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Naughty Dog is Hiring!!! Character Animator Wanted

Naughty Dog is the developer of critically acclaimed and top-selling titles including the Crash Bandicoot franchise, Jak and Daxter franchise and Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune. We’re a relatively small team with a highly decentralized and collaborative work environment – we value feedback about any aspect of our game development from any of our team members. We’re a tightly knit group and you can frequently find us participating in yoga sessions in the office, spending lunch playing out on the court basketball, foosball in our lunchroom or around town in our frequent group evenings out. Since Naughty Dog is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Sony Computer Entertainment America, we also get a lot of the perks that comes from being in the Sony family – movie screenings on the Sony Pictures lots and discounts on electronics, music, movies and PlayStation hardware and software. Of course, you just can’t beat our location. Naughty Dog is based near the ocean – and beaches – in Santa Monica, California, where beautiful weather and fair temperatures grace us year-round.

Want to join our Kennel?

We’re constantly looking to expand our team with exceptional individuals who have the drive to help us develop great video games. We are constantly on the lookout for senior level candidates with proven industry track records who don’t shy away from challenges and confidently feel they are among the best in their field. All of our positions require a love of games, strong work ethic and excellent communication skills. Due to our relatively small development staff, firm deadlines and informal structure, each potential team member should be a capable self-starter and able to manage their time and tasks independently.

Character Animator

**Please Note This Is An IN-HOUSE CONTRACT Position**

Responsibilities:
• Create character motions through a blend of keyframe animation and motion capture with our proprietary animation tools
• Work with designers and programmers to implement and iterate on these motions to create compelling, entertaining, and visually appealing gameplay and/or cinematic events.
• Learn and utilize custom tools and basic scripting

Requirements and skills:
• Have experience working on real-time, interactive characters
• Have extensive experience animating realistic humans, including facial animation.
• Have a good sense of proper weight and timing in your animation performances
• Have a good understanding of acting principles and basic camera staging.
• Be comfortable working with minimal direction
• Be a creative, innovative problem solver
• Be organized, productive, and a good communicator
• Be flexible with making edits and revisions based on gameplay requirements
• Have the ability to grasp new technology quickly and get the most out of it

Our pipeline is Maya-based with a suite of innovative proprietary tools, so prior experience with Maya is preferred. A good sense of game design is also a plus. Candidates could be asked to take an animation test if their experience level only meets our minimum requirements.

Please include a resume, demo reel or examples of professional work (Online Preferred) a breakdown of your contributions to the shot, and an accompanying resume. Send your information to:

Candace Walker
Recruiter @ Naughty Dog
Web Site: www.naughtydog.com
Direct Line: 310-633-9275
Email: candace_walker@naughtydog.com
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