Experienced Technical Animator - Full Time
(£30,000 – £42,000 per annum)
The Position
We define the importance of skillset as follows:
Engine: Work in engine to provide animation solutions, for example: runtime IK, dynamic joints, custom retargeting etc
Tools: To write both Engine and Maya based tools to solve/speed up productions.
Rigging: Creating bespoke game ready rigs, skinning, PSD, Blendshapes etc Familiarity with Advanced Skeleton a bonus. Ability to evaluate rigs/skeletons from existing productions and ingest into our workflow.
We are looking for someone with a broad base knowledge and an eagerness to learn new techniques and implement them. We often look to the pioneers of the industry and strive to bring the craft, tech and artistry they demonstrate into our daily practices. The ability to animate to a good standard would be great as we’ll have plenty of opportunity.
As a tech animator at Super Spline you will support animators across multiple projects on a day to day basis. We expect you to be able to troubleshoot and solve issues independently, as well as working closely with the team. You will also be expected to write tools/processes based on the tech roadmap. You should be comfortable implementing animations in game, including setting up animation graphs to hand over to programmers. The desired candidate may be an animator who has a technical savvy skill-set.
The right candidate has the opportunity to establish themselves in our small studio and help build our pipelines, streamline workflows and be intrinsic to the growth that we aspire to.
Required skills
- Minimum 3 years in a similar role
- Knowledge of game development workflows, most importantly within rigging and animation
- Proficiency in Autodesk Maya and experience using its rigging / skinning tools
- A solid foundation and understanding of rigging at an experienced or advanced level
- Experience working with and/or creating animation tools and scripts (Python, MEL, Pymel)
- Able to create rigs for characters and props for various styles (realistic, cartoony) using knowledge of anatomy for humanoid and animals
- Experience rigging faces using joints, blendshapes, FACS etc.
- Working knowledge of creating assets for game engines including Unreal and Unity.
- A great sense of technical excellence, functionality, and problem-solving
- A strong portfolio and willingness to complete a test to show skill level
- Strong communication skills and ability to work in a team
Desired skills
- Understanding of multi-layered deformation systems, deformers, blendshapes etc and how they work in real time game middleware
- Experience of dynamics (cloth, muscles etc) and integrating them in games.
- Experience with C# / Unreal Blueprints / Unity Editor Scripts
- Experience with working with motion capture data in Maya
- Strong animation skills and keen eye for detail
A Portfolio is required demonstrating all aspects of your skills, please include a link in your application. All further information is provided under non-disclosure agreement only. This is a full time position in our Leamington Spa studio.
Applicants must be eligible to work in the U.K.