Character Animator

Hogarth is the Global Content Experience Company. Part of WPP, Hogarth partners with one in every two of the world's top 100 brands including Coca-Cola, Ford, Rolex, Nestlé, Mondelez and Dyson. With a breadth of experience across an extensive range of sectors, Hogarth offers the unrivaled ability to deliver relevant, engaging, and measurable content across all channels and media - both established and emerging.

The number of channels at our fingertips; the need for speed; and the drive for mass personalisation, all mean that brands need different solutions.

Our global team of over 6,000 craft and technology experts brings together creative, production and innovation to help clients navigate this exciting and ever-changing world of today's content experience.

**A Hybrid working model**

Now offices are fully open we have embraced a hybrid working model, which allows our employees to split their time between the office and other locations, something we hope will provide everyone much more flexibility to their working week. The expectation is that working life at Hogarth will involve working from the office for 60% of the time for most people. Please speak to the Talent Acquisition team to find out more information.

**Department Summary**

Gramercy Park Studios is an integrated facility born to bring ideas to life in an adaptable and creative environment. Our award winning talent in VFX, Colour Grading, Editing, Sound Design and Production sit under one roof to provide end to end services for the advertising and creative industries.

We collaborate with our clients to craft campaigns across multiple platforms and disciplines, adopting an innovative and agile approach to creative and post-production processes.

**What does a Character Animator do at Hogarth?**

We are looking for an experienced, middle-weight, character and creature animator to support our VFX team, with a good working knowledge across a small-scale Maya animation pipeline. Excellent character animation skills are essential. This must include the ability to add nuance, personality and where needed, comedy through movements, gestures, and facial expressions. In addition, a keen eye for how characters interact (and react) with their environment and each other is also essential. The workflow will include the use of Advanced Skeleton rigs (or similar) with some mocap facial/lip-sync on top.

**Responsibilities**
- Working with the Senior Maya Project Manager
- Interpreting the client animation brief
- Adapting the brief to existing personalities of the creatures
- Animating pre-rigged characters & props (Short form)
- Lip-syncing to voice-overs
- Creating interactions between characters
- Breathing life and personality into the creatures
- Adding comedy moments where applicable
- Looking for opportunities to optimize the work-flow

**Reporting lines and key stakeholders**

This role reports to the Head of CGI and Motion at Gramercy Park Studios.

**Essential Software Knowledge**:

- Maya

**Essential Skills**:

- Character Animation
- Excellent Timing
- Natural Movement
- Poise

**Desired Skills**:

- Mocap/Lip-sync onto characters (MocapX)
- Advanced Skeleton (or equivalent)
- Character Rigging basics
- General, non-character animation
- Knowledge of USD Pipeline would be an advantage.
- Shotgrid/Flow

**Requirements**:

- Experience working directly with clients
- Great eye for detail
- Ability to add personality and life to characters
- Experience animating pre-rigged characters & props

**Hogarth Values**

**Heart and Soul**:We love what we do. We bring energy and enthusiasm to all our work. We push boundaries, we are never satisfied and always want to find a better way.

**Hands on**:We don't wait for things to happen, we get on with it. We are pragmatic and don't have an ego. We do what it takes to get the job done to the highest standards.

**Honest**:We are straightforward; we speak openly and clearly. We operate with integrity and live up to our promises.

**Happy family**:We enjoy working together. We look out for our colleagues. We are an eclectic bunch. We want to work with people from many cultures and demand great things of each other. Even when things get tough, we don't lose perspective or our sense of humour.

**Hungry**:We are an inquisitive community. We want to create an environment which inspires ourselves and others to be better. It is important to continuously challenge ourselves and our ways of working. We aim to provide staff with the opportunities to develop and learn.

**The Package**
- 25 days holiday
- Private Medical Care (Bupa)
- Life Assurance - four times annual salary
- Pension Scheme
- An extra day leave on your Birthday
- Employee Assistance Programme
- WPP Group Discounts
- Travel Season Ticket Loan
- Gym Discounts
- Mortgage Advice - In partnership with Charles Cameron and Associate
- 1 Volunteering day per year

LI-JS1 #LI-Hybrid #GPS

**Diversity & Inclusion**

Hogarth is an equal-opportunity employer. T