Are you a skilled animator with a passion for pushing the boundaries of what's possible in gaming? Do you have a strong understanding of technical animation, including traditional animation principles and techniques as well as experience with new technologies and tools, and the ability to bring characters to life in Unreal Engine? Do you have a strong understanding of rigging and skinning, and are comfortable troubleshooting and debugging technical issues? If so, you could be perfect for our client's team as a Technical Animator!

The Company:

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Our client is a phenomenally successful international company that distributes its own internally developed AA+/AAA multi-platform video games in RPG and FPS genre across the world. Their catalogue features widely praised series that have collectively sold over 7 million copies throughout the world. The studio is currently developing several major cross-platform video games.

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Key Responsibilities:

• Creating high-fidelity animation Rigs.
• Involvement in researching the latest technical breakthroughs related to animations and motions within Unreal Engine.
• Prototyping animation systems.
• Helping to define and establish agreed technical constraints together with the Technical Lead for internal and outsourcing teams.
• Working closely with the Animation Lead to facilitate the creation of pipelines for animation. Supervise internal and external animation deliveries to meet technical requirements for animation.
• Working closely with internal and external teams to secure deliverables of properly rigged characters and associated technical animation requirements.
• Performing rig fixes and troubleshooting during production and overseeing the skinning of a wide variety of characters.
• Providing ongoing informal and structured technical feedback to colleagues to maintain high standards of quality. Helping to ensure that art and animation quality remains uncompromised by limitations of technical processes.
• Contributing to the estimation, planning and prioritization of tasks.

Knowledge, Skills, and Experience

• Love for first-person shooters
• Ability to script in Maya and Motion builder
• Ability to create and define tools for art and animation pipelines
• Working knowledge of industry-standard project management tools and source control software
• Maya knowledge and experience (rigging, HIK, managing refs, creating tools etc.)
• Motion Builder knowledge and experience (Characterising, Solving, Retargeting,  import\export etc.)
• Good all round UE Knowledge and Experience
• Good fundamental knowledge and capability of UE Animation systems, including Blueprints\State Machines, ControlRig, etc.
• An understanding of Motion Matching and its implementation
• Experience with building procedural character systems, eg, Ground alignment/ Foot IK, Aim controllers etc. utilizing UE ControlRig.
• Experience with MetaHumans, skeleton\rigs (Body and face)
• Facial animation systems (Knowledge and experience of methods for MetaHuman facial animation, FaceCap\Lip-Syncing; Live-Link\ARKit, Nvidia Audio2Face, etc.)
• Strong verbal and written communication skills, with the ability to effectively convey ideas and information
• A desire to constantly learn and  grow

‍What Our Client Offers:

• Attractive remuneration, holidays  and social events. Our client’s environment thrive with collaborative teamwork with people from all around the world, different nationalities, and languages.
• A supportive community inclusive  of LGBTQ+, and any age, ethnicity, religion, or disability. They care about the well-being of employees and have a dedicated employee well-being programme.
• Flexibility with core hours, and  no-notice holidays.
• Annual discretionary studio bonus
• Free games and merchandise
• Wrap parties for game releases
• Remote/Homeworking with flexible working schedules, a fun environment, and a relaxing culture, including the opportunity to work with the leading technology and creative minds in the world.
• Learn as you work and be part of something real that changes the face of gaming - forever.

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