Lead Gameplay Animator: Combat & Motion

ELSEWHERE ENTERTAINMENT AB; Santa Monica (CA); On-site; USD 140,000 - 253,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical/dental/vision benefits

401(k) with company match

Paid holidays and vacation

Mental health programs

Relocation assistance

Job summary

Elsewhere Entertainment is seeking a Principal Gameplay Animator to drive the animation vision for a new IP. You will combine craft with gameplay expertise and collaborate with engineers, designers, artists and narrative teams to deliver exhilarating experiences.

You will own the quality bar for combat readability, mentor others, and help scale pipelines and tools, balancing performance and creative ambition. This role requires senior-level impact across shipped titles and adaptive collaboration.

Qualifications

• Significant gameplay animation experience with senior/principal contribution to shipped titles.
• Strong combat animation skills with responsive player and enemy behaviors.
• Deep understanding of combat readability, timing, hit reactions, attack cycles and locomotion.
• Experience working in game engines and contributing to animation systems and implementation.
• Strong knowledge of mocap pipelines, editing, cleanup and blending with keyframe animation.

Responsibilities

• Own and drive the quality bar for gameplay animation, focusing on responsive combat.
• Create and refine high-quality character animations using solid fundamentals.
• Shape animation approaches for combat design, player expression, and traversal.
• Partner with Design, Engineering, Art, Audio and Narrative to enhance player experience.
• Apply knowledge of game design mechanics, 3Cs, AI, camera, and narrative context.
• Contribute to animation systems, state machines, blending, and in-engine implementation.

Skills

Gameplay animation

Combat animation

Mocap workflow

Game engines

Maya proficiency

Collaboration across teams

Animation fundamentals

Mentoring/feedback

Technical problem solving

Animation systems in-engine

Tools

Maya

Job description

Elsewhere Entertainment is seeking a Principal Gameplay Animator to drive the animation vision for a new IP. You will combine craft with gameplay expertise and collaborate with engineers, designers, artists and narrative teams to deliver exhilarating experiences.

You will own the quality bar for combat readability, mentor others, and help scale pipelines and tools, balancing performance and creative ambition. This role requires senior-level impact across shipped titles and adaptive collaboration.