Senior Technical Animator

JR United Kingdom; Southampton; On-site; GBP 40,000 - 80,000; Full time

Job summary

Join an innovative video game development studio as a Senior Technical Animator and play a key role in creating immersive horror experiences. In this dynamic position, you will design and maintain complex rigs, implement animation systems, and collaborate closely with a passionate team of developers. Your expertise in Unity and animation principles will help bring characters and environments to life across multiple platforms. If you're passionate about horror games and thrive in a fast-paced environment, this opportunity is perfect for you to make a significant impact in the gaming industry.

Qualifications

• Professional experience as a Technical Animator on a shipped Unity title.
• Expertise in rigging and creating animation control systems.

Responsibilities

• Design and maintain complex character and object rigs.
• Implement animation systems and optimize for performance.
• Collaborate with artists and programmers to troubleshoot challenges.

Skills

Technical Animation

Rigging

Skinning

C#

Animation Control Systems

Problem-Solving

Communication

Collaboration

Real-Time Animation Principles

Passion for Horror Games

Tools

Unity

Blender

Maya

Git

Perforce

Plastic

Job description

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Kinetic Games is a new video game development studio based in Southampton. We are a passionate team of developers using Unity to continuously improve and expand the horror experience of Phasmophobia, currently available on Steam, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S.

About the Role:

We are looking for an experienced and highly skilled Senior Technical Animator to join our team. As a Senior Technical Animator, you will play a crucial role in bringing characters, creatures, and environmental elements to life with high-quality, efficient animation systems. You will work closely with artists, designers, and programmers to develop robust rigs, create fluid animation workflows, and implement animations directly into Unity. Your technical expertise will ensure that our animations look great, feel responsive, and perform well across multiple platforms.

Responsibilities:

1. Design, create, and maintain complex character, creature, camera, and object rigs that are efficient, flexible, and easy to use.
2. Implement and maintain animation systems and state machines within Unity, ensuring smooth and polished in-game animations.
3. Develop tools to streamline animation pipelines and workflows.
4. Work closely with artists and programmers to troubleshoot rigging, skinning, and implementation challenges.
5. Collaborate with the programming team to define and improve the animation pipeline and runtime animation systems.
6. Optimize animations for performance across PC, VR, PSVR2, and consoles.
7. Ensure that animations meet technical standards for gameplay responsiveness and visual fidelity.

Requirements:

• Professional experience as a Technical Animator or similar role on at least one shipped Unity title.
• Expertise with rigging, skinning, and creating animation control systems in a 3D software package (e.g., Blender, Maya).
• Strong experience implementing animation systems within Unity, including Animator Controllers, State Machines, and Blend Trees.
• Proficient in C# and tool development.
• Solid understanding of real-time animation principles, constraints, IK systems, and retargeting techniques.
• Strong problem-solving skills, especially when balancing visual quality with performance.
• Excellent communication and collaboration skills.
• Ability to work independently and proactively in a fast-paced environment.
• Passion for horror games.
• Knowledge and experience playing Phasmophobia.
• Eligibility to work in the UK.

Nice To Have

• Experience with VR animation challenges (especially for hand and body tracking).
• Knowledge of motion matching, procedural animation, or physics-based animation systems.
• Experience with Unity DOTS or animation optimization techniques.
• Familiarity with facial animation and lip-sync pipelines.
• Experience with version control systems such as Git, Perforce, and Plastic.