Animation Art Intern

About the Role

As an Animation Artist Intern at Riot, you will bring champions and characters to life through classic animation principles and body mechanics. You will create high quality animations for a diverse and rapidly growing universe, including bipeds, quadrupeds, and creatures.

Key Responsibilities

• Create high quality animations for a diverse and expanding universe, including bipeds, quadrupeds, and monsters.
• Help develop new features and technologies to expand the content pipeline.
• Collaborate with designers and artists to create animation assets that fulfill the requirements of the project’s game and visual design.
• Recognize areas of opportunity and help other animators level up to AAA-title-standards.
• Consistently meet project deadlines in a timely manner without compromising artistic integrity.
• Balance craft and product feedback with a strong empathy and focus on player value.
• Consistently communicate by proactively collaborating, directing next steps, and providing clear goals and outcomes to your team.

Requirements & Tech Stack

• Currently enrolled in a college, university or non-degree program.
• Available to work full-time hours for 10-12 weeks at our Los Angeles Headquarters.
• Authorized to work in the U.S.
• Experience with action and combat based animations showcasing locomotion cycles for characters and creatures of diverse shape and size (bipeds, quadrupeds, etc.).
• Experience with Maya.
• Experience with Unreal Engine and Animation Blueprints (Desired).
• Gaming specific animations through professional or personal work (Desired).

Qualifications

• A great reel will showcase a variety of body types, a diverse selection of action-oriented game-related animation, and a strong foundation in the principles of animation, including weight, anticipation, and impact.
• You will find success through craft expertise, a collaborative spirit, and decision-making that prioritizes the delight of players.
• We look for dedicated people with a personal relationship with games.
• Embody player empathy and care about the experiences of players.

Product Preferences

In your application, you will select which product you prefer to apply for:

• Teamfight Tactics: Animate a large variety of things, ranging from champions (old and new), creatures, and even props! Animations must synthesize animation principles and the needs of strict gameplay requirements. Hand-keying/editing animations in Maya, learning about League’s proprietary game engine, and implementing assets within the Unreal Game Engine.
• League of Legends: Focus on champion animation. Collaborate with animators on character lore, their motivations, and incorporate their core identity with project requirements to create impactful character performances. Animations will be hand keyed in Maya using classic animation principles. Responsible for implementation within our proprietary game engine.

Internship Support

• Throughout the internship, you will have an onboarding partner and a team supporting you through our set development.
• On the League of Legends team, you will have an onboarding partner and a mentor to guide you through our development process.

Portfolio Advice

• Limit application submission to 1 role; you will automatically be considered for similar roles based on your portfolio.
• Online format is preferred (Artstation, personal websites, etc.).
• If you have private work under NDA, please include the password in your application. Otherwise, do not password protect your portfolio.
• Test that your portfolio or reel is accessible. Include access on your resume in addition to the application form.
• Ensure your portfolio showcases your best work.
• Fan art is acceptable as it shows versatility related to our art style.

Perks

• Paid internship.
• Eligibility to participate in our 401(k) plan.
• In-game perks.
• Ability to participate in our Play Fund.
• Intern-focused events to connect with fellow interns and Rioters.

Important Dates

Applications close Monday, January 4th, 2025 at 11:59pm PT.