Lead Animator

Striking Distance Studios continues to grow. We are looking for talented developers with experience working on large-scale, live service games to join us in our San Ramon studio.

What we need:

The Lead Animator's main responsibilities are to plan, organize, follow-up and evaluate the work of his/her team and its impact on the project.

Responsibilities:

• Create high quality, hand keyed character, creature and environmental animations.
• Work with both keyframe and motion capture data.
• Problem solve typical game dev issues
• Define, prioritize, assign and regularly follow up on tasks and the advancement of the team’s work with regards to deliverables;
• Schedule planning and centralize tasks;
• Ensure that the work of the team follows the quality standards, artistic direction and set deadlines;
• Know the game’s story and gameplay (game design documents); understand and communicate to the team the technical and artistic constraints;
• Anticipate and recognize potential conflicts or production issues and recommend solutions;
• Motivate and develop the team members and act as a mentor in terms of technical/artistic aspects
• Manage and mentor team members

Qualifications:

• Minimum 5+ years of experience in animation within the gaming industry
• Experience in a management role
• Unreal Engine 4.x experience
• Good knowledge of a 3d package - Maya, Character Studio and MotionBuilder;
• Good understanding of animation principles – timing, weight and staging;
• Ability to plan, organize and prioritize the team’s work in the context of given timescales and quality requirements;
• Strong leadership skills, time and priority management;
• Ability to create and develop productive teams;
• Strong interpersonal and communication skills;
• Critical thinking and problem solving;
• Self-starter with proactive attitude to improve own qualifications;
• Knowledge sharing attitude and ability to coach less experienced people;
• Experience in the gaming industry will be considered an advantage