3d Animator/Generalist

Description

The Role Are you a deeply curious 3D tinkerer with outstanding character animation skills? Do you geek out about workflow and organization? Is your love of art bolstered by a cursory knowledge of coding tools to better enable your creation process? Is your curation of tools, keyboard shortcuts, templates, etc, an achievement unto itself? If you said “yes” to all of these, we are searching for such a unicorn to join us on EA's Creative team working on The Sims!

Responsibilities

• Collaborate with the ACDs, Designers and Creative Directors to create compelling, expressive character art that tells a story at a glance and embodies the Sims style
• Create iconic characters and build sets using the game
• Create static renders for marketing communications and internal projects using game art assets and propriety tools
• Rend animation and static images in Maya/Arnold, Marmoset Toolbag, and proprietary Game Engine
• Build/iterate on tools and pipeline to reduce workflow drag and free up time for creating
• Finish hi-res renders with traditional painting and photo-editing techniques in Photoshop
• Take work from brief/direction through final artwork from start to finish: sourcing assets, creating Sims, rough posing, iterating based on feedback, lighting and rendering, and final polish in 2d.
• Collaborate with a diverse and multidisciplinary team
• Work within strict technical limitations and tight deadlines

Qualifications

• 5+ years of animation/3D art experience in games or film
• Excellent organization skills, we are building a pipeline that will be used by multiple artists, scalability and ease of onboarding are essential
• Proactive communicator, contributing to team discussions, flagging problems as they arise, talking through your ideas, etc.
• Problem-solver, you look for creative solutions and clever shortcuts, troubleshoot problems, research, iterate, you seek always to improve
• Know and love Maya, or at least know it like you love it. This is a must!
• Experience lighting and rendering in Arnold, using PBR materials
• Outstanding character animation skills. Your poses tell stories, convey motion, ooze personality. Must have a portfolio demonstrating strong character work to be considered
• Multi-disciplinary 3D craftsperson: you feel reasonably comfortable in just about every area of 3D art production. You can upres a low-res game texture, model a simple prop, light a scene, tweak/troubleshoot game rigs, animate, etc. We need someone who can handle a variety of tasks. You don’t need to be an expert, you won’t be building rigs from scratch or even maintaining them, but you have enough knowledge to troubleshoot small problems on your own
• Proficiency in Photoshop (After Effects skills are a plus!)
• Takes initiative and refines processes
• Passion for 3D Art and Games!

Pay

PAY RANGES California (depending on location e.g. Los Angeles vs. San Francisco) *$85,800 - $130,800 USD Pay is just one part of the overall compensation at EA. In the US, we offer a package of benefits including paid time off (3 weeks per year to start), 80 hours per year of sick time, 16 paid company holidays per year, 10 weeks paid time off to bond with baby, medical/dental/vision insurance, life insurance, disability insurance, and 401(k) to regular full-time employees. Certain roles may also be eligible for bonus and equity.