Principal Animator, Cinematics - Unannounced Game | Irvine, CA or Albany, NY

Team Name:

Unannounced Project

Job Title:

Principal Animator, Cinematics - Unannounced Game | Irvine, CA or Albany, NY

Requisition ID:

R025228

Job Description:

Your mission

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:

Priorities can often change in a fast-paced environment like ours, so this role includes, but is not limited to, the following 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

• 12+ 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.

 

Extra Points

• 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.

 

Your Platform

 

Best known for iconic video game universes including Warcraft®, Overwatch®, Diablo®, and StarCraft®, Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. (www.blizzard.com), a division of Activision Blizzard, which was acquired by Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT), is a premier developer and publisher of entertainment experiences. Blizzard Entertainment has created some of the industry’s most critically acclaimed and genre-defining games over the last 30 years, with a track record that includes multiple Game of the Year awards. Blizzard Entertainment engages tens of millions of players around the world with titles available on PC via Battle.net®, Xbox, PlayStation, Nintendo Switch, iOS, and Android.

 

Our World

 

Activision Blizzard, Inc., is one of the world's largest and most successful interactive entertainment companies and is at the intersection of media, technology and entertainment. We are home to some of the most beloved entertainment franchises including Call of Duty®, World of Warcraft®, Overwatch®, Diablo®, Candy Crush™ and Bubble Witch™. Our combined entertainment network delights hundreds of millions of monthly active users in 196 countries, making us the largest gaming network on the planet!

 

Our ability to build immersive and innovate worlds is only enhanced by