Senior/Lead Gameplay Animator - 3C & FPS

The role

You will own gameplay animation features from concept to completion. You will develop character movement, combat interactions, and camera behavior using keyframe and motion-capture workflows.

What you will do

• Own gameplay animation features from concept to completion
• Create high-quality character movement and action animations
• Contribute to first-person animation and its relationship with full-body movement, weapon handling, and camera feedback
• Partner with designers and programmers to refine movement responsiveness and action timing
• Build and refine animation graphs, state machines, blend setups, and animation layers
• Use keyframe animation and motion-capture workflows
• Evaluate work in playable builds and collaborate to resolve animation issues
• Work with technical animation and engineering teams to improve workflows
• Guide feature planning, establish benchmarks, and mentor teammates for Lead-level roles

Required qualifications

• Proven experience creating and implementing gameplay animation for AAA first-person shooters
• A strong portfolio demonstrating body mechanics, weight, timing, and posing
• Practical experience taking animation assets into a game engine
• Working knowledge of animation graphs, state machines, blending, additive animation, and gameplay-driven transitions
• An understanding of how character movement, player controls, and camera behavior influence each other
• Proficiency in professional animation tools, with experience in keyframe animation and motion-capture editing
• The ability to investigate animation problems and work with design and engineering partners
• Strong ownership, clear communication, and a record of delivering work within production constraints

Nice to have

• Hands-on experience on recent AAA FPS productions
• Direct involvement in establishing or evolving 3C animation systems
• Additional experience on AAA action or action-adventure games involving traversal, melee combat, or character interactions
• A technical animation background
• Experience with techniques such as inverse kinematics, motion matching, procedural animation, motion warping, or animation retargeting
• Scripting or tool-development experience
• Experience maintaining consistency between first-person presentation and third-person character animation

Before you apply

• Relocation to China is preferred
• Remote arrangements may be considered based on location, time-zone compatibility, and collaboration needs

About the company

NetEase is an Equal Opportunity Employer committed to diversity in its workforce.