Senior 2D Animator

Job description

Level Up Your Career with Zynga! At Zynga, we bring people together through the power of play. As a global leader in interactive entertainment and a proud label of Take-Two Interactive, our games have been downloaded over 6 billion times—connecting players in 175+ countries through fun, strategy, and a little friendly competition. From thrilling casino spins to epic strategy battles, mind-bending puzzles, and social word challenges, our diverse game portfolio has something for everyone. Fan-favorites and latest hits include FarmVille™, Words With Friends™, Zynga Poker™, Game of Thrones Slots Casino™, Wizard of Oz Slots™, Hit it Rich! Slots™, Wonka Slots™, Top Eleven™, Toon Blast™, Empires & Puzzles™, Merge Dragons!™, CSR Racing™, Harry Potter: Puzzles & Spells™, Match Factory™, and Color Block Jam™—plus many more! Founded in 2007 and headquartered in California, our teams span North America, Europe, and Asia, working together to craft unforgettable gaming experiences. Whether you're spinning, strategizing, matching, or competing, Zynga is where fun meets innovation—and where you can take your career to the next level. Join us and be part of the play! Zynga is seeking a skilled Senior Animator to join a dynamic team for one of Zynga’s most established games. We are looking for driven individuals who want to contribute to the growth and development of our product in a highly-collaborative environment. The ideal candidate must be able to work with talented contributors from different disciplines and bring a unique perspective to the table. Applicants must have a strong understanding of animation principles and be able to use a range of techniques to drive high quality visuals with a limited toolset, with a strong focus on 2D and sprite-based animation . You will confidently and respectfully challenge the status quo in order to improve things. Assertive when needed, you voice concerns, generate ideas for improvements, and stay on the cutting edge of animation technology and technique. Confident in your decision making, you nevertheless think carefully before you speak and act. What you will do: Produce high quality 2D and sprite-based animation using animation principles for characters, environments, UI, VFX. Encouraging and generating creative ideas and solutions with the team. Demonstrate excellent time management, to deliver animation to required quality, specification and time. Proficient level of communication and emotional intelligence for cross discipline collaboration and problem solving. Demonstrate strong understanding of how animation supports gameplay and narrative with the ability to communicate these links to the team. Demonstrate proficiency in 2D animation workflows and sprite-based animation techniques . Experience working with Spine is a plus, with knowledge of skeletal and mesh-based 2D animation workflows being highly desirable. Assist in the preparation of assets for animation using Photoshop. Prioritizing optimization when integrating animations within a game team’s game engine. What you bring: 6-11 years of game development experience. Senior level 2D animation skills, with a strong focus on sprite-based animation. Senior level communication and problem solving skills. The ability to provide and receive feedback. Software experience in Spine, Photoshop, Unity/Cocos2D Technical experience preparing and working with 2D animation assets, sprites, rigs, and animation-ready assets. Knowledge of game development on multiple projects, enabling pragmatic, strategic judgements and providing creative ideas and solutions to the team. Proven experience delivering animations on ambitious timelines. Experience working on business level tasks, e.g. cross discipline pipeline development. Experience working with game animation pipelines and optimization, including preparing and integrating animation assets for runtime. Excellent showreel demonstrating strong 2D and sprite animation skills. <