Senior Creature Animator New IP
RESPONSIBILITIES
We are seeking a Senior Creature Animator to join our team. The job will require creating high-quality creature animations that bring believable movement, combat, and behavior to life for cutting-edge games targeting the latest generation platform hardware with a proprietary multiplatform engine.
- Create high-quality gameplay and cinematic animations for creatures, monsters, animals, and other non-humanoid characters.
- Work directly with Designers, Technical Animators, Character Artists, and Programmers to deliver believable creature movement and behaviors.
- Develop locomotion, combat, idle, traversal, and special ability animation sets.
- Collaborate with Design to ensure creature animations support gameplay responsiveness and readability.
- Refine and polish animations based on gameplay feedback and playtesting.
- Help establish and maintain creature animation quality standards and workflows.
- Troubleshoot animation-related issues and collaborate with cross-functional teams to resolve them efficiently.
- Mentor junior animators and provide constructive feedback.
- Document animation workflows and share knowledge with the wider animation team.
REQUIREMENTS
- Expert-level proficiency in Maya or equivalent 3D animation software.
- Exceptional understanding of animal anatomy, body mechanics, weight, timing, and believable creature movement.
- Proven experience creating high-quality keyframe animations for creatures and non-humanoid characters.
- Experience working with game engines such as Unreal Engine, Unity, or similar.
- Solid understanding of animation state machines, blend spaces, and gameplay animation pipelines.
- 5+ years of experience as a Creature or Character Animator in AAA game development.
- Ability to create unique movement styles for a wide variety of creatures.
- Good communicator with strong verbal and written English skills.
- Excellent problem-solving and time management skills.
- Self-direction and motivation.
- Proactive attitude.
- Desire to continuously improve animation quality and production workflows.
- Ability to work under strict schedules and time pressure.
Preferences
- Experience with motion capture cleanup and integration.
- Experience animating quadrupeds, flying creatures, reptiles, and fantasy creatures.
- Understanding of procedural animation, IK systems, and animation layering.
- Experience working closely with Technical Animators on advanced locomotion systems.
- One shipped AAA title on consoles.
- Experience working with Unreal Engine Animation Blueprints or similar animation systems.
