Unreal Engine Quadruped Technical Animator

Xsolla Inc.; United States; Remote; USD 90,000 - 140,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Unlimited professional development

Comprehensive Benefits

Career roadmap

Job summary

Xsolla is seeking an experienced Technical Animator to bring quadruped characters to life in Unreal Engine. You will design production-ready animation systems, rig/setup, and multiplayer locomotion with a strong biomechanics foundation.

The role covers full animation pipeline from rigging to Control Rig and integration with motion capture data, with collaboration across designers and programmers.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of experience in technical animation / gameplay animation.
• Hands-on experience with quadruped characters.
• Portfolio with quadruped animation examples — required.
• Strong knowledge of Unreal Engine: Animation Blueprints, Control Rig, IK Rig / Retargeter, Blend Spaces, State Machines.
• Solid understanding of animal biomechanics and quadruped locomotion.
• Experience with rigging, skinning, and skeleton setup.
• Experience with motion capture pipelines.
• Experience with Maya, MotionBuilder, or a similar DCC tool.
• Understanding of root motion, animation curves, notifies, montages, additive animation.
• Understanding of latency, desync, animation popping issues, and ways to minimize them.
• Conversational English

Responsibilities

• Develop and maintain animation systems for quadruped characters.
• Set up Animation Blueprints, State Machines, Blend Spaces, Animation Layers.
• Create and configure IK/FK, Full Body IK, and procedural animation systems.
• Set up locomotion: walk, trot, canter, gallop, turns, starts/stops, jumps.
• Configure blending, additive animations, sync groups, and transitions.
• Work with IK Rig / IK Retargeter and adapt animations between different skeletons.
• Work with motion capture data, cleanup, and retargeting.
• Create and maintain Control Rig tools.
• Fix foot sliding, popping, IK, and blending artifacts.
• Optimize Animation Blueprints, Control Rig, and skeletal animation systems.
• Develop and maintain animation systems for multiplayer projects.
• Work with networked locomotion, prediction, and reconciliation.
• Synchronize Montages and locomotion states in networked gameplay.
• Collaborate with animators, game designers, and programmers.
• Develop and improve the animation pipeline and internal tools

Skills

Quadruped animation

Unreal Engine animation

Rigging and skinning

Motion capture pipelines

Debugging animation systems

Networked locomotion

Control Rig/Animation Blueprints

Tools

Unreal Engine

Maya

MotionBuilder

DCC tools

Job description

Xsolla is seeking an experienced Technical Animator to bring quadruped characters to life in Unreal Engine. You will design production-ready animation systems, rig/setup, and multiplayer locomotion with a strong biomechanics foundation.

The role covers full animation pipeline from rigging to Control Rig and integration with motion capture data, with collaboration across designers and programmers.