Lead Artist, Facial Animation

Job Description

Lead Artist, Facial Animation (Cinematics)

For the past 25 years Monolith Productions has been obsessed with delivering a unique gaming experience for our fans. Starting with Blood, our very first title – all the way to our most recent offering, Middle-earth: Shadow of War, we are constantly pushing the envelope to combine innovative gameplay, inventive narratives, cutting edge tech & AI, and stunning visuals. We are challenging ourselves even further to ensure that our next project is going to be our best yet. That's where you come in – for us to achieve that, we need the best and brightest talent the industry has to offer. Help us create our next AAA title.

Your New Role...

Join the Wonder Woman team and help bring an iconic DC Super Hero to life!

Monolith Productions, the award-winning AAA studio who brought you F.E.A.R. and Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor, seeks a Lead Artist for the Face team who has a passion for creating emotional and nuanced facial animation performances and who loves to get into the technical details of how to get there. Along with creating exceptional facial animation content, candidate will work with the team on establishing, maintaining and continually improving the quality of facial animations for systemic in game presentations and real-time cinematics. This role is intended as a Hybrid role, so please be able to work on-site in the Kirkland studio at least a couple times per week.

Your Role Accountabilities...

The Face Animation Art Lead will oversee the day-to-day operations of the Face Pipeline while working closely with Directors, Art Leadership and other key stakeholders in the continued development and improvements of the facial animation pipeline to ensure that the team has a scalable and efficient toolset. This role is responsible for researching, recommending, and developing new technologies to push the quality bar of facial animation content forward. Candidate will have a deep understanding of facial performance, animation principles, face pipelines and associated art tools. The Lead will help build the face team, give feedback, and work with production to coordinate schedules and manage direct reports.

Qualifications & Experience...
• 8+ years working as an animator in the entertainment industry with a focus on facial animation.
• Strong understanding of facial anatomy.
• Experience working in modern facial animation pipelines.
• Deep understanding of FACS based animation analysis and implementation (e.g. Faceware).
• Experience working in industry standard 3D software packages (e.g. Maya) and creating blendshape based facial systems and animations.
• Deep knowledge of facial topology, anatomy and rigging solutions to best support both automated and individually authored performances.
• Ability to direct and focus on the ''details that matter'' in emotional performances.
• Portfolio/website/reel demonstrating fundamental foundational art skills, design sensibilities, and attention to detail.
• 2 shipped AAA titles.
• Experience in a Lead or equivalent position preferred
• Understanding of facial likeness capture and scan processes including light stage, photogrammetry, HMC and hybrid approaches preferred
• Experience in motion and performance capture facial animation pipelines preferred
• Experience using audio analysis software for facial animation generation preferred

How We Get Things Done…

This last bit is probably the most important! Here at WBD, our guiding principles are the core values by which we operate and are central to how we get things done. You can find them at www.wbd.com/guiding-principles/ along with some insights from the team on what they mean and how they show up in their day to day. We hope they resonate with you and look forward to discussing them during your interview.

The Legal Bits…
In compliance with local law, we are disclosing the compensation, or a range thereof, for roles in locations where legally required. $95,550.00 - $177,450.00 salary per year. Other rewards may include annual bonuses, short- and long-term incentives, and program-specific awards. In addition, Warner Bros. Discovery provides a variety of benefits to employees, including health insurance coverage, an employee wellness program, life and disability insurance, a retirement savings plan, paid holidays and paid time off (PTO).

Warner Bros. Discovery embraces the opportunity to build a workforce that reflects the diversity of our society and the world around us. Being an equal opportunity employer means that we take seriously our responsibility to consider qualified candidates on the basis of merit, without regard to race, color, religion, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, age, mental or physical disability, and genetic information, marital status, citizenship status, military status, protected veteran status or any other category protected by law.

If you're a qualified candidate with a disability and you need a reasonable accommodation in order to apply for this position, please contact us at recruitadmin@wbd.com.

Jobcode: Reference SBJ-d287nm-3-133-147-87-42 in your application.