Senior Animator - EA Sports A-Team

Avature; Burnaby; Hybrid; CAD 107,000 - 148,000; Full time

Job summary

Join a forward-thinking company as a Senior Technical Animator, where your passion for advancing game technology will thrive. In this role, you will collaborate with a talented team to drive innovation in animation tools and machine learning initiatives. You'll curate motion capture data, craft high-quality animations, and develop prototypes that showcase groundbreaking technologies. This is an exciting opportunity to shape the future of character animation in a collaborative environment, working alongside veteran developers to push the boundaries of what's possible in gaming. If you are ready to make a significant impact in the world of interactive entertainment, this role is for you.

Benefits

3 weeks vacation

10 days sick time

Extended health/dental/vision coverage

Life insurance

Disability insurance

Retirement plan

Qualifications

• Proven experience as a Technical Animation expert with state machines.
• Strong understanding of animation principles and anatomy.

Responsibilities

• Curate and implement motion capture data into animation sets.
• Design cutting-edge animation tools for animators and designers.

Skills

Technical Animation

Animation Principles

Problem-Solving Skills

Motion Capture

Animation Pipelines

Tools

Autodesk Maya

MotionBuilder

Job description

Role ID: 206481

Worker Type: Regular Employee

Studio/Department: Flexible Work Arrangement

Location: Hybrid

Description & Requirements

Electronic Arts creates next-level entertainment experiences that inspire players and fans around the world. Here, everyone is part of the story. A place where creativity thrives, new perspectives are invited, and ideas matter. A team where everyone makes play happen.

Senior Technical Animator - A-Team

Electronic Arts Inc. is a leading global interactive entertainment software company. EA delivers games, content and online services for Internet-connected consoles, personal computers, mobile phones and tablets.

Team Overview:

Meet the A-Team: an innovative Character Animation Research Team based in Vancouver, British Columbia, with talented remote members spread across North America. We are a cross-functional, applied R&D team strategically positioned in EA to drive and disrupt the future of character animation technology. Our technology has been used to create next-generation gameplay realism across EA titles including FC, Madden, NHL, UFC, Battlefield, and many others.

Join us in shaping the future of how games are made!

We are searching for a talented and experienced Senior Technical Animator to join the A-Team. Our ideal candidate is passionate about advancing games in a collaborative environment with a team of veteran developers. You will be responsible for driving the design and development of animator-first DCC tools and Machine Learning initiatives, crafting high quality animations, and building prototypes to showcase the innovations we develop. This is not a rigging position.

You will...

• Curate, edit, and implement motion capture data into animation sets to push the limits of our new technologies in Motion Matching and Machine Learning.
• Work side-by-side with engineers to develop new animation solutions across DCC and Machine Learning.
• Design cutting edge animation tools/pipelines for animators and designers in the digital content creation space.
• Work side-by-side with UX designers to guide the UX of these tools.
• Provide feedback on R&D projects in other focus areas, including procedural runtime systems and rigging.
• Review the animation results generated by AI models, and provide feedback for areas of improvement.
• Collaborate with partner game teams to solve unique animation challenges.
• Design and create high quality technical demos utilizing our team’s technology.
• Be a leader in the animation community at EA by working with partner game teams to teach our new animation systems and tools.
• Coordinate with QA to validate and maintain the high quality of our animation systems.
• Create and maintain documentation and tutorials to educate others about our team’s unique technologies.
• Report directly to the A-Team Animation Director.

Ideally you will have…

• Proven experience as a Technical Animation expert with state machines and procedural solutions in released products.
• A strong understanding of animation principles and anatomy.
• Experience with managing animation pipelines and workflows.
• Experience with motion capture and retargeting.
• Proficient in standard industry tools such as Autodesk Maya.
• Experience working closely with other domains - especially Designers, Engineers and Artists.
• Excellent problem-solving skills.

Supplemental Skills:

• Experience troubleshooting and debugging runtime animation systems.
• Experience in Cinematics/Presentation.
• MotionBuilder experience is an asset.
• All submissions must include a portfolio showing personal and professional artwork.

COMPENSATION AND BENEFITS

The ranges listed below are what EA in good faith expects to pay applicants for this role in these locations at the time of this posting. BASE SALARY RANGES: $107,600 - $147,100 CAD

In British Columbia, we offer a package of benefits including vacation (3 weeks per year to start), 10 days per year of sick time, paid top-up to EI/QPIP benefits, extended health/dental/vision coverage, life insurance, disability insurance, retirement plan to regular full-time employees.

About Electronic Arts

We’re proud to have an extensive portfolio of games and experiences, locations around the world, and opportunities across EA. We value adaptability, resilience, creativity, and curiosity. We empower you to do great work and pursue opportunities for growth.

Electronic Arts is an equal opportunity employer. All employment decisions are made without regard to any characteristic protected by law.