Animation Intern

Striking Distance Studios is looking for an Animation intern to learn work in our studio learning and working on projects from Motion Capture through animation blocks.  Located at our San Ramon office, this internship will last for 12 week onsite. We are looking for someone local to our office who has the required skills, who's passionate about games, and willing to learn from our team. This intern will be joining the Mocap and Animation teams for the duration of the internship.

Responsibilities:

• Animate characters and props in Maya. 
• Work with creative director, design and environment leads to pre-vis and develop initial ideas. This can range from story boards, live action video and 3d blocking.
• Create and tune gameplay mechanics, combat and locomotion sets: in collaboration with design and engineering
• Assist with mocap shoots from directing, performing and building sets; to name a few.
• Hand-key or work with mocap to create dynamic grounded animations
• Implement or learn to implement animations in Unreal engine by working with designers and engineers.
• Identify and communicate any issues that will improve our product.
• Be a respectful teammate

Qualifications:

• Strong knowledge of the 12 principles of animation such as staging, timing, ease in, ease out and anticipation
• Proficiency in the use of Maya
• Passion for playing games
• Ability to collaborate and iterate
• Willingness to learn and try new things

Education and Experience Requirements:

• Experience in Maya
• Experience in Unreal Engine
• 1+ year of animating for video games (including but not limited to game jams, personal projects, school projects)
• Understanding of the MoCap-Animation workflow
• Real Time experience 
• Basic understanding of MoCap

Preferences:

• You are a performer (dance, karate, gymnast, etc)
• Local to the San Ramon area (Neither relocation or housing will be available for this internship.)
• Will be looking for full time work in 2025 or early 2026