Wonder Dynamics – Facial Animator – Freelance – Hollywood, CA
Job Description
Job title: Facial Animator – Freelance
Company: Wonder Dynamics
Job description: About the Company
Focused on the future of filmmaking, Wonder Dynamics is an LA-based start up founded by Actor/Producer, Tye Sheridan who’s starred in films like Ready Player One, X-Men: Apocalypse, Mud and VFX Supervisor/Filmmaker Nikola Todorovic. Their mission is to revolutionize the production and post-production process by leveraging state-of-the-art AI. They are striving to democratize the use of visual effects which will pave the way for the next generation of filmmakers. That mission attracted some of the most influential individuals in the film and tech industry that are now involved in their team.
Wonder Dynamics is backed by Epic Games, Samsung, Horizons Ventures (a Hong Kong VC firm with early investments in Skype, Siri, Facebook and more) and Founders Fund, a leading Silicon Valley VC that funded some giants like Space X, Facebook, Spotify, DeepMind, etc.)
Their Advisory Board consists of leaders in Hollywood and Silicon Valley:
- Joshua Baer, founder/CEO of Capital Factory;
- Terry Dougas, Producer and financier of Film and TV. Founder of Rhea Films,1821 Media
- Angjoo Kanazawa, assistant professor at UC Berkeley and Google research scientist;
- Joe Russo Director, screenwriter, and Producer (directed Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame)
- Robert Schwab – Private equity investor, President, and CEO of R&L Properties.
- Steven Spielberg – Film director, producer, and screenwriter
- Antonio Torralba – Professor and Head of AI and Decision making, EECS, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
- Gregory Trattner – President, Film Finances Inc. (World leader in completion guarantees and film services)
About the Role
As a Facial Motion Animator, you will focus on translating the subtleties of an actors’ performance onto our characters and creatures, ensuring that our digital performances are realistic, believable, and emotionally engaging. You will also work with state-of-the-art AI and a highly skilled team of Machine Learning Engineers to train and advance our facial performance technology.
What we are looking for
- The ability to analyze and understand the facial performance of an actor and transfer it onto a character
- Strong understanding of and experience with FACS and facial anatomy, as well as cutting edge approaches to facial technology
- Strong understanding of state-of-the-art approaches to rigging photorealistic faces for film or games
- Knowledge of Blender or Maya
- Experience working with MoCap data in facial animation production
- Experience working in a Linux environment is a plus
What you’ll do
- Utilize a variety of high-resolution scan-data to optimize facial performance
- Hand animate various performances on stylized characters
- Pioneer and recommend new tools, techniques and technology for pushing visual boundaries
- Collaborate with Character Art, Animation, and Engineering teams to deliver the highest quality assets with animator/mocap friendly interfaces that run smoothly in engine.
Why should you consider joining us?
At the intersection of film and technology, this job will offer a very unique experience, and you will be exposed to a diverse set of fields spanning from film production and visual effects to AI, machine learning, and computer vision. Because we are operating in the state-of-the-art territory, there will always be something new to learn on the horizon. We highly value our tight-knit team and the support of our co-workers and we strive to create the best possible environment to work in.
Wonder Dynamics is committed to a culture of flexibility, diversity, and fun for all of our employees. We are working on some of the most challenging technical problems and we know the solutions will come from all of us working together in an inclusive, transparent and open manner.
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Expected salary:
Location: Hollywood, CA