Studio: Certain Affinity
Job Opening: Director of Animation
Location: Austin, Texas, US
Type: Full-Time
Responsibilities:
- Provide department leadership by mentoring and guiding the animation and technical animation department, focusing on maintaining a creative culture, approach, and execution of ideas as well as career and department growth
- Encourage and excite the team to find their voice and help them apply it to shape unique new projects and fit in with established brands and IP
- Actively define and realize short and long-term goals for the department
- Consistently seeking out new pipelines/venders/tools and vet them to see if they can be incorporated into our workflows
- Participate in early communication with potential development partners and publishers to create strong relationships focusing on matching their needs with our team’s skillsets and interests
- Work with project leads and directors to develop a strategy that provides strong animation and technical animation resources to cover the studio’s diverse project needs
- Collaborate with production staff to create and maintain high-level project schedules and deliverables
- Actively involved with recruiting, hiring, and external outreach
Qualifications & Skills:
- 10+ years of animation experience in the game industry with at least 4 years experience in AAA level projects
- 5+ years in an Animation Department leadership role
- Excellent understanding of animation/tech animation development pipelines in all phases of game development
- Experience working in both 1st person as well as 3rd person projects
- Expert-level understanding of the principles of motion as applied to characters, cameras, objects, and vehicles
- Experience in the setup, organization, and performance direction of a motion capture shoot
- Knowledge and application of both keyframe and performance capture animation in a real-time environment
- Experience in Unreal Engine 4 (Other proprietary editors are a plus)
- Experience managing and mentoring teams and or departments
- A desire to work and support a diverse and inclusive environment
