Creative Animation Manager
As Creative Animation Manager, you will collaborate with a talented team of project directors and developers to create opportunities for players to personally connect with our games' characters in new ways. You will also support and guide gameplay and cinematic animation planning and content delivery on Polyarc projects. Your responsibilities include managing the animation and rigging teams while fostering a healthy, working relationship between developers. Creating robust keyframe animation performances along side your team will help you refine your craft as well as identify and respond to the project’s cross-discipline workflow needs. This role requires understanding and using our custom animation workflow to improve animation quality and speed on our projects.
If you're searching for a workplace that is committed to an environment of collaboration, mentorship, accountability, player value, and creative expression, then Polyarc might be the studio just for you.
Responsibilities:
- Understands the player’s perspective and translates that into development workflow considerations, interactive performances, and character exploration opportunities.
- Leads a team of animators by providing growth opportunities for individuals and facilitating collaborative problem-solving.
- Creates high-quality keyframe animation performances, demonstrating physicality with appealing and nuanced acting.
- Works with all development disciplines to inform and build performant in-game systems to create fluid, interactive gameplay.
- Uses, maintains, and trains others on the animation team’s custom, modular, temporary rigging workflow, understanding its design vision and value in improving animation workflow.
- Realizes compelling game characters through project team collaboration while receiving animation mentorship.
- Manages the animation schedule for the team, clearly communicating dependencies and resource needs to realize in-budget, sustainable content creation.
- Manages the animation schedule for the team, clearly communicating dependencies and resource needs to realize in-budget, sustainable content creation.
Qualifications:
- Professional game industry experience making robust, keyframe animations and integrating them with gameplay system design.
- Professional game industry experience making robust, keyframe animations and integrating them with gameplay system design.
- Experience with and enjoys managing and mentoring a team of creative and technical animators.
- Current technical understanding of industry trends and the animation development process.
- Passionate about exploring innovative ways to craft player-informed performances.
- Excellent collaborator, able to graciously provide and accept feedback while working with a small development team to find solutions.
- Knowledge and experience working with game engines.
- Interested in learning and growing character acting skills, highlighting player emotions and psychology.
Pluses:
- Experience using Unreal Engine.
- Experience with a modular, temporary rigging workflow.
- Experience with rigging/scripting in Mel or Python
We believe all the listed qualifications are important to the role. We’re also open to hearing from anyone who believes their unique experiences also qualify them for consideration. If that’s you, please apply!
Compensation:
Polyarc’s salary range for this role is $151,000 to $191,000, with a total compensation target (cash + equity) of $188,300 to $212,500. Any final compensation is dependent on position leveling, taking into consideration the candidate’s qualifications and experiences.
Additionally, there are several other great benefits such as health care benefits (medical, dental, and vision), 401K (company funds 3% contributions towards everyone's retirement plan), flexible PTO (25 accrued PTO days), two seasonal holidays (5 days each) + 10 additional paid holidays, long term disability insurance, life & AD&D, and other voluntary benefits such as pet insurance. You can view these benefits on our website here.
About Us:
Polyarc was founded in 2015 to seize the unmistakable opportunity to make an impact on the future of games and the way they are made. Debuting our first game, Moss, in 2018, we discovered new compelling ways to connect players to characters through virtual reality. We are committed to pushing the boundaries of gameplay and dedicated to building a studio where we develop games and characters that players love, fostering creative and professional growth.
As an equal opportunity employer, we are committed to providing an inclusive and welcoming environment for one another, our players, and our communities. Diversity provides a variety of perspectives, challenges us collaboratively, and adds to our creative process, positively shaping our company culture and encouraging innovation that emphasizes player value.
How to Apply:
To apply, please submit your resume, plus any support materials you deem relevant to your candidacy (portfolio, animation reel, cover letter, etc.) to jobs@polyarcgames.com.
If you need assistance or an accommodation through the recruiting process, please let us know, and one of our amazing People team members can help.