This job might no longer be available.

Senior 3D Animator - Remote/Hybrid

Are you an experienced animator, skilled in a broad range of animation styles? Do you want to work in a friendly, respectful and exciting studio? Auroch Digital is looking for animators who are passionate about creating dynamic and compelling, hand-keyed animation for multiple upcoming projects, ranging from retro-inspired action games to stylized top-down strategy games.

Auroch are part of the Sumo Group of companies, originally established in 2010 and with an extensive catalogue, including Mars Horizon and Dark Future: Blood Red States. We have an exciting stable of licensed and independent IP games in development including our upcoming beer brewing hobby game Brewmaster. Our diverse, friendly, and enthusiastic team are based in the centre of Bristol, but we are open to remote working for the right candidate. We have a company ethos that strongly values work-life balance and supporting our people to grow. We want our people to have a positive influence on other team members and a passion to support others.

As a senior animator, you have experienced several game production cycles as an animator and are able to work in a cross-discipline team of artists, designers and programmers. You are passionate about animation and the role it plays in games, and are excited to help others achieve the vision of the game.

The successful candidate will make a major contribution to defining the animation style and pipeline across several major projects, with development towards a leadership position if desired.

Responsibilities:

• Create high-quality, hand-keyed character animation in a variety of styles, with a strong focus on gameplay needs and in-game appearance
• Create additional animation for other content, such as cinematics, VFX, or UI.
• Rig and skin character models according to technical requirements
• Work closely with the art director and art leads to define, deliver, and maintain the animation style for projects
• Help lead artists and producers plan, estimate task times, schedule and prioritize animation-related features and content.
• Research, plan, document & optimize the animation pipeline for projects
• Communicate and represent the needs of the animation team to other disciplines
• Provide feedback and support to other animators or generalists working on animation tasks

Requirements:

• Several years of experience as an animator working on commercial game projects
• Demonstrable experience with all stages of the game development cycle
• A demo reel showing high quality hand-keyed animations, with a strong understanding of visual storytelling, gameplay requirements and animation principles
• Able to work in a variety of animation styles
• Excellent knowledge of Maya, Max, or the animation tools of your choice
• Able to rig and skin character models according to planned specifications
• Integrate animations into game engines, including working with animation graphs and state machine tools in Unity or Unreal
• Able to self-direct and work independently or as part of a cross-discipline team, including expanding and developing rough ideas from initial art direction.
• Strong ability to communicate creative and technical concepts, both verbally and in writing
• Interested in the latest in game animation trends and techniques and able to bring this knowledge to the team

Desirable:

• Previous experience in related areas of development, such as modelling, texturing, 2D UI Animation or VFX
• Scripting experience is a bonus
• Experience animating for strategy/management genre games and/or first-person person game

· We won’t get in the way of you working on your own indie dev projects in your own time

· Remote, office based or hybrid are all totally fine working options

· 27 days holiday total (including your Birthday off!) which increases for long term service

- The option to take three months unpaid sabbatical leave after three years of service

· Competitive salary

- Bonus scheme

· Flexible working

· Pensions contribution

- Dental cover

- Life insurance

- Income protection

- A pot of money to spend in Uchoose on extra benefits like health insurance, adding family members etc.

· Ongoing support for training and career development, including 5 learning days a year, 1 of which can be

used for volunteering

Your application should include a short covering letter explaining a little about your previous experience and why you think you would be a good fit for the role, and a current CV with relevant work history. Though not required, if you have a portfolio or examples of previous work please also include them with your application.