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Principal Animator

The animation function is responsible for creating, refining, and implementing high-quality character, creature, and environmental animations that support gameplay, narrative, and visual style. It contributes to the development of animation assets using both keyframe and motion capture techniques, ensuring they meet artistic and technical requirements and function seamlessly within the game engine. This function supports workflows and pipelines related to rigging, skinning, prototyping, mocap integration, and in-engine implementation, with attention to performance optimization and consistency. Animators collaborate closely with design, engineering, art, technical art, and VFX teams to ensure animations align with gameplay systems and contribute to an immersive and responsive player experience.

Salary

£48k - £121.4k

£40k

£60k

£80k

£100k

£120k

£140k

  • Expert hand-key animation skills for both creatures and humans
  • Experience with facial animation using keyframe and motion capture pipeline
  • Excellent understanding of animation pipelines from conceptual phase to deployment
  • In-depth experience working with animation graphs and state machines
  • Excellent knowledge of Maya and Motion Builder
  • Strong problem-solving skills both technical and cross-department

Software & Tools

Maya

MotionBuilder

Animation Graphs

State Machines

Technical Areas

Creature & human animation

facial animation

pipeline development

cross-department troubleshooting

Interpersonal Skills

Leadership

Mentoring

Creative Direction

Collaboration

Communication

Cross-disciplinary coordination