About the position
At Blizzard, we craft genre-defining games and legendary worlds for all to share. Through unparalleled creativity and storytelling, we create immersive universes and iconic characters that are beloved across platforms, borders, backgrounds, and generations - only made possible by building a work environment that nurtures the artistry of game development and unleashes the aspirations of our people. As an Animator, you'll be animating a diverse range of compelling characters and creatures that support an engaging, dynamic, and satisfying gameplay experience. You'll be working with other artists, designers, and engineers to collaborate on creatively complex assignments to develop an inspiring creative vision, animation style, and production pipeline for this new Blizzard game. Ultimately, you're combining inspiring art with great gameplay while actively communicating and thriving on a small team. This role is anticipated to be a hybrid work position, with some work on-site and some work-from-home. The home studio for this role is Irvine, CA.
Responsibilities
- Partner with the animation team to help develop a unique animation style and visual direction for the project.
- Collaborate with designers, tech artists, and engineers to integrate the animation assets into the engine, and identify and troubleshoot any technical issues that might arise.
- Partner with engineers and tech artists to help support and develop an effective animation pipeline for prototyping and a rapid iteration mindset for game development.
Requirements
- Strong understanding of the principles of animation and body mechanics.
- Experience animating characters and creatures in Maya (or equivalent 3D programs).
- Strong understanding of human and creature anatomy and a keen eye toward creatively representing their movements in believable ways.
- Experience with creating animation blend trees; previous experience with node-based animation editors.
Nice-to-haves
- Professional experience working on AAA games for major platforms.
- Experience with prototype/quick iteration environments.
- Experience working with motion capture.
- Experience with basic modeling and rigging.
Benefits
- Medical, dental, vision, health savings account or health reimbursement account, healthcare spending accounts, dependent care spending accounts, life and AD&D insurance, disability insurance.
- 401(k) with Company match, tuition reimbursement, charitable donation matching.
- Paid holidays and vacation, paid sick time, floating holidays, compassion and bereavement leaves, parental leave.
- Mental health & wellbeing programs, fitness programs, free and discounted games, and a variety of other voluntary benefit programs like supplemental life & disability, legal service, ID protection, rental insurance, and others.
- Relocation assistance if the Company requires that you move geographic locations for the job.
