Cinematic Technical Animator - Unreal Engine Narratives

Side; Los Angeles (CA); On-site; USD 55,000 - 83,000; Part time

Benefits offered by this job

Competitive pay

On-site in Los Angeles

Contract role (3 months)

Job summary

Side is seeking a Cinematic Technical Animator for a 3-month contract in Los Angeles. You will design cinematic pipelines, implement animations in Unreal Engine, and collaborate across narrative, audio, lighting, and art teams to deliver narrative-driven gameplay moments.

The role emphasizes hands-on in-engine work, storytelling timing, and scalable systems while shipping a cohesive first-person experience.

Qualifications

• 2+ years of game development with hands-on Unreal Engine implementation.
• Strong Unreal Engine 4 experience, especially Blueprints, visual scripting, animation systems, and cinematic workflows.
• Multidisciplinary background in Technical Art/Animation or Design with art/animation experience.
• Experience implementing animation in-engine including Animation Blueprints, Montages, Level Sequences.
• Strong narrative timing, pacing, and cinematic storytelling.
• Independent debugging, problem-solving abilities and strong collaboration skills.
• Experience shipping at least one game with narrative or mission design.
• Excellent cross-discipline communication and teamwork.
• Passion for narrative-driven first-person shooters.

Responsibilities

• Design scalable cinematic pipelines, tools, and systems for content teams.
• Build cinematic content using Level Sequences, Montages, and Animation Blueprints.
• Establish workflows supporting gameplay and cinematic storytelling.
• Implement character animation in Unreal Engine with runtime control.
• Use visual scripting to improve character performance, timing, and storytelling impact.
• Troubleshoot animation and cinematic issues in-engine and propose practical solutions.
• Collaborate with animation, narrative design, audio, lighting, and other teams.
• Balance technical requirements with storytelling, pacing, and presentation goals.
• Optimize cinematic systems for performance and scalability.

Skills

Animation

Unreal Engine

Blueprints

Cinematic workflows

Storytelling

Collaboration

Tools

Unreal Engine

Animation Montages

Level Sequences

Animation Blueprints

Blueprint scripting

Job description

Side is seeking a Cinematic Technical Animator for a 3-month contract in Los Angeles. You will design cinematic pipelines, implement animations in Unreal Engine, and collaborate across narrative, audio, lighting, and art teams to deliver narrative-driven gameplay moments.

The role emphasizes hands-on in-engine work, storytelling timing, and scalable systems while shipping a cohesive first-person experience.