Motion Capture (Mocap) Animator

SIDE; Fort Lauderdale (FL); Hybrid; USD 60,000 - 90,000; Full time

Job summary

Side is seeking a Motion Capture Animator to join our remote team on a 9-12 month contract. The role centers on cleaning and retargeting mocap data from shoots, reconstructing missing movements, and ensuring the digital character accurately reflects the actor’s performance.

You will collaborate with studios worldwide, using MotionBuilder, Shogun Post, Maya, Unreal or Unity to polish animation curves, stabilize feet, and align data with reference video under tight deadlines.

Qualifications

• 3–5 years of experience in cleanup or tracking in game development.
• Strong understanding of anatomy and weight distribution.
• Ability to reconstruct missing data from partial capture accurately.
• Experience with motion capture pipelines and retargeting workflows.

Responsibilities

• Identify, label, and track raw point-cloud data from shoots.
• Reconstruct missing data due to occlusions using interpolation or references.
• Solve marker data onto 3D rigs and ensure accurate translation.
• Meet production deadlines and fix issues like floor-sliding and clipping.

Skills

Motion capture cleanup

Retargeting

Animation concepts

Team collaboration

Tools

Autodesk MotionBuilder

Vicon Shogun Post

Autodesk Maya

Unreal Engine

Unity

Job description

Position: Motion Capture Animator

Work structure: Remote, within 6 hours time zone difference to Poland

Contract duration: 9-12 months

Start date: As soon as possible

At Side, we partner with some of the world's leading developers and publishers to solve complex production challenges and help bring exceptional games to life. From concept through live operations, our co-development teams work as trusted extensions of our clients' studios, contributing expertise across design, engineering, art, audio, QA, and production.

What you will be doing:

Data Cleaning & Tracking

• Identify, label, and track raw point-cloud data from studio shoots, manually fixing marker swaps or mislabeled tracking points.
• Reconstruct missing data points caused by actor occlusions (e.g., when a limb is hidden from cameras) using interpolation, smoothing algorithms, or reference footage.
• Remove jitter, spikes, and artifacts from raw tracking curves while preserving the subtle nuances and weight of the original performance.

Skeletal Solving & Retargeting

• Solve processed marker data onto 3D character rigs, ensuring the performance translates accurately despite proportional differences between the actor and the 3D model.
• Correct structural clipping, stabilize feet to eliminate floor-sliding, and fix basic posture/interaction anomalies.
• Sync cleaned data with reference video to ensure the digital character perfectly retains the actor's emotional intent, timing, and weight distribution.

Pipeline & Organization

• Meet strict production deadlines to ensure a steady stream of clean data is handed off to the character animation and cinematic layout teams.
• Fix all structural issues introduced during retargeting, including hand/foot sliding, floor penetration, clipping (limbs passing through clothing/body), and unnatural joint stretching.
• Apply traditional keyframe animation layers to amplify poses, sharpen timing, fix off-balance center-of-gravity issues, and push the performance to match stylized or cinematic art directions.
• Adjust animation curves to ensure flawless contact and interaction with virtual props, weapons, vehicles, and uneven terrain geometry.

What we are looking for:

Technical Skills & Experience

• Advanced proficiency in data-cleanup and retargeting software, such as Autodesk MotionBuilder and Vicon Shogun Post
• Solid understanding of Autodesk Maya and how animation curves function within engines like Unreal Engine or Unity.
• A deep understanding of human anatomy, weight distribution, and realistic movement to accurately infer missing data.
• Experience: 3–5 years of experience in a cleanup, tracking within video games production.

Soft Skills & Core Competencies

• Exceptional patience and attention to detail for handling repetitive, meticulous vector data manipulation.
• Ability to visually reconstruct complex movements when large chunks of camera data are missing.
• Highly organized workflow to efficiently handle large volumes of performance files under tight schedule constraints.
• Advanced proficiency in traditional 3D keyframe animation, with a deep understanding of animation curves, graph editors, Euler angles, and gimbal lock resolution.
• Solid command of weight, anticipation, staging, arcs, and secondary action to naturally enhance captured data without making it look "floaty" or robotic.
• Deep understanding of Forward Kinematics (FK) and Inverse Kinematics (IK) systems, and how character rigs behave when handling external constraints.
• Ability to interpret a director’s creative notes and translate performance critiques into technical animation adjustments.
• Knowing exactly when to preserve the organic nuance of the actor's performance and when to overwrite it with keyframes for the sake of gameplay responsiveness or cinematic clarity.

About Side

Side(formerly PTW) is a global video game development and services provider, offering technical and creative solutions to many of the largest developers and studios around the world. Founded in 2009 and drawing on 30+ years' experience from our parent company in Japan, Side has since grown to become a global force with 20 studios in 14 countries across North America, Europe, South America, and Asia.

Our industry-leading services include game development, art production, audio production, quality assurance, localization, localization QA, player support, community management, and datasets.

Help us bring stories to the world! Join a global team of passionate gamers and contribute to delivering unforgettable game experiences.

Experience our side of life. For more information, visit