Join the award-winning team that created God of War

Responsibilities

• Work closely with the Combat Design Team during the pre-visualization process, assisting both with combat and character navigation 3D pre-vis. Focus on nailing character development, choreography, and timing of each move with the Animation Director and Gameplay Animation Lead.

• Assemble and prepare navigation, combat, and world interactive moves for shooting on the motion capture stage.

• Assist with mocap shoots, informing the stage crew of prop needs, checking for continuity and keeping track of editing needs for combat and navigation moves.

• Assemble, edit, clean up, and enhance motion capture data shot on stage, including both body and face. Collaborate with the Animation Lead, Design Director, Gameplay Director, Animation Director, and Lead Combat Designer to achieve the perfect balance between animation fidelity and gameplay responsiveness.

• Animate non-mocapped characters, creatures, and props by hand. This includes hand-keyed facial expressions and lip sync as necessary.

• Work closely with Combat Designers and Gameplay Programmers to integrate moves into the game engine, monitoring and troubleshooting any technical issues that might arise.

• Proactively facilitate requests or information needs regarding any aspect of the animation creation process. Work with the Character Tech Art team to improve character rigs, tools and workflow pipeline.

• Actively advance skill set and abilities by keeping aware of industry trends and techniques, evaluating competitive products, and learning new software packages and traditional art methods.

Requirements

• A strong demo reel that demonstrates expert knowledge of fundamental animation principles and acting skills. Be able to create a full range of lifelike performances from the subtle to the dramatic and powerful.

• Demonstrate proficient command of weight, timing, and posing through manipulating motion capture data as well as key-framing.

• High level of proficiency in Maya and MotionBuilder.

• Comfortable learning and working in game engine environments.

• Work well in a creative, team-oriented environment, exhibiting excellent communication, time-management, and organizational skills. Be able to reach across multiple disciplines to gather feedback and address cross-functional issues.

• The drive and talent needed to produce and implement the highest quality work. Penchant for practical innovation and the ability to bring new ideas to the table.

• B.A. in fine arts or relevant curriculum, or equivalent skillset.

Preferred Experience

• 1-3 years’ industry or related experience preferred.

• Experience working with both body and facial performance capture pipelines recommended.

• Good understanding of scene staging and layout. Experience with photography or cinematography a plus.

• Some knowledge of crafting interactive storytelling and/or minigames is useful.

• Basic modeling skills and knowledge of rigging and Python a plus.

• 1 or more published titles working with motion capture performance data a plus.

• Short films and personal animation work a plus.

• AAA experience a plus.

• Passion for video games.

We value talent, self-motivation, and team spirit. In turn, we provide an environment with a large degree of autonomy and opportunities for growth.

Sony is an Equal Opportunity Employer. All persons will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, gender, pregnancy, national origin, ancestry, citizenship, age, legally protected physical or mental disability, covered veteran status, status in the U.S. uniformed services, sexual orientation, marital status, genetic information or membership in any other legally protected category. We strive to create an inclusive environment, empower employees and embrace diversity. We encourage everyone to respond. We genuinely appreciate the time and effort you spent in contacting us and we thank you for your interest in Santa Monica Studio.

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