Senior Technical Animator

Pixel Toys; Royal Leamington Spa; On-site; GBP 55,000 - 75,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Competitive salary

25 days annual leave

Discretionary Bonus Scheme

Private Medical Insurance

Company Pension scheme

Death in Service benefit

Staff training and development

Wellness days

Flexi-time working hours

Job summary

Pixel Toys is looking for a Senior Technical Animator to join our Leamington Spa studio. You will be the architectural backbone of the animation department, leading the development of features, tools and pipelines to empower our animators with efficient workflows.

You will specify and write custom tools, establish rigging and skinning best practices, and own the integration of animations into the game engine.

Qualifications

• Strong rigging and animation pipeline knowledge with a focus on character workflows.
• Proficiency in Maya and MotionBuilder for rigging and animation authoring.
• Experience creating tools and pipelines with Python, MEL and Qt.
• Comfort with C# and Unity Editor scripting to enhance engine workflows.
• Experience with Motion Capture processes and source control.

Responsibilities

• Lead development of new animation features, tools, and pipelines.
• Specify, write, and maintain custom tools for the animation team.
• Establish studio-wide best practices for skinning and rigging.
• Own implementation of animations into the game engine and optimise rigs for performance.
• Collaborate with art and engineering to raise quality across titles.

Skills

Rigging

Animation pipelines

Python

MEL

Qt

C#

Unity Editor scripting

Maya

MotionBuilder

Perforce

Tools

Maya

MotionBuilder

Unity Engine

Perforce

Job description

Based in the heart of Leamington Spa, Pixel Toys have spent over a decade pushing the capabilities of mobile gaming. We have developed multiple award-winning titles, including: Warhammer 40,000: Freeblade, Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Realm War; and we're now excited to be exclusively working on a new game, unlike ANYTHING we've done previously!

As a forward thinking and innovative studio we are always looking for new technologies and techniques to develop and use in our games and make them even more engaging experiences for our customers.

We are excited to continue to grow our team and are always on the lookout for highly talented and motivated individuals, who are passionate about gaming and excited to join us on our ambitious journey!

The Role:

Join Pixel Toys as a Senior Technical Animator and become the architectural backbone of the animation department, working closely with our creative team to solve complex problems and streamline daily workflows.

Here you will take a proactive lead in developing new features, processes, and pipelines, ensuring that our animators have the most efficient tools at their fingertips. Your expertise will be vital as you specify and write custom tools, establish studio-wide best practices for skinning and rigging, and take full ownership of implementing animations directly into the game engine.

Although you aren't just maintaining a pipeline; you are playing a key role in evolving our internal systems and significantly raising the quality bar for all our future titles. Utilising your deep experience to build and manage character pipelines for our character-heavy projects, you will ensure that rigs are optimised for performance without sacrificing visual fidelity.

From creating robust facial rigs to integrating complex dynamics like cloth and muscles, you will ensure our characters move with a level of polish that defines a AAA experience. Cross discipline collaboration here is crucial, you will help bridge the gap between artistic vision and technical execution, ensuring a smooth, reliable path from initial rig to final in-game implementation.

About you:

You will possess an in-depth understanding of animation principles, which you pair with a mastery of rigging and animation systems in software like Maya and MotionBuilder.

With an extensive technical toolkit you are very proficient in Python, MEL, and Qt for tool creation, and bring valuable experience in C# and Unity Editor scripting to enhance our engine-side workflows. You are also a veteran of Motion Capture processes and are comfortable navigating source control environments like Perforce to keep development organised and secure.

Beyond your scripting and rigging prowess, you bring a refined eye for anatomy and character topology, allowing you to create and modify rigs for a variety of styles ranging from hyper-realistic to stylised and cartoony.

On top of this you are a creative problem solver who thrives on the challenge of integrating cutting-edge techniques, such as advanced facial rigging and secondary dynamics with a mobile-friendly pipeline.

Along with a positive, self-driven approach and exceptional communication skills, you are a natural collaborator who is passionate about both the art of animation and the science of game development. You are driven by a desire to stay at the forefront of the industry, constantly pushing for the evolution of asset pipelines to deliver world-class entertainment.

What can Pixel Toys offer:

At Pixel Toys we are proud of the progressive, inclusive, and collaborative working environment we have created; a place where everyone has the opportunity to be themselves and is welcomed and valued for who they are and what they contribute. We have some fantastic benefits we offer our employees... Here are just some of them:

• Competitive salary, reviewed annually
• 25 days annual leave, excluding bank holidays
• Discretionary Bonus Scheme
• Up to 3 additional long service days (duvet days!)
• Private Medical Insurance (including optical and dental)
• Company Pension scheme
• Death in Service benefit
• Regular socials including epic summer and Christmas parties!
• Staff training and development
• Quarterly Wellness days (On-site massages and more)
• Flexi-time working hours

Recruitment selection is based on skills, experience and a good Pixel Toys mission and values fit.