Senior Animator – Maxis (The Sims)

• Remote options across UK/EU time zone*

Senior Animator – Maxis EU

Welcome to Maxis, home to tinkerers, craftspeople, & storytellers. Our guide is to inspire everyone to make a better world through creative play. As the developer of The Sims, we create games and experiences for millions of people around the world and are always looking for new ways to inspire our players. Maxis is a place where you can do what you love and help others grow while doing it; a place where your unique voice can be heard and seen. We put creativity and inclusivity at the core of our work and don’t settle for seeing the world only as it is, but aim to build a world as it could be.

Teams are building the next generation game and creative platform, Project Rene, and reimagining The Sims that players know and love with even more new ways to play.

We’re excited you’re interested to learn more about how you can join our team and dream big.

You will be reporting to our Senior Development Director within Maxis EU.

Your Skills:

• Experience as a gameplay animator contributing to all phases of game production on a AAA title
• Expert in creating full body keyframe animation with a primary emphasis on full body character performance in Maya.
• Experience providing aesthetic feedback to a small group of Animators.
• Decision-making attitude for self or others.
• Excellent technical comprehension about designing animation state machines in a game engine such as Unity, Unreal or similar.
• Experience evaluating human/creature/object rigs for production
• Experience keeping project partners informed on project status and risks and collaborating with diverse groups such as: Design, Production, Engineering, Art, Modelling, VFX, and Audio
• A mindset that focuses on quality, collaboration, innovation, and accountability.

Your Main Responsibilities:

• Create a variety of high-quality keyframe animations and overseeing their implementation from brainstorming through the testing and bug fixing.
• Work with the Director and Discipline Lead to ensure quality, animation style, and philosophy are maintained for work you or others produce.
• Enhance our discipline, by mentoring animators, creating learning material, and spreading knowledge across the animation team.
• Oversee the design of complex animation trees, state machines, and driving thoughtful technical implementation to meet design goals, creating documentation.
• Tracking and oversight of animation assets hook up to support great gameplay.
• Estimate and help scope exercises to ensure animation can meet production schedules.