首席动画师 - 上海研发办公室 Principal Animator/Animation Director

拳头公司成立于 2006 年，负责开发，发行，以及支持全球玩家凝聚力最紧密的游戏。2009 年，我们推出了自己的第一款游戏 《英雄联盟》，赢得了全世界的广泛赞誉，此后这款游戏成为世界上玩得最多的PC游戏，并成为电竞爆炸性增长的关键驱动力。

随着《英雄联盟》步入第二个十年，我们也会继续向前迈进，通过云顶之弈、Legends of Runeterra、VALORANT、League of Legends: Wild Rift以及多款制作中的作品，为玩家提供全新的游戏体验，同时借助横跨音乐、漫画书、电视和即将推出的动画剧集Arcane等多媒体项目探索符文之地的世界。

拳头现在已经转变为一个多游戏工作室，我们正在拓展在亚洲乃至国际上的足迹来提供超出全球玩家预期的服务。在为全球观众提供视觉震撼体验的同时，我们也在打造新的游戏，这给艺术家们带来了令人兴奋的亟待解决的复杂问题。在这里，艺术家们不仅相互合作，还与游戏设计师、文案、音频设计师和工程师并肩工作，以确保拳头的每件内容都能达到玩家希望的质量水平。从动画到插图，从电影到漫画，从角色到环境，我们作为一个团队，把玩家体验放在第一位。

 

作为一个研发项目的首席动画师(Principal Animator)，您将对游戏动画的各方面负责，帮助团队开发早期游戏原型，从而定义我们游戏的核心论证，建立组织对我们研发项目的信心，并促进整个研发周期的高效进展和全球发行。

您将以实操和管理并行的方式设定和定义技术标准，同时指导动画团队实现符合项目创意愿景和所需玩家体验的质量。与创意和美术领导层密切合作，您对质量和吸引力的挑剔眼光将有助于加强我们的影视化叙事，同时确保高质量、令人满意的战斗动画，符合我们游戏策划的游戏玩法目标。您过去作为电影动画师和战斗动画师的经验，将有助您利用您对经典动画原理和身体力学的专家级技能，将英雄联盟英雄的游戏玩法和主题转化为全新的令人兴奋的游戏体验。

 

我们正在寻找一位经验丰富的首席动画师，来推动我们对影视化游戏体验的愿景，并通过丰富的视觉叙事动画序列来支持我们项目的游戏玩法和叙事目标。您将帮助指导核心影视化体验，与领导层沟通和协调该愿景，同时跨团队、跨专业地将该愿景落实执行。您精彩的视频精选集将展示多样化的电影动画，对电影制片和创意叙事进行强有力的展示，同时能展示对动作游戏战斗动画的丰富经验，展示对动画基础知识和动画基本原理的专家级理解。您的专家级技术将通过全新方式把我们心爱的英雄和世界观呈现给我们的新老玩家，使之激动和振奋。作为团队的资深成员，您将帮助指导团队其他成员继续提高工作室的质量标准，提出开发挑战和项目需求，以帮助我们考虑未来的人员配置以及外包和承包商解决方案。

 

职责描述：

• 与创意总监、美术负责人和其他动画师密切合作，根据产品领导设定的时间表和目标，定义我们游戏的动画风格，以支持项目的创意方向和游戏玩法
• 为游戏中的战斗动画序列和叙事体验设定清晰的动画愿景以及质量目标，以实操和管理并行的方式，并根据需要提供反馈和注释
• 通过影视化摄影作品探索和定义动画动作序列
• 为高度迭代的游戏原型创建动画资产，持续交付动画资产以满足项目不断变化的需求
• 制定和完善风格和流程指南，以确保内容开发阶段游戏内的顺利执行和高效的外包工作

• 生成传达游戏机制的原型的VFX，同时与视觉特效同事合作定义最终的完善动画序列
• 了解英雄联盟角色并寻找强化英雄表现的机会
• 在不影响美术完整性的前提下满足项目时间节点，为团队成员制定明确的绩效标准，并为外包商和承包商制定绩效和质量目标
• 指导和培训团队中更多的初级美术同学，持续提供、接收明确的反馈，并指导后续步骤，以实现明确的创意目标和成果，使动画团队以及整个美术团队充分理解
• 不断倡导动画作为增强玩家体验的一种方式，始终寻求新的创新方法来推动打破常规的可能性
• 帮助我们考虑外包和承包商解决方案，并探索新技术和生产技术，以帮助我们根据不断发展的行业标准保持效率优势

 

资质要求：

• 8年以上动画专业工作经验
• 8年以上Maya工作经验
• 对虚幻及其动画管线和工作流程的专业理解
• 多款已发行的移动和（或）3A游戏的项目经历
• 3A游戏或动画中近战战斗动画的有力示例
• 较强的游戏设计意识和与战斗策划合作的丰富经验
• 对风格化、关键帧动画、动捕，和生成高质量动画的新的前沿方法有专家级理解
• 对角色绑定和不同绑定系统的专家级理解
• 对面部绑定系统、blend shapes，以及如何将它们组合起来以创作和谐的面部表情动画具有专业水平理解，这些动画具有资产特性和工作流程效率性
• 具有制作实时电影(real-time cinematics)的专业经验，对电影摄影/摄像机工作有敏锐的理解
• 强大的视觉预览(pre-vis)和叙事动画技能，包括简单的分镜技能
• 对如何设置视觉预览(pre-vis)动画序列有专家级理解，同时与3D美术、动画师和VFX同事合作进行高效的管线执行

