Senior Animator

Level

$90K — $120K *
Media
5 - 7 years of experience
Job Overview by Ladders

Qualifications

  • 5+ years of experience as a narrative/cinematic animator with a strong portfolio showcasing stylized acting character animation.
  • Proficiency in industry-standard animation tools such as Maya.
  • Experience integrating animations into a game engine.
  • Solid understanding of animation principles (timing, weight, anticipation) in gameplay context.
  • Familiarity with narrative or emotionally expressive animation work.
  • Collaborative mindset and excellent communication skills.

Responsibilities

  • Design and produce high-quality cinematic/narrative character animations that align with artistic vision.
  • Collaborate closely with Character teams to enhance storytelling and emotional impact through animations.
  • Provide feedback and direction to technical artists for high fidelity animation.
  • Implement and iterate animations in-engine (e.g., Unity or Unreal Engine) considering real-time performance and technical limitations.
  • Participate in regular review sessions for continuous refinement of animation quality.

Benefits

  • Opportunity to work on impactful cinematic storytelling in video games.
  • Collaborative environment with a focus on team-driven projects.
  • Flexible work arrangements potentially offered.
  • Access to the latest tools and technology in animation and game design.
Full Job Description
Level is seeking a talented and experienced Senior Animator to join our growing in-house team to support our Guide Team. You'll be instrumental in shaping the movement, emotion, and personality of our characters through performance-driven animation, facial animation, lip sync, and dialogue scenes. A significant part of this role involves procedural animation, including collaborating with engineers to define direction and ensure systems reflect the intended performances. As a Senior Animator you will also be working closely with artists and technical artists, your work will have a direct impact on the project's cinematic storytelling and narrative. What You Will Do: • Design and produce high-quality cinematic/narrative animations (character) that align with artistic vision. • Collaborate closely with the Character teams to ensure animations enhance storytelling, and emotional impact. • Giving feedback and direction to tech artists to get the highest fidelity animation possible • Implement and iterate animations in-engine (e.g., Unity or Unreal Engine), with awareness of real-time performance and technical limitations. • Participate in regular review sessions, providing and receiving feedback to continually refine animation quality. Qualifications Need to Have: • 5+ years of experience as a narrative/cinematic animator, with a strong portfolio demonstrating polished, stylized acting character animation. • Proficiency in industry-standard animation tools such as Maya. • Experience integrating animations into a game engine. • Solid understanding of animation principles (timing, weight, anticipation, etc.) and how they apply in a gameplay context. • Familiarity with narrative or emotionally expressive animation work. • Collaborative mindset and excellent communication skills; comfortable working across disciplines. Nice to Have: • Prior experience on a shipped game, ideally in a small-to-mid-size studio environment. • Animation Graph or State Machine Experience • Scripting knowledge (e.g., Python, Blueprint, or Unity C#) to enhance animation systems or automate tasks. • Godot experience

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