Senior Technical Animator - Unannounced Project

The role

You will help create and maintain the rigging and technical animation pipeline for an unannounced project. You will work with the Animation Team to bring the characters to life, reporting to the Lead Animator and Art Director.

What you will do

• Create and maintain the rigging and technical animation pipeline for the projects.
• Implement characters as part of the Animation Team.
• Report to the Lead Animator and Art Director.

Required qualifications

• Expert knowledge of the skeletal pipeline from rigging to exporting finished characters into game, with an understanding of mobile limitations (bipedal and non-bipedal).
• Expert in how animation systems work in Unreal Engine, including debugging, modifying and creating them in game engines from scratch.
• Expert knowledge of retargeting and shared skeleton pipelines, in and out of engine, and retargeting between non-matching skeletons.
• Understanding of cloth simulation and dynamics in engine and 3D software, and their requirements and limitations on mobile.
• Proficient in 3D software scripting languages such as MEL, Python and MaxScript.
• Foundational knowledge of rigging: bones, IK, splines, blend shapes, skinning, node editing and setting up animation blueprints in Unreal.
• Advanced knowledge of major third-party rigging systems such as Advanced Skeleton, Rapid Rig and mGear.
• Experience with animation systems that are scalable across a wide range of mobile devices.
• Complete ownership of the pipeline, with good documentation and communication.

Nice to have

• Building and owning animation systems for premium character presentation in high-value front-end moments.
• Automated optimization techniques for creating LODs.
• Supporting a fast-paced character pipeline delivering characters per season.
• Knowledge of facial rigging processes and game engine compatible solutions.
• Experience with motion capture, cleanup and application to different characters.
• Knowledge of procedural animation systems.
• Experience in other technical art areas such as shaders, lighting tech and VFX.

Benefits

• Competitive salary and discretionary annual bonus scheme.
• 26 days holiday, plus bank holidays and 2 paid personal days.
• 6 months fully paid maternity/adoption leave and 16 weeks fully paid paternity leave (eligibility criteria applies).
• Pension plan with a double matching employer contribution.
• Private medical and dental insurance and healthcare cash plan.
• Life insurance, personal accident insurance and income protection.
• Mental health and neurodiversity support programs.
• Company Employee Stock Purchase Plan (eligibility criteria applies).
• Fitness reimbursement plan worth £600 per year.
• Weekly happy hours, seasonal parties and monthly social events.
• Annual rail season ticket advance and cycle to work scheme.

Before you apply

• Zynga does not conduct interviews or make offers over third-party messaging apps such as Telegram or WhatsApp. Recruiters contact candidates only from official company email domains.

About the company

Zynga is a global interactive entertainment company and a label of Take-Two Interactive, founded in 2007 and headquartered in California. NaturalMotion, part of the same group, makes games and has been named one of the UK's Best Places to Work in games for eight consecutive years.