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BioWare Austin seeks Senior Animator

Our Jobs at Bioware page has information on how to apply and several other helpful resources.

BioWare Austin is seeking candidates for the position of Senior Animator to help deliver a high quality game to market and to bring characters to life by creating dynamic and awe-inspiring animations. This position provides animation for various models under the direction of the Principle Lead Animator. Successful candidates must have at least 3 years experience in character animation for games, and a strong understanding of the fundamentals of traditional animation. Candidates must also have experience with game cinematics; creating storyboards, recording mo-cap, and putting final polish into a cinematic.

BioWare, the newest member of the incredible family of EA studios, has created some of the world's best-selling titles including the award-winning Baldur's Gate™, Neverwinter Nights™ series, and Star Wars®: Knights of the Old Republic™. Original BioWare-created IPs include Jade Empire™ and the critically acclaimed, Mass Effect. BioWare is hard at work on the epic fantasy RPG Dragon Age™; Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood™ for the Nintendo DS™; and unannounced projects including a highly anticipated massively multiplayer online game.

BioWare’s games have continually achieved critical and commercial success. All of our published titles are in the top 5% highest rated at www.gamerankings.com; in fact we have 6 games in the top 1% highest rated games of all time! Today BioWare has more than 400 staff at its two locations and continues to grow. We have sold over 20 million games (including engine licenses) in the past ten years! Our games have received many top industry awards, and we are proud that our Edmonton studio location has been recognized as a top employer in Canada, awarded the following for 2008:

  • Canada’s Top 100 Employers
  • Financial Post Canada’s Top 10 Best Companies to Work For
  • Alberta’s Top 35 Employers

Essential Duties and Responsibilities

  • Animate dynamic, believable and appealing characters for both in-game and cut scene environments.
  • Responsible for an animation or cinematic, seeing it through to completion, in a timely manner, to the highest quality possible.
  • Produces 3D animation including both hand–created and mocap cleanup.
  • Assists the Lead Animator in the evaluation of tools and processes.
  • Partners with designers, programmers and other personnel involved in the development of products.
  • Interacts with peers or managers in other units/teams/projects and/or vendors.
  • Participates in the design of products and performs some testing.

Requirements:

  • University degree or formal vocational training in Art or Animation is preferred.
  • At least 3 years of experience in computer generated animation.
  • 3+ years of game development experience
  • Minimum of 3 years experience building, rigging, and animating characters, bi-peds and multi-legged figures An strong understanding of character creation (model, texture, rig)
  • Complete knowledge of 3DSMAX's animation tools is required.
  • Knowledge of Motion Capture animation an asset.
  • Experience creating both stylized and realistic animation for human and non-human characters
  • Experience with scripting, character set-up and editing motion capture performances
  • Experience with the technical animation aspects of 3D Studio Max, Maya
  • 1Highly proficient in the following 3D software packages: 3D Studio Max, Maya, Photoshop
  • 1Experience and proven ability in successfully creating and implementing both key-frame and motion capture animation
  • Communicate and partner effectively with the development team, including animators, motion capture specialists, modelers, designers and programmers, to help carry out the vision of the project
  • Thorough and solid understanding of animation theory and the principles of animation such as timing, weighting, performance and poses
  • Self driven, problem-solver and a great team-player
  • A strong passion for animation and video games
  • Experience training and mentoring less experienced animators

Portfolio Requirements

All portfolios must contain a detailed shot breakdown of the work. It must be very clear what you, the applicant, are responsible for in your reel, screenshots, scanned pictures, web page portfolio, etc. We would also like you to include your name in the subject line of your emailed application, as well as the competition number of the position(s) that you are applying for.

    3D portfolio Requirements (no originals please)
    • Examples of various animations applied to humanoid figures and animal figures
    • Examples of cinematic work
    • Character rigging examples
    • Examples of technical animation work: rigging, skinning
    • Examples of various animations cycles applied to game characters
    • Examples of motion capture direction and clean-up
    2D portfolio Requirements (no originals please)

    • Storyboarding skills
    • Figure drawing
    • Color work

Please quote the following competition number in the subject line of your electronic application, or include in the cover letter of your mailed application:

08-SRANIM-BWA-03

To apply by e-mail, send your resume and online portfolio to:

artistjobsaustin -AT- bioware.com

To apply by mail, send your resume to:

Senior Animator #08-SRANIM-BWA-03
BioWare Corp.
200, 4445 Calgary Trail
Edmonton, Alberta
Canada T6H 5R7

Along with your submission, you MUST include a signed product submission agreement.
You can fax it to: 780-439-6374
Resources to help you apply:

Posted by AlexMarquez on February 7, 2008 12:30 AM