Welcome to Striking Distance Studios!
Driven by people. Inspired by challenges. Relentless to deliver creative excellence.
At the intersection of art, design and technology lies Striking Distance Studios. Led by Dead Space and Call of Duty franchise veteran Glen Schofield, a new AAA development studio has risen within the San Ramon Hills of the San Francisco Bay Area. We have planted roots in beautiful Bishop Ranch and are now building our flagship state-of-the-art development studio establishing the East Bay as the new up and coming creative and technological hub we know it to be.
Together with our PUBG partners, our team is hard at work to deliver an original narrative experience within the globally recognized and award-winning PUBG universe. Here at Striking Distance Studios it is amazing people, an immersive experience and a passion for excellence that drives us each day. We are looking for people who push themselves creatively and learn with every new challenge. We give you the setting and the opportunity to do work you are proud of. We're looking for the best to come join us and become part of a world-class team.
To us excellence is not a skill, but an attitude!
Description:
Striking Distance Studios is looking for an Animator to help us create the most dynamic and engaging in-game cinematic experiences. We are searching for the best of the best character animators - if you're interested in crafting epic moments, animating expressive true to life characters and creating responsive, engaging gameplay: then our project is for you! We are looking for battle tested veterans to partner up with our collection of industry experts who bring decades of experience delivering AAA titles. As an Animator you will be working closely with the Leads of Animation, Design, Narrative and Environment to create visually stunning and memorable in-game moments. The Animation team here at Striking Distance Studios have our own onsite state of the art Motion Capture Studio to give our animators the advantage of creating animations quickly as well as the opportunity to innovate and develop new techniques for capturing motions. We are creating an exciting environment here, where you will be challenged every day, have the resources to experiment and innovate for the best solutions. We work closely with design to prototype ideas here quickly to dedicate more time polishing and perfecting animations. Want to push the envelope? Come join us and we can all push together! It's all about team here at SDS, we are only as strong as our weakest link.
Responsibilities:
- Work with creative director, design and environment leads to pre-vis and develop initial ideas. This can range from story boards, live action video and 3d blocking.
- Create and tune game mechanics, combat and locomotion sets: in collaboration with design and engineering
- Lead small pods and own smaller areas of game (enemy type, combat, interactive cut scenes, etc.)
- Assist with mocap shoots from directing, performing and building sets; to name a few.
- Hand-key or work with mocap to create dynamic grounded animations
- Implement or learn to implement animations in Unreal engine by working with designers and engineers.
- Identify and communicate any issues that will improve our product.
- Mentor junior animators
- Create heavy scenes with multiple characters and multiple environment assets
- Hand-key and tune facial capture
- Actively advance skill set and abilities by keeping aware of industry trends and techniques, evaluating competitive products, and learning new software packages
- Be a respectful teammate
Qualifications:
- 3 years professional animation experience developing AAA titles
- Knowledge of Cinematic and Motion Capture Editing
- Strong animation fundamentals with a focus on human movement
- Ability to adapt to new tools and tech
- Expert animating in Maya
- Excellent hand key animation skills
- Strong problem-solving skills both technical and cross department
- Can mentor Jr. Animator
- Ability to think philosophically of character movement
- Strong organizational and communication skills
Though this is an animation position, the team values well-rounded artists. A portfolio that shows strong character drawing, modeling and texturing skills, in addition to OUTSTANDING animation will be fully appreciated.
