Principal Gameplay Animator: Combat Mastery & Systems Lead

DEMONWARE (CANADA) , INC.; Santa Monica (CA); On-site; USD 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical, dental, vision coverage

401(k) with Company match

Job summary

Elsewhere Entertainment is seeking a Principal Gameplay Animator to shape the animation vision for a new IP. You’ll combine outstanding craft with deep gameplay expertise, collaborating with a skilled team to create innovative and exhilarating experiences.

As a senior voice on the project, you’ll elevate the game and studio through inclusivity, respect and collaboration. You’ll lead the quality bar for combat-driven gameplay animation, create and refine character animations, and work with

Qualifications

• Significant gameplay animation experience, including senior/principal contribution to shipped titles.
• Strong combat animation skills with impactful, responsive behaviours.
• Deep understanding of combat readability, timing, anticipation, hit reactions, and attack cycles.
• Experience working in game engines and contributing to animation systems.
• Strong knowledge of motion-capture pipelines, editing and blending mocap with keyframe animation.

Responsibilities

• Own and drive the quality bar for gameplay animation, focusing on responsive combat.
• Create and refine high-quality character animations with fundamentals and mocap data.
• Shape animation approaches supporting combat design, player expression, enemy behaviours, traversal and moment-to-moment gameplay.
• Collaborate with Design, Engineering, Art, Audio and Narrative to enhance player experience.
• Apply knowledge of game design mechanics, 3Cs, AI, camera animation and narrative context.
• Contribute to animation systems, state machines, blending, transitions and in-engine implementation.
• Provide clear creative direction, feedback and mentorship to grow the animation team.
• Identify opportunities to improve tools, workflows and pipelines for scale.
• Solve complex technical and creative challenges balancing quality, performance and production needs.

Skills

Gameplay animation

Combat animation

Mocap blending

Maya

Animation systems

Tools

Maya

Job description

Elsewhere Entertainment is seeking a Principal Gameplay Animator to shape the animation vision for a new IP. You’ll combine outstanding craft with deep gameplay expertise, collaborating with a skilled team to create innovative and exhilarating experiences.

As a senior voice on the project, you’ll elevate the game and studio through inclusivity, respect and collaboration. You’ll lead the quality bar for combat-driven gameplay animation, create and refine character animations, and work with