in animating the human bipedal figure, organic forms, and mechanical objects.
• A strong understanding of traditional animation principles and how they can be applied to videogames.
• Experience investigating new techniques, implementing them and training the team. You are up to date with current technology and software.
• Someone with a love for research, reference, and documenting your findings to share with the team.
• Ability to effectively translate creative ambition and onscreen feature requests into the achievable technical tasks required to realize them.
• Scripting experience in Perl or object oriented programming experience a plus.
#LI-2K