Senior Technical Animator, Preston, Lancashire
Client:
Kinetic Games
Location:
Preston, Lancashire, United Kingdom
Job Category:
Other
EU work permit required:
Yes
Job Views:
2
Posted:
04.06.2025
Expiry Date:
19.07.2025
Job Description:
About the Company:
Kinetic Games is a new video game development studio based in Southampton. We are a passionate team of developers using Unity to improve and expand the horror experience of Phasmophobia, available on Steam, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S.
About the Role:
We seek an experienced Senior Technical Animator to join our team. You will bring characters, creatures, and environmental elements to life with high-quality, efficient animation systems. Collaborating with artists, designers, and programmers, you'll develop rigs, create smooth workflows, and implement animations in Unity. Your expertise will ensure animations are visually appealing, responsive, and perform well across platforms.
Responsibilities:
* Design and maintain complex rigs for characters, creatures, cameras, and objects that are efficient and user-friendly.
* Implement and manage animation systems and state machines within Unity for seamless in-game animations.
* Develop tools to enhance animation pipelines and workflows.
* Collaborate with artists and programmers to troubleshoot rigging, skinning, and implementation issues.
* Work with the programming team to refine the animation pipeline and runtime systems.
* Optimize animations for performance on PC, VR, PSVR2, and consoles.
* Ensure animations meet standards for gameplay responsiveness and visual fidelity.
Requirements:
* Professional experience as a Technical Animator or similar role on at least one shipped Unity game.
* Expertise in rigging, skinning, and creating control systems in 3D software like Blender or Maya.
* Experience with Unity animation systems, including Animator Controllers, State Machines, and Blend Trees.
* Proficiency in C# and tool development.
* Understanding of real-time animation principles, IK systems, and retargeting.
* Strong problem-solving skills balancing visual quality and performance.
* Excellent communication and teamwork abilities.
* Ability to work independently in a fast-paced environment.
* Passion for horror games and familiarity with Phasmophobia.
* Eligibility to work in the UK.
Nice To Have:
* VR animation experience, especially for hand and body tracking.
* Knowledge of motion matching, procedural, or physics-based animation systems.
* Experience with Unity DOTS or animation optimization techniques.
* Familiarity with facial animation and lip-sync pipelines.
* Experience with version control systems like Git, Perforce, and Plastic.
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