Job Details
Storyboard/Animatic Artist and Editor
Summary
We’re looking for a gifted visual storyteller to help us visualize our designs, gameplay experiences, and technology solutions through animatics and storytelling.
Category
Animation
Editor
Location
San Francisco Bay Area
Time Period
Full Time
Posted Date
Jun 16, 2021
Start Date
N/A
End Date
N/A
Job Description
Maxis creates life simulations that tell stories through characters in every-day or extravagant situations. As such, we need someone who can help us explore body language, visualize relationship dynamics and play with timing and spacing between characters.
We’re interested to know:
We’re interested to know:
- How do a couple watch a romantic movie together when one is upset with the other?
- How does a husband engage in a conversation with his wife, while he almost breaks a new record on his favorite video game?
- How does a family cook together in the same kitchen while carrying out a conversation?
Our ideal candidate is an amazing communicator, someone who is thrilled to contribute visually in a collaborative environment with a wide variety of disciplines, who loves telling stories about every-day life.
You will report to a Studio Development Director.
Responsibilities:
You will report to a Studio Development Director.
Responsibilities:
- Creatively tackle challenges in story and explore ways in which to bring characters to life, visualize game dynamics and deliver on story expectations.
- Brainstorm and create storyboard panels against a specified vision or problem space.
- Produce illustrations and sketches that evoke the project's style and aesthetic.
- Apply emotion and humor to characters.
- Apply dynamic action and exaggerated gestures.
- Work within staging and composition of the scene.
- Emulate character designs, from our character team, within boards.
- Bring life to each character and emphasize on their personas.
- Translates storyboards into Animatic sequences that highlight and bring the characters to life.
- Edit and iterate on the timing Animatic sequences to maximize emotional impact and convey appropriate audience response.
- Partner with peers from various disciplines to understand challenges and suggest improvements.
- Collaborate closely with creative supervisors on deliverable objectives within the limitations of the story/script.
- Communicate work progress, identify blockers and dependencies, and update supervisors on changes in schedule.
- Independently manage time of deliverables and provide estimates on tasks.
Qualifications:
- Excellent foundation in art production, and highly skilled in developing drawings and sketches that demonstrate:
Characters that portray emotion, humor, and appeal.
Clear storytelling with action, mechanics, and interaction.
Strong sense of camera, staging, perspective, and composition skills.
Strong sense of anatomy, dynamic motion posing and exaggerated gestures.
Clear storytelling with action, mechanics, and interaction.
Strong sense of camera, staging, perspective, and composition skills.
Strong sense of anatomy, dynamic motion posing and exaggerated gestures.
- A high level of experience with digital editing software
- Experience in hands-on timing and editing of focused animatics to create lively and dynamic story sequences that inspire gameplay implementation. For example:
A conversation between multiple characters
A dinner sequence involving an extended family
A lively sidewalk scene outside a store
A dinner sequence involving an extended family
A lively sidewalk scene outside a store
- Ability to work in a collaborative, multidisciplinary environment.
- This role requires an ability to speak to engineers, producers, designers, and other artists through animatics and storyboards.
- 5+ years of professional experience on either Feature Films, Television Series, Advertising, Comics, Games (as a Story Artist), or Cinematics.
- Bachelor’s degree or equivalent experience is a plus.
- Excellent organizational skills and demonstrable ability to accurately estimate work, communicate changes, and work within a deadline structure.
- Ability to thrive in a remote working environment.
Submissions:
Demo-reel or video of Storyboard Animatics (accompanied with voice / sound is a plus)
Portfolio containing Images of Storyboard sequences
Advanced knowledge of software:
Photoshop
Toon Boom Storyboard Pro / Adobe Premiere (Comparable tool)
Demo-reel or video of Storyboard Animatics (accompanied with voice / sound is a plus)
Portfolio containing Images of Storyboard sequences
Advanced knowledge of software:
Photoshop
Toon Boom Storyboard Pro / Adobe Premiere (Comparable tool)
Job Type
Full Time
Temporary
Weekly Limit
N/A
Shift
Day
Attached Files
N/A