Cinematic Animator - EA SPORTS FC

EA SPORTS is one of the world's leading sports entertainment brands, known for top-selling video game franchises, award-winning interactive technology, and cross-platform digital experiences.

EA SPORTS creates connected gaming experiences that bring the emotion of sports to life through industry-leading titles, including Madden NFL, EA SPORTS FC, NHL, NBA LIVE, and UFC.

As one of the largest sports entertainment platforms in the world, EA SPORTS FC is redefining football with genre-leading interactive experiences, connecting a global community of fans to The World's Game through innovation and unrivaled authenticity.

With more opportunity than ever to design, innovate and create new, immersive experiences that bring joy, inclusivity, and connection to fans everywhere, we invite you to join our passionate and dynamic team as we pioneer the future of football fandom.

To be successful in this role, you will need to be able to key-frame characters to a very high standard.

You will work closely with the Cinematics Team to help bring quality animated performances to the game.

This team works onsite in our Burnaby office 3 days/week; Tuesday - Thursday.

This is a 12-month contract to begin with and has the possibility of longer term employment

• Work closely with the Director to understand the vision for the cinematics
• Assemble Motion Capture character performances together with all the props necessary to realize the cinematics
• Work with artists, technical artists/animators - providing feedback on rigs and tools
• Provide feedback to other animators on the team (both internally and externally) – where necessary
• Polish key frame face / body animation for Cinematic scenes and test in game engine
• Work with Technical Artist’s/Animator’s and Engineers to manage and solve any technical problems that arise with both 1st and 3rd party tools and software

• Experienced CG character animator required
• Minimum 4+ years work experience
• Must possess excellent character animation skills
• Experience working with advanced facial animation rigs
• Must have experience animating cameras, and a good eye for cinematics
• Experience creating the various passes needed to take animations from initial previz and blocking, all the way through to fully realized, highly polished sequences
• Must have strong working knowledge of a 3D animation package (Maya, XSI etc.)
• Familiarity with Autodesk’s Motionbuilder preferred but not essential
• Must have ability to work under tight deadlines.
• Experience working in gaming preferred but not essential
• Experience working with, and providing feedback to both artists and technical artists/animators

• Strong technical communication and collaboration skills.
• A passion for Sports/Soccer is an asset.
• Motivated to learn how to use new or proprietary software
• Be adaptable to different workflow methods
• Able to communicate well with other disciplines
• Candidate must be meticulous, detail oriented, driven, and need very little supervision to put out high quality work
• Candidate must have a strong work ethic and work well with a team
• Be positive and approachable