Advanced Facial Animator

Monolith Productions, a subsidiary of WB Games Inc. seeks an Advanced Artist, Facial Animator who has a passion for creating emotional and nuanced facial animation performances and who loves to get into the technical details of how to get there. Along with creating exception facial animation content, candidate will work with the team on establishing, maintaining and continually improving the quality of facial animations for systemic in game presentations and real-time cinematics. The Advanced Artist, Facial Animator will work closely with the Facial Animation team, Department Leads, Directors, and other key stakeholders in the continued development and improvements of the facial animation pipeline to ensure that the team has a scalable and efficient toolset that is outputting at the highest quality content. The Advanced Artist, Facial Animator is responsible for researching, developing, and recommending new art/tech to help push the studio quality bar of facial animation content forward. Candidate will have a deep understanding of the nuances of facial performance, animation principles, facial capture pipeline and associated art tools.

• Work with Lead Artist, Facial Animator, Director of Art, Director of Technical Art, and Engineering staff to continue to develop an efficient, scalable toolset that delivers facial animation at the highest quality possible.
• Create high quality facial animations for in-game presentations and real-time cinematics.
• Participate in project specific face animations reviews across all in game presentation systems on a regular basis to ensure optimal implementation and facial output is of the highest quality.

What do we require from you?

• BA in art or related field or equivalent experience.
• 8+ years working as an animator in the entertainment industry with a focus on facial animation.
• At least 3 shipped AAA titles.
• Experience in mocap animation pipelines.
• Experience working in modern facial animation pipelines.
• At least 8+ years’ experience with industry standard 3-D animation package (3D Studio Max, Motion Builder, and Maya).
• Deep understanding of FACS based animation analysis and implementation (Example Faceware).
• Strong understanding of facial likeness capture and scan processes including light stage, photogrammetry, HMC and hybrid approaches.
• Deep knowledge of facial topology, anatomy and rigging solutions to best support both automated and individually authored performances.
• Demonstrated experience developing blend shape instances / attribute libraries to support targeted performances across a range of humanoid facial variants.
• Strong ability to direct and focus on the “details that matter” in emotional performances.
• Strong understanding of animation fundamentals with a deep knowledge of the history of animation.
• Strong understanding of Motion Capture process.
• Aptitude and passion for visual storytelling and emotional connection to game characters.
• Ability to learn quickly and adapt to new technology and complex pipelines.
• Solid organization skills with adherence to file structures, naming conventions and other established protocols.
• Ability to self-manage to ensure deadlines are met.
• Must be able to work well within a team. Willingness to provide and accept direction, and the ability to embrace change.
• Strong verbal and written communication skills.
• Portfolio/website/reel demonstrating fundamental foundation art skills, design sensibilities, and attention to detail.

The Warner Bros. Entertainment Group of Companies is an equal opportunity employer and considers all candidates for employment regardless of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, citizenship, age, disability, marital status, military or veteran's status (including protected veterans, as may be required by federal law), sexual orientation, gender identity or any other category protected by law.