Senior Animator

Prismatic Studios; Auckland; On-site; NZD 55,000 - 80,000; Full time

Job summary

Prismatic Studios in Auckland is seeking a Senior Animator to work across Unreal Engine projects, focusing on character animation and motion capture from raw performances to production-ready work. You will handle full-body and facial animation, collaborate with artists, designers, and engineers, and refine animation directly in Unreal Engine.

This is a full-time contract with on-site work preferred; remote work within New Zealand may be considered for the right candidate and eligibility to work

Qualifications

• 4+ years of professional experience as an Animator or similar role.
• Strong professional experience with 3D character animation, preferably using Maya.
• Strong experience with full-body motion capture cleanup and polishing.
• Experience with facial motion capture cleanup and polishing.
• Strong understanding of character animation fundamentals, including body mechanics, timing, weight, balance, momentum and natural human movement.
• Experience with gameplay locomotion animation and transitions.
• Experience working with Unreal Engine character animation or similar real-time game animation pipelines.
• Familiarity with Maya HumanIK (HIK), MotionBuilder or comparable animation and retargeting workflows.
• Strong understanding of animation retargeting and working across different character rigs and proportions.
• Ability to identify and correct common motion capture and retargeting issues.
• Ability to evaluate and refine animation quality within Unreal Engine, not only within Maya.
• Strong communication skills and ability to collaborate within multidisciplinary teams.
• Self-driven, organised and capable of independently managing workload.

Responsibilities

• Clean up and polish full-body motion capture performances to production-ready quality.
• Clean up and refine facial motion capture, including expressions, lip-sync, mouth shapes, eye movement, blinking and common capture artifacts.
• Combine full-body and facial motion capture into believable and consistent character performances.
• Create and refine gameplay animation, including locomotion, walks, runs, sprints, starts, stops, turns, pivots and transitions.
• Identify and correct common mocap issues including foot sliding, incorrect foot contacts, jitter, unnatural weight transfer and retargeting artifacts.
• Retarget animation across different character rigs and proportions.
• Implement and validate character animation within Unreal Engine.
• Review animation quality in-engine and make adjustments based on real-time playback and gameplay requirements.
• Work with animation tools and pipelines to prepare and maintain production-ready animation libraries.
• Contribute to the development and improvement of animation workflows and best practices.
• Provide guidance and feedback to other artists where required.

Skills

4+ years experience

3D character animation

Maya

Unreal Engine

Full-body mocap cleanup

Facial mocap cleanup

Animation retargeting

Body mechanics

In-engine evaluation

Collaboration

Tools

Maya

MotionBuilder

Job description

We are looking for a Senior Animator to join our team and work across a range of Unreal Engine projects. The role focuses on character animation and motion capture, taking raw performances through cleanup and polish to production-ready animation.

The role covers full-body and facial animation, gameplay animation, and locomotion. You will work closely with artists, designers, and engineers, and regularly evaluate and refine animation directly in Unreal Engine.

Strong animation fundamentals and professional experience with motion capture are important. Unreal Engine experience is also important, but expertise across every part of the pipeline is not expected. The priority is finding a strong animator who can produce believable, high-quality character animation and work effectively within a real-time game environment.

This is a full-time contract position, with a strong preference for candidates who can work on-site from our Auckland office. For the right candidate, we may be able to support remote work within New Zealand. Please note, you must have the right to work in New Zealand to be eligible for this position.

We highly value diversity. Regardless of disability, gender, sexual orientation, ethnicity, or any other aspect of your culture or identity, you have an important role to play in our team.

Contract Rate: NZD $40 – $58 / hr

Key Responsibilities:

• Clean up and polish full-body motion capture performances to production-ready quality.
• Clean up and refine facial motion capture, including expressions, lip-sync, mouth shapes, eye movement, blinking and common capture artifacts.
• Combine full-body and facial motion capture into believable and consistent character performances.
• Create and refine gameplay animation, including locomotion, walks, runs, sprints, starts, stops, turns, pivots and transitions.
• Identify and correct common mocap issues including foot sliding, incorrect foot contacts, jitter, unnatural weight transfer and retargeting artifacts.
• Retarget animation across different character rigs and proportions.
• Implement and validate character animation within Unreal Engine.
• Review animation quality in-engine and make adjustments based on real-time playback and gameplay requirements.
• Work with animation tools and pipelines to prepare and maintain production-ready animation libraries.
• Contribute to the development and improvement of animation workflows and best practices.
• Provide guidance and feedback to other artists where required.

Job Requirements:

• 4+ years of professional experience as an Animator or similar role.
• Strong professional experience with 3D character animation, preferably using Maya.
• Strong experience with full-body motion capture cleanup and polishing.
• Experience with facial motion capture cleanup and polishing.
• Strong understanding of character animation fundamentals, including body mechanics, timing, weight, balance, momentum and natural human movement.
• Experience with gameplay locomotion animation and transitions.
• Experience working with Unreal Engine character animation or similar real-time game animation pipelines.
• Familiarity with Maya HumanIK (HIK), MotionBuilder or comparable animation and retargeting workflows.
• Strong understanding of animation retargeting and working across different character rigs and proportions.
• Ability to identify and correct common motion capture and retargeting issues.
• Ability to evaluate and refine animation quality within Unreal Engine, not only within Maya.
• Strong communication skills and ability to collaborate within multidisciplinary teams.
• Self-driven, organised and capable of independently managing workload.

Additional Valuable Skills:

• Chinese language proficiency. As we work closely with international teams, Chinese language proficiency is very valuable.

About Prismatic Studios:

Prismatic Studios is an Unreal Engine specialist Co-Development Studio and Technical Consultancy based in Auckland, New Zealand. We provide Technical Consultation, Co-Development, and Full Development services for Unreal Engine projects.

We are an Unreal Gold Service Partner and specialise in providing Unreal Engine development services to the region and abroad.