Technical Animator (Quadruped Characters) - Unreal Engine
Job Description
Key Skills Required
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Core Responsibilities
Develop and maintain animation systems for quadruped characters, ensuring realistic and believable movement in Unreal Engine. Key tasks include:
- Setting up Animation Blueprints, State Machines, Blend Spaces, and Animation Layers.
- Creating and configuring IK/FK, Full Body IK, and procedural animation systems.
- Implementing locomotion for walk, trot, canter, gallop, turns, starts/stops, and jumps.
- Configuring blending, additive animations, sync groups, and transitions.
- Working with IK Rig / IK Retargeter and adapting animations between different skeletons.
- Processing motion capture data, cleanup, and retargeting.
- Developing and maintaining Control Rig tools.
- Debugging and fixing foot sliding, popping, IK, and blending artifacts.
- Optimizing Animation Blueprints, Control Rig, and skeletal animation systems.
- Developing and maintaining