Senior Gameplay Animator

Established in 2004, Lakshya Digital - a Keywords Studio - is the largest interactive entertainment and game development services studio in South Asia. Our main production studios are in India, and we maintain satellite studios in Europe, North America, and Japan.

Contract: 3-4 Months
Location: Remote (preferred overlap with North American working hours)
Experience: Senior / AAA Gameplay Animator

We're looking for an experienced Senior Gameplay Animator to join our team on an exciting short-term contract, helping bring a high-profile, well-loved AAA IP to life.

This is an opportunity to work on a vertical slice/demo experience that showcases the quality and vision of an upcoming project. The work is heavily focused on delivering impactful, responsive gameplay animation with a strong emphasis on cinematic combat.

What We're Looking For

We're seeking an animator who understands what makes combat feel satisfying—someone capable of delivering animations with strong readability, impactful timing, and cinematic presentation. You'll be contributing to a polished demonstration that showcases both gameplay and narrative moments, so a passion for crafting memorable player experiences is essential.

If you've worked on premium AAA action titles and thrive in collaborative environments where quality is the highest priority, we'd love to hear from you.

Please include a demo reel or portfolio.

Requirements

Responsibilities

• Create high-quality, polished gameplay animations for a combat-focused experience.
• Produce believable, weighty melee combat animations that feel responsive and satisfying.
• Animate combat encounters involving player attacks, enemy reactions, finishers, and traversal where required.
• Create animations supporting Quick Time Events (QTEs) and seamlessly blend gameplay into cinematic moments.
• Collaborate closely with designers, technical animators, and engineers to iterate on gameplay feel and responsiveness.
• Work within an established animation pipeline while maintaining a high level of polish and attention to detail.
• Help define and maintain the quality bar expected of a premium AAA action title.

Required Skills & Experience

• Extensive professional experience as a Gameplay Animator on AAA console or PC titles.
• Demonstrated experience working on third-person action or combat-heavy games.
• Strong understanding of melee combat systems, timing, anticipation, impact, and character weight.
• Experience creating cinematic gameplay moments and scripted in-game events.
• Excellent keyframe animation skills with a strong eye for performance and physicality.
• Comfortable working from motion capture as well as creating bespoke keyframe animation where required.
• Strong communication skills and the ability to work independently within a collaborative team.

Bonus Skills

Experience working on titles similar in style to:

• God of War
• Ghost of Yōtei
• Ghost of Tsushima
• The Last of Us
• Uncharted

Technical experience with any of the following is highly desirable:

• Autodesk Maya
• Autodesk MotionBuilder
• Unreal Engine (UE4/UE5)
• Animation Blueprints, State Machines, and gameplay integration workflows