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 a Principal Animator, Cinematics you'll be leading the creation of high-quality, realistic in-game cinematics, working with motion capture and hand-keyed animations, while also mentoring and supporting other animators. You'll be working with other artists, designers, and engineers to collaborate on creatively complex assignments. In partnership with these teams, you'll develop an inspiring creative vision, robust cinematic pipeline, and exciting interactive narrative gameplay for a new, unannounced game. 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
- Create visually stunning and compelling in-game cinematics, using both motion capture and hand-keyed animation techniques.
- Develop and iterate on cinematic pipeline and narrative gameplay systems.
- Provide guidance, feedback, and mentorship to other animators to ensure high-quality work.
- Work across disciplines with game directors, writers, designers, and technical teams to ensure the cinematics align with the overall game vision.
- Assist in planning and preparation for motion capture shoots, ensuring that rigs, sets, and props are ready and validated.
Requirements
- 10+ years experience with motion capture, performance capture and hand keyed animation of characters and creatures in Maya (or equivalent 3D programs).
- Exceptional facial animation skills.
- Strong understanding of cinematic systems development.
- Experience with cinematic pipelines and interactive storytelling.
- Strong understanding of narrative structure and cinematography, including staging, camera, layout, and editing.
- Technical knowledge of animation implementation into a game engine.
Nice-to-haves
- Experience working on AAA games for major platforms.
- Experience with prototype/quick iteration environments.
- On-set experience with mocap shoots.
- 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.
