Technical Animator - Unannounced Project

ZYNGA INC; City of Westminster; Hybrid; GBP 70,000 - 90,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Competitive salary and bonus scheme

Pension plan and employer contribution

Private medical & dental insurance

Life insurance and income protection

Mental health support programs

Employee Stock Purchase Plan

Fitness reimbursement plan

Flexible working hours

Social events and rail/cycle schemes

Job summary

Zynga Inc is seeking a Senior Technical Animator to join our Animation Team in London. You will help deliver and bring to life our characters, supporting a hybrid work model with 2 days per week in the London office and the rest from home.

You will rig, optimize, and maintain the technical animation pipeline, contribute to premium character presentation, and work on motion capture, facial rigging, and engine-compatible solutions across mobile to high-end devices.

Qualifications

• Experience creating and maintaining rigging and animation pipelines.
• Knowledge of facial rigging, retargeting, and skeleton pipelines.
• Experience with motion capture and applying to characters.
• Ability to implement engine-compatible animation solutions.
• Strong documentation and communication skills.

Responsibilities

• Create and maintain rigging and the technical animation pipeline.
• Implement characters as part of the Animation Team.
• Own premium character presentation pipelines and animation systems.
• Develop automated optimization techniques for LODs.
• Support a fast-paced character pipeline across seasons.
• Demonstrate knowledge of cloth sim setup for mobile engines.
• Proficient in scripting: MEL, Python, Max Script.

Skills

Rigging

Unreal Engine

Python scripting

MEL scripting

Character animation pipelines

Facial rigging

Tools

Maya

Unreal Engine

Houdini

Job description

We are looking for a Senior Technical Animator to join our team in supporting our next unannounced project. You will work alongside the Animation Team helping to deliver and bring to life our amazing characters. We embrace a hybrid work environment. Within this role, you would work 2 days per week in our London office and the remaining days at home.

What You’ll Do:

• Responsible for creating and maintaining the rigging and technical animation pipeline for the projects.
• As part of the Animation Team, you will play a key role in implementing characters.
• Reporting to the Lead Animator and Art Director., Premium character presentation pipelines - build and own animation systems for high-value front-end moments, ensuring characters are always presented at a premium quality bar.
• Automated optimization techniques for the creation of LODs.
• Support a fast paced character pipeline in the delivery of characters per season.
• Able to demonstrate knowledge of Facial Rigging processes, game engine compatible solutions and how to implement them.
• Experience with motion capture, cleanup and application to different characters.
• Knowledge of procedural animation systems.
• Experience in other areas of technical art e.g. Shaders, Lighting Tech, VFX.
  Have expert knowledge of retargeting and shared skeleton pipeline, both in and out of engine and can expand into retargeting between non matching skeletons.
• Understand the setup of cloth sim and dynamics in both Engine and 3D software, the application of such and the requirements and limitations of its use on mobile.
• Proficient in 3D software relevant scripting languages; MEL, Python, Max Script, etc.
• Foundational knowledge of rigging; using bones, IK, Splines, Blend Shapes, Skinning, node editing and setting up animation blueprints in Unreal.
• Have advanced knowledge of major third party rigging systems used in the industry; Advanced Skeleton, Rapid Rig, mGear etc.
• Experience in animation systems that are scalable and able to work on a wide range of mobile devices.
• Complete ownership of pipeline with good documentation and communication.
  Level Up Your Career with Zynga!

At Zynga, we bring people together through the power of play. As a global leader in interactive entertainment and a proud label of Take-Two Interactive, our games have been downloaded over 6 billion times-connecting players in 175+ countries through fun, strategy, and a little friendly competition. From thrilling casino spins to epic strategy battles, mind-bending puzzles, and social word challenges, our diverse game portfolio has something for everyone. Fan-favorites and latest hits include FarmVille , Words With Friends , Zynga Poker , Game of Thrones Slots Casino , Wizard of Oz Slots , Hit it Rich! Slots , Wonka Slots , Top Eleven , Toon Blast , Empires & Puzzles , Merge Dragons! , CSR Racing , Harry Potter: Puzzles & Spells , Match Factory , and Color Block Jam -plus many more! Founded in 2007 and headquartered in California, our teams span North America, Europe, and Asia, working together to craft unforgettable gaming experiences. Whether you're spinning, strategizing, matching, or competing, Zynga is where fun meets innovation-and where you can take your career to the next level.

At NaturalMotion, we make games that wow people. We innovate to create previously impossible experiences that would not exist without us. We take pride in making titles that reach a large audience and creating communities that last. Our commitment to excellence has earned us recognition as one of the UK's Best Places to Work in games for eight consecutive years by gamesindustry.biz, and we're proud to be part of the Zynga and Take-Two Interactive family

• Competitive salary and discretionary annual bonus scheme
• 26 days holiday, plus bank holidays & 2 paid personal days
• 6 months fully paid maternity/adoption leave and 16 weeks fully paid paternity leave (eligibility criteria applies)
• Pension plan, with a double matching employer contribution
• Private medical & dental insurance and healthcare cash plan
• Life insurance, personal accident insurance and income protection
• Mental health and neurodiversity support programs
• Company Employee Stock Purchase Plan (eligibility criteria applies)
• Fitness reimbursement plan, worth £600 per annum
• Flexible working hours
• Weekly happy hours, seasonal parties and monthly social events
• Annual rail season ticket advance and cycle to work scheme