Senior Gameplay Animator

Employer: 2K Sports Lab

Position: Senior Gameplay Animator

Terms of Employment: Full-time / Permanent

Location: Vancouver, BC

Employment Address: 2025 Willingdon Avenue, Burnaby, BC. 12th Floor, V5C 0J3

Hours of Work: 40 hours/week

Language: English

Benefits: Eligible for discretionary bonuses and/or salary increases in accordance with company policy. Eligible for health insurance, dental insurance and vision insurance. RRSP and ESPP also available to those who are eligible.  

Salary: $ 110,000 CAD / year

Contact: Please send resumes to [email protected] and include “Senior Gameplay Animator” in the email subject line.

Who We Are:

2K Games is headquartered in Novato, California and is a wholly owned label of Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. (NASDAQ:TTWO). Founded in 2005, 2K Games is a global video game company, publishing titles developed by some of the most influential game development studios in the world. Our studios are responsible for developing 2K’s portfolio of world-class games across multiple platforms, including Visual Concepts, Firaxis, Hangar 13, CatDaddy, Cloud Chamber, 31st Union, and HB Studios. Our portfolio of titles is expanding due to our global strategic plan, building and acquiring exciting studios whose content continues to inspire all of us! 2K publishes titles in today’s most popular gaming genres, including sports, shooters, action, role-playing, strategy, casual, and family entertainment.

Located in Vancouver, BC, 2K Sports Lab is a small collective being formed within 2K Games that is driving the research and development of future sports interactive entertainment programs. Within this group, speculative work will be done on future sports games with an eye towards taking the magic of 2K’s publishing and development expertise and applying them to future opportunities.

Our team of engineers, marketers, artists, writers, data scientists, producers, thinkers and doers, are the professional publishing stewards of our growing library of critically-acclaimed franchises such as NBA 2K, 2K PGA, Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands, Lego Drive, BioShock, Borderlands, The Quarry, Mafia, Sid Meier’s Civilization, Marvel’s Midnight Suns, WWE 2K, and XCOM.

At 2K, we pride ourselves on creating an inclusive work environment, which means encouraging our teams to Come as You Are and do your best work! We encourage ALL applicants to explore our global positions, even If they don’t meet every requirement for the role. If you’re interested in the job and think you have what it takes to work at 2K, we encourage you to apply!

What We Need:

Our studio is looking for an experienced Gameplay Animator who has a high quality bar and a passion for replicating authentic sports behaviors. In this role, you will work closely with AI and Animation Engineers, Designers and Producers to implement authentic sports behaviors to build highly polished world – class gameplay for what will be the next massive sports franchise in our industry!

Duties: 

• Determine the medium best-suited to produce the desired visual effect and the most appropriate vehicle for communication
• Occasionally contribute elements such prototype assets, sketches, layouts and other elements for game/cinematic previsualization 
• Provide task estimations with regard to animation work. 
• Collaborate as a professional in a multidisciplinary game development environment
• Participate in review/feedback process both in source animation and gameplay contexts. 
• Edit, enhance and clean up motion Capture Data in accordance with Gameplay and engine and design requirements 
• Collaborate with Design Leads to define the animation needs and create the design for animation based features
• Be responsible for mocap shot lists and mocap reference in order to deliver the strongest feature possible
• Collaborate with Engineers and Designers to influence the technical implementation of features in order to build the strongest feature possible
• Collaborate with the Animation Director to understand, and deliver on, the quality bar for the animations that you create
• Collaborate with the Design Lead and Engineering team to implement your features in engine
• Champion animation quality and authenticity within your features, bringing the animation perspective to all decision making

Requirements: 

•  A university degree in visual arts with specialization in graphic design, commercial art, graphic communications or cartooning or completion of a college diploma program in graphic arts is required.
• 5+ years experience in animation or multimedia design
• Creative ability and artistic talent, as demonstrated by a portfolio of work, are required for graphic designers and illustrators
• Experience working with ‘second-to-second’ interactive animation features
• Player experience focused
• Open minded, proactive and collaborative
• Experience with Unreal Engine
• Passionate about playing and/or watching sports
• Passion for video games (not just ours!)
• Subject matter expert in human movement pertaining to professional sport

As an equal opportunity employer, we are committed to ensuring that qualified individuals with disabilities are provided reasonable accommodation to participate in the job application or interview process, to perform their essential job functions, and to receive other benefits and privileges of employment. Please contact us if you need reasonable accommodation.

Please note that 2K Games and its studios never uses instant messaging apps or personal email accounts to contact prospective employees or conduct interviews, and when emailing, we only use 2K.com accounts.