提交申请时，请提供简历和高质量动画、影视序列的作品集（a portfolio and/or demo reel of high-quality animations and cinematic sequences）。作为申请过程的一部分，您可能还需要完成美术测试。

Riot Games was established in 2006 by entrepreneurial gamers who believe that player-focused game development can result in great games. We released League of Legends in 2009 which has since become the most played PC game in the world and a key driver of the explosive growth of Esports. With the release of Valorant, LoL: Wild Rift, Team-fight Tactics & Legends of Runeterra, Riot has now transformed into a multi-game studio, expanding our footprint in Asia and internationally in order to develop new games that can hyper-serve players globally.

 

As a Principal Animator on a Research & Development project, you will be responsible for all aspects of game animation helping the team to develop early game prototypes that define the promise of our game thesis, building organizational confidence in our project to facilitate efficient progress through the R&D development cycle through to global launch. You will set and define craft standards in a hands-on manner while coaching the animation team to achieve quality execution that fits the project’s creative vision and desired player experience. Working closely with Creative & Art leadership, your critical eye for quality and appeal will help strengthen our cinematic storytelling while ensuring high quality, satisfying combat animations that fit the gameplay goals of our game designers. Your past experience as a cinematic animator and combat animator will enable you to translate the gameplay and thematics of League of Legends Champions into a new exciting game experience by tapping into your expert-level grasp of classic animation principles and body mechanics.

 

We are seeking a highly experienced animation specialist to drive our vision for a cinematic gameplay experience with rich visual storytelling sequences that support the gameplay & narrative goals of our project. You will help direct the core cinematic experience, communicating and aligning that vision with leadership while leading execution across the team and across disciplines. A great reel will showcase a diverse selection of cinematic animations with strong demonstration of cinematography and creative storytelling as well as robust experience with combat animation for action games that demonstrates expert-level understanding of animation fundamentals and the basic principles of animation. Your expert level craft expertise will bring to life our beloved Champions and world setting in fresh ways that will thrill and delight players new and old. As a senior member of the team, you will help mentor your fellow team members to continue to raise the quality bar at the studio, as well as surfacing development challenges and project needs in order to help us consider future art staffing as well as outsource and contractor solutions.

 

Responsibilities:

• Collaborate closely with the Creative Director, Art Lead and other animators to define the animation style of our game in a way that supports the creative direction and gameplay pillars of the project based on timeline and goals set by product leadership.
• Set a clear animation vision as well as quality targets for combat sequences and narrative experiences in the game, leading with hands-on craft and providing feedback and notes as needed.
• Explore and define animated action sequences with cinematic camera work.
• Create animation assets for highly iterative gameplay prototypes, continuously delivering animation assets that fulfill the evolving requirements of the project.
• Develop and refine Style and Process Guides to ensure smooth in-game execution and efficient outsourcing during content development phases.
• Generate prototype VFX that communicates gameplay mechanics while also working with VFX artists to define final, polished sequences. 
• Understand League of Legends characters and recognize opportunities to enhance champion expression.
• Meet project deadlines in a timely manner without compromising artistic integrity, setting clear performance standards for teammates as well as performance and quality targets for outsourcers and contractors.
• Mentor and train more junior artists on the team, consistently providing and receiving clear feedback and directing next steps that allow for clear creative goals and outcomes that are well understood by the animation and greater art team.

• Constantly champion animation as a way to enhance the player’s experience, always seeking new, innovative ways to push for outside-the-box possibilities.
• Help us consider outsourcing and contractor solutions, as well as explore new technologies and production techniques that can help us maintain an edge of efficiency in line with evolving industry standards.

Required Qualifications

• 8+ years of professional experience working in animation
• 8+ years of professional experience working in Maya
• Expert understanding of Unreal and it’s animation pipelines and workflows
• Multiple shipped mobile and/or AAA game titles.
• Strong examples of melee combat animations in a shipped AAA game or animation.
• Strong sense of game design and deep experience working with combat designers 
• Expert level understanding of both stylized, key-framed animation as well as motion capture and new, cutting edge ways of generating high-quality animations.
• Expert level understanding of character rigging and different rigging systems.
• Professional level understanding of facial rigging systems, blend shapes and how to combine them to create resonant facial expression animations that are also asset and workflow efficient.

• Professional experience producing real-time cinematics with keen understanding of cinematography/camera work.
• Strong pre-vis and storytelling animation skills , including simple storyboarding skills.
• Expert understanding of how to set up pre-viz animation sequences while working with 3D artists, animators and VFX artists on efficient pipeline execution. 

 

When submitting your application, please provide a portfolio and/or demo reel of high-quality animations and cinematic sequences. As a part of the application process, you may also be asked to complete an art test.