As a member of the Animation team, you bring characters to life through classic animation principles and body mechanics. You will create high quality animations for a diverse and rapidly growing universe, including bipeds, quadrupeds, and creatures. A great reel will showcase a variety of walk cycles, a diverse selection of game-related animation, and a strong foundation in the principles of animation, including weight, anticipation, and impact. Also working to expand our current content pipeline, you will collaborate with designers and artists to develop new features and technologies. Your craft expertise will breathe life into iconic and beloved characters for players.

As an Senior Animator on an unpublished R&D product, you'll create the animation that defines the gameplay feel. You'll craft stylized, responsive gameplay animation that brings characters to life while supporting satisfying gameplay. Working closely with designers, technical artists, engineers, and character artists, you'll own animation from ideation through implementation. You'll create memorable animation, define the feel of player locomotion, bring personality to characters in-game, and implement your work directly in the game engine. As a senior member of the team, you'll help define the visual identity of gameplay animation, contribute to animation best practices, and maintain a high quality bar across the project. You will report to the Animation Manager.

Responsibilities:

• Create high-quality, gameplay-driven animation assets that define a high bar for responsiveness, clarity, and visual polish that delivers satisfying gameplay
• Collaborate with design, engineering, and technical art to ensure animations integrate effectively into the game
• Identify and troubleshoot animation bugs, edge cases, and pipeline issues, contributing to solutions
• Partner with designers to prototype and iterate on gameplay animation, using playtesting and feedback to improve responsiveness, readability, and feel.
• Contribute to team animation quality through feedback, critiques, and collaboration
• Support improvements to animation workflows, tools, and pipelines
• Help establish animation standards and maintain a high quality bar across gameplay animation

Required Qualifications:

• 5+ years of professional experience in game animation
• 3+ years of direct experience making hand-crafted gameplay animation
• 3+ years of experience working in game engines (i.e. Unreal, Unity, etc.)
• Ability to seamlessly integrate into and build upon a well-established animation vision and team with diverse levelling
• Ability to work autonomously and able to take initiative with little supervision
• Strong problem-solving skills in both artistic and technical contexts
• Strong understanding of animation principles, body mechanics, timing, weight, and appealing stylized motion

Desired Qualifications:

• Professional experience shipping at least one AAA game title
• Strong gameplay animation implementation experience
• Experience improving pipelines or workflows

As a part of the application process, you will be expected to provide a portfolio or demo reel of your work.

For this role, you'll find success through craft expertise, a collaborative spirit, and decision-making that prioritizes the delight of players. We will be looking at your past studies, experience, and your personal relationship with games. If you embody player empathy and care about players' experiences, this could be your role!

Our Perks:

Riot focuses on work/life balance, shown by our open paid time off policy and other perks such as flexible work schedules. We offer medical, dental, and life insurance, parental leave for you, your spouse/domestic partner, and children, and a 401k with company match. Check out our benefits pages for more information.

• (Los Angeles Only) Base salary range between $135,700.00 - $188,700.00 USD + incentive compensation + equity + 401K with company match + medical, dental, vision, and life insurance + short and long-term disability + open PTO.
• (Mercer Island only) Base salary range between $135,700.00 - $188,700.00 USD + incentive compensation + equity + 401K with company match + medical, dental, vision, and life insurance + short and long-term disability + open PTO.