Senior Gameplay Animator: Combat & Systems Lead

Activision; Santa Monica (CA); On-site; USD 137,000 - 253,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical, dental, vision

401(k) with company match

Paid holidays and vacation

Job summary

Elsewhere Entertainment, part of Activision, is seeking a Principal Gameplay Animator to shape the animation vision for a new IP. You will lead for responsive combat animation, creating high-quality character movements and refining mocap with keyframe techniques.

You will collaborate closely with Design, Engineering, Art, Audio and Narrative to enhance player experience and balance quality with performance across gameplay systems.

Qualifications

• Significant gameplay animation experience, including a senior or principal-level contribution to one or more shipped titles.
• Strong combat animation skills with experience creating impactful, responsive player and enemy combat behaviours.
• Deep understanding of combat readability, timing, anticipation, hit reactions, attack cycles, locomotion and player control.
• Experience working in game engines and contributing to animation systems and implementation.
• Strong knowledge of motion-capture pipelines, including editing, cleanup and blending mocap with keyframe animation.

Responsibilities

• Owning and driving the quality bar for gameplay animation, with a focus on responsive, readable and satisfying combat.
• Creating and refining high-quality character animations using strong animation fundamentals, gameplay principles and motion-capture data.
• Shaping animation approaches that support combat design, player expression, enemy behaviours, traversal and moment-to-moment gameplay.
• Partnering with Design, Engineering, Art, Audio and Narrative to ensure animation enhances the overall player experience.
• Applying knowledge of game design mechanics, 3Cs (character, camera and controls), AI behaviour, camera animation and narrative context.
• Contributing to animation systems, state machines, blending, transitions and in-engine implementation to achieve fluid, responsive gameplay.
• Providing clear creative direction, feedback and mentorship to help raise the craft and capability of the animation team.
• Identifying opportunities to improve tools, workflows and pipelines, helping the team work more effectively at scale.
• Solving complex technical and creative challenges while balancing quality, performance and production needs.

Skills

Gameplay animation

Combat animation

Animation fundamentals

Maya

Motion capture

In-game engine integration

Mentoring

Tools

Maya

Job description

Elsewhere Entertainment, part of Activision, is seeking a Principal Gameplay Animator to shape the animation vision for a new IP. You will lead for responsive combat animation, creating high-quality character movements and refining mocap with keyframe techniques.

You will collaborate closely with Design, Engineering, Art, Audio and Narrative to enhance player experience and balance quality with performance across gameplay systems.