Lead Animator Artist | AAA Video Games | Remote

Title: Lead Animator Artist

Level: Senior.

Type: Remote, Home-Working

Location: Anywhere in the world

We are extensively growing our Global Art Team

As a Lead 3D Animator in 1518, you will work closely with the team to create skilled animation with strong acting, story-driven performances, and convincing motion that will bring our worlds and characters to life.

1518 studios are now on the hunt for a talented professional Lead Animator to join our global Art Team. You'll be working on a variety of games, and we are proud to house the best quality animations, ranging from heavily stylised to realistic behaviours, across both cinematic sequences and real-time motion. Whether you are animating a hero or a monster, a crowd or an object, you will always think of the movement's intention and the subject's behaviour. It is important for you to know how the tiny details help build up the big picture in-game. You will have a strong sense of 3D design, facial animation, and body mechanics (realistic and cartoony) which must be displayed in a compelling reel.

This position entails a great deal of responsibility and opportunity to drive further the development of your artistic, technical, and creative expertise and will accept applications from 2D and 3D Artists that can work on a variety of art styles.

We are ideally looking for 3D Animators that have 5+ years of commercial experience in the games industry, but equally, if you’re a super talented, self-taught, or even come from a different creative field, we would love to hear from you. We’re interested to hear from you and review your portfolio/reel.

Requirements

Qualifications

• BA in Art Media, graphic design, or equivalent relevant experience (bachelor's in fine arts, computer animation, illustration, digital arts, media arts, or master's of fine arts in animation or visual effects for example).
• Previous AAA/Indie/PC games, mobile games, and NFT projects or at minimum a passion for games and knowledge of the gaming industry.
• Good understanding of creative briefs, able to consider elements such as context, timescales, and creative constraints when solving tasks.
• A keen eye for spinning narrative and life into a character, props, and special effects.
• Excellent time management skills, able to meet deadlines and multitask.

• Excellent creative thinking skills, able to solve creative problems through innovative solutions, balancing flow, function, and aesthetics.
• Solid understanding of both realistic and cartoon human/creature poses and keyframe animations.
• Proficient skills at creating facial expressions and animations in conjunction with blendshapes or similar.
• The ability to provide multiple creative options, then iterate upon them as projects progress.
• Knowledge of computer 3D animation techniques, motion design, and camera movement principles. Able to animate characters, objects, and special effects.

• Skilled at working within Maya and Motion Capture data to create the animations.
• Experienced with animation mockups, able to plan and generate asset libraries to help smooth the pipeline.
• Strong collaborative attitude. A receptive individual who's open to take feedback and work together with teammates on streamlining and improving the animation pipelines/processes and deliverables.
• Experienced with working across departments to provide the most optimized format for the best in-game performance.
• High level of proficiency in 2D/3D editing and software tools like Maya, After Effects CC, Premier Pro CC, Adobe Flash, Animate CC environment, Photoshop CC, and Illustrator CC to be able to deliver any kind of good quality 2D/3D assets.

• Ability to draw in a variety of styles and genres with knowledge of lighting, perspective, material finishes, and special effects, and a cinematic eye for lighting and shading.
• Good understanding of the 2D/3D rigging process and different technical software.
• Supportive attitude, eager to guide other animators in the team and take ownership.
• Fluency in written and spoken English.

Big bonus points if you...

• Have experience with locomotion is a big plus.
• Are proficient with Unity (or another game engine), with the ability to import, export, and set up the animation state machine with developers and troubleshoot issues.
• Know also how to animate in 2D, and are confident with 2D animation techniques, being able to animate characters, objects, and special effects.

Benefits

• You will be working for the pre-eminent global provider of specialist services to the games industry and provided with full training and the opportunity to work on some of the biggest game titles in the world.
• Competitive remuneration, holidays, regular team competitions with great prizes; and inclusion into an extensive social calendar. Collaborative teamwork with people from all around the world, different nationalities, and languages.
• A supportive community inclusive of LGBTQ+, and any age, ethnicity, religion, or disability. We care about the wellbeing of our employees and have a dedicated employee wellbeing programme.

Who we are

PTW is a video games services company that supports video game developers and publishers through outsourced production services. We started 25 years ago and since then, have grown exponentially year-on-year to where we are today. Our history is in gaming, and we are gamers at heart. In our time within the games industry, we have worked on over 1500 titles across all genres and all platforms, including 8 out of the past 10 Game-Of-The-Year-winning titles.

We have grown rapidly over the past few years and now have 35 sites spanning the globe. The PTW umbrella of companies includes 1518, SIDE, and Orange Rock. SIDE works at the cutting edge of interactive media as a provider of audio services for the global entertainment market. Orange Rock is our in-house game and product development studio. 1518 is our award-winning global Art studio service.

Welcome to 1518