Undead Labs is looking for a Senior Technical Animator with expertise in developing AAA runtime gameplay and narrative experiences. You will work on animation content creation as well as animation technical implementation for gameplay features. As a member of the technical animation team you’ll work closely with the animators, designers, riggers, technical designers, animation engineers, gameplay engineers, and technical artists to achieve the highest standards in run-time gameplay animation quality and performance. At Undead Labs, we work in highly collaborative, cross-discipline teams because we understand that the best ideas are ones we generate together. We are humble and curious in our work, and are always striving to make things better - for our players, for each other, and for our industry. Everyone here is committed to helping the team thrive, enabling us to rise to the moment to build incredible games.
We have office hubs in Seattle, WA, Champaign, IL, and Orlando, FL and are also able to employ people in Texas and California. If you are currently located in one of these locations, or open to relocation, we'd love to hear from you!
What you’ll do
- Guide the vision for state machine, blueprint, and animation workflows
- Evaluate and advocate for animation technology advances
- Design, implement, and debug animation state machines and blend trees
- Collaborate on development of our end to end motion capture workflow
- Collaborate with designers, animators, and engineers to maintain the style and raise the quality bar for animations in game
- Drive new solutions to improve animation workflow efficiency
- Collaborate on development of our player scaling and retargeting solution
- Bring best in class process, knowledge, and artistic vision in your work and the work of others to deliver inspiring player experiences
- Balance quality with character performance optimization and animation memory budget considerations
- Identify, diagnose, and solve runtime animation related technical challenges
Core Traits & Experience
- Strong understanding of animation principles and runtime animation techniques
- Expertise creating animation blueprints, animation graphs and state machines in Unreal 4 or similar environments
- Expertise in animating from motion capture
- Broad familiarity with character animation techniques related to runtime rigging, skeleton optimization, powered ragdoll, inverse kinematics, motion matching, and animation syncing
- Proficiency with DCC tools such as Maya, Motionbuilder, etc.
- Aptitude for understanding artistic and technical requirements and turning ideas into user friendly workflows
- Excellent collaborator that acts as a positive difference maker for the teams success
- Passion for mentoring other developers
- Passion for AAA gameplay development and commitment to producing the highest standards in animation quality
- Disciplined in creating and maintaining documentation, standards, and best practices
- A strong customer focus with the ability to balance artist requests with the needs for quality, efficiency, and stability for production
- Ideally brings 5-8 years of progressively complex related experience
Bonus Traits & Experience
- Familiarity with Python or other relevant scripting languages
- MotionBuilder experience
- Experience with Unreal Engine 5
- Development and experience with advanced performance capture technologies
- Development with Virtual Production and Live Link in Unreal
Benefits & Perks
Benefits/perks listed below may vary depending on the nature of your employment with Undead Labs and the state in which you work.
- Medical, dental, and vision health insurance
- Unlimited PTO + studio holiday closure in December
- 401k plan with 50% matching
- Subsidized transportation to & from work
- Professional growth resources
- Discounts on the Microsoft Games store
Physical Requirements
- Close vision to monitors and screens, consistently working on computer equipment such as keyboards and monitors, long periods of sitting.
- Noise levels are low to moderate in the work environment.
Reasonable accommodations can be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.
About Undead Labs
We are creators of the hit survival-fantasy franchise State of Decay with a fan base of over 10 million people. As an independent member of Xbox Game Studios, we collaborate with a huge network of skilled specialists in all disciplines, providing incredible opportunities for joint development and learning.
Undead Labs is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to age, ancestry, color, family or medical care leave, gender identity or expression, genetic information, marital status, medical condition, national origin, physical or mental disability, political affiliation, protected veteran status, race, religion, sex (including pregnancy), sexual orientation, or any other characteristic protected by applicable laws, regulations, and ordinances.
We look forward to hearing from you!