Technical Animator

Flix; United States; Hybrid; USD 93,000 - 120,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Private health and dental care

20 days A/L plus holidays

Team social events

Two company-wide parties a year

Employee Assistance Programme

Fully remote working (Europe)

Gamepass or PS Plus Subscription

Flexible core hours

Job summary

Flix is seeking a Senior Technical Animator to refine animation assets and implement robust animation systems in Unreal Engine. You will collaborate closely with the Lead Combat Designer to deliver responsive melee combat, informed by industry benchmarks and titles like Shadow of Mordor and God of War.

The role requires deep expertise in animation pipelines, motion matching, and toolsets such as IK, Control Rig, and retargeting. Remote-friendly arrangements are available for Europe-based work.

Qualifications

• 7 years of professional experience at a senior level in technical animation, or equivalent experience demonstrating independent ownership of complex character animation work.
• Demonstrable experience working on melee combat games, with a strong understanding of combat timing, anticipation, impact, recovery and transitions.
• Strong character animation skills, including the ability to assess and improve motion capture and existing animation data.
• Thorough practical understanding of Unreal Engine character and animation systems, including blueprints, state machines, blend spaces, animation montages, motion matching, pose search, motion warping, root motion, IK, Control Rig, and retargeting.
• Ability to move animation assets between content creation tools and Unreal Engine.
• Clear communication skills and confidence collaborating with design and other development disciplines in a distributed team.

Responsibilities

• Refine, edit and adapt existing animation assets, including motion capture, to meet gameplay and character performance.
• Implement and maintain character animation systems in Unreal Engine, including Animation Blueprints, state machines, blend spaces, and animation montages.
• Work with motion matching, motion warping, root motion, inverse kinematics (IK) and Control Rig to support responsive character movement and combat.
• Collaborate on attacks, combos, dodges, parries, hit reactions and transitions between locomotion and combat.
• Balance animation quality with gameplay responsiveness, focusing on timing, weight, spacing, readability and player control.
• Diagnose and resolve animation issues, including blending, foot sliding, alignment, retargeting and interruptions.
• Profile and optimise animation systems for performance and maintainability.
• Manage workload, communicate progress and risks, and propose solutions.

Skills

Senior-level animation

Unreal Engine

Melee combat animation

Animation systems

Collaboration

Tools

Blender

Maya

Job description

Your time will be split between refining animation assets and implementing animation systems in Unreal Engine. Working alongside the Lead Combat Designer, you will help deliver responsive, fluid and impactful melee combat, drawing inspiration from Shadow of Mordor and God of War. The emphasis is on powerful character performance, seamless combat transitions and responsive player control.,

• Refine, edit and adapt existing animation assets, including motion capture, to meet the needs of gameplay and character performance.
• Implement and maintain character animation systems in Unreal Engine, including Animation Blueprints, state machines, blend spaces, and animation montages.
• Work with motion matching, motion warping, root motion, inverse kinematics (IK) and Control Rig to support responsive character movement and combat.
• Collaborate with the Lead Combat Designer on attacks, combos, dodges, parries, hit reactions and transitions between locomotion and combat.
• Balance animation quality with gameplay responsiveness, paying close attention to timing, weight, spacing, readability and player control.
• Use animation notifies, notify states and montage sections to coordinate animation with gameplay events.
• Diagnose and resolve animation issues, including blending, foot sliding, alignment, retargeting and interruptions.
• Profile and optimise animation systems for performance and maintainability.
• Manage your own workload, communicate progress and risks, and proactively propose solutions.

Based just outside Birmingham, Flix is made up of welcoming, passionate, active gamers who support one another in all aspects of development.

Benefits

• Private health and dental care.
• 20 days A/L plus additional leave over the Christmas period.
• Team social events, including board game nights and charity fundraisers.
• Two company-wide parties a year, all expenses paid.
• Employee Assistance Programme.
• Fully remote working (Europe).
• Gamepass or PS Plus Subscription.
• Flexible core hours.

We are looking for a Senior Technical Animator who combines strong character animation skills with a thorough understanding of Unreal Engine's character animation systems.

• 7 years of professional experience at a senior level in technical animation, or equivalent experience demonstrating independent ownership of complex character animation work.
• Demonstrable experience working on melee combat games, with a strong understanding of combat timing, anticipation, impact, recovery and transitions.
• Strong character animation skills, including the ability to assess and improve motion capture and existing animation data.
• A thorough practical understanding of Unreal Engine character and animation systems, including:
  • Blueprints and Animation Blueprints.
  • State machines, blend spaces and layered animation blending.
  • Animation montages, sections, slots, notifies and notify states.
  • Motion matching and Pose Search.
  • Motion warping and root motion.
  • IK, Control Rig and animation retargeting.
  • The interaction between character movement, gameplay logic, and animation.
  • Animation debugging, profiling and optimisation.
• Proficiency in Blender or Maya, with Blender preferred.
• The ability to move animation assets reliably between content creation tools and Unreal Engine.
• The ability to work independently, identify problems, and deliver practical solutions with minimal supervision.
• Clear communication skills and confidence collaborating with design and other development disciplines in a distributed team.
• Desirable:
  • Character rigging and skinning experience.
  • Experience developing or maintaining animation pipelines and tools.
  • Experience with motion capture cleanup, retargeting, and adaptation across different character proportions.
  • Experience with procedural animation and runtime animation adjustments.
  • Familiarity with fluid, multi-enemy melee combat in the style of Shadow of Mordor and God of War.
  • Scripting experience in Python or other tools used to improve animation workflows.