[PAID] Animator / Tech Artist (Freelance)

archery

3D Animator / Tech Artist (Freelance)

Hi there. We're a vibrant, rapidly growing developer of story-driven software entertainment. Our first adventure game was very well received, and we're looking to finish up our second! As we prepare our game for market, we’re looking for the superstar visual storytellers of tomorrow to help us bring it to life. Specifically, we want you!

Our game is a point and click adventure game with an epic, unique, and completely original story! Lots of characters and environments -- a fully realized world! Character dialogue voiced by top-notch voice actors! Original orchestral score! The game is nearly finished, with the exception of the character animations. We're looking to release this year on PC first, followed by other platforms.

Background Information

We have ~70 completed characters (fully modeled and textured) needing rigging and animations, with one playable character that has more animations than the others. We have well documented what's needed. We also need a pipeline/tools built to handle all this. Automating this process where possible is important.

• Our game is completely sprite-based (i.e. our models are all 3D, but the animations are being rendered to sprites)
• There are ~175 unique animations, however there's a lot of overlap, and a lot of animations (or segments of them) can be, and should be, reused for efficiency
• All the animations need to be rendered from all 8 cardinal directions (with consistent lighting), rendered out to sequential image files.
• We have overall sprite limits for the game, so our animations should generally be pretty short (around 12 or so frames per animation, with exceptions for certain animations)
• We do not need pixel-perfect accuracy (e.g. we aren't overlapping sprites)
• We need a standardized rig built that can be refit to all biped characters.
• Animations can (and should) be shared and reused across characters where possible.
• We'll need a data-driven pipeline built in Maya to handle the cameras and rendering, for example. If you're confident you can handle this job, but you use Max (or something else), let me know.
• There are no facial animations, save for a few instances where a character or animal has a jaw or eyelids. Facial expressions are handled by swapping out eye and mouth textures. There is no lip/dialogue syncing.

Who are we looking for? We need someone who:

• Has technical skills in rigging and MEL, as well as animation skills
• Is able to build a pipeline/tools to handle the cameras, animations, and the (eventual) thousands of sprites that will be rendered out.
• Can create keyframed animations for low to medium poly characters and creatures in a quirky and delightful way
• Can capture the character's unique personality via animation
• Can animate non-bipedal creatures, in addition to bipeds
• Has experience working with and rendering sprites for games
• Is able to handle the amount of characters and animations in an efficient and organized way
• Can automate as much of this as possible
• Can start within a month (this is somewhat negotiable, and we can discuss a start date)
• Has experience doing this sort of thing and can provide us "the whole package"

Extra points for:

• Experience with particle or effects animations (e.g. effects such as fire, minor explosions, or various particle effect animations)
• Passion for the “Golden Age” of adventure gaming (LucasArts, Sierra, etc.)

Additionally (and importantly) you:

• Are a self-starter who’s driven, responsible, detail-oriented, and able to follow instruction where given
• Possess strong organizational and communication skills (this is a must)
• Have a passion for games
• Are able to work remotely with your own hardware/software with Maya 2013 and up, though preferably Maya 2015.
• Are able to show examples of your work
• Can work quickly and efficiently, so that we can meet our deadlines

Our pay is negotiable.

How to Apply

Contact me at yeoldepub2[at]gmail [dot] com

Thanks!

BurningIce

Email sent. Hope to hear from you soon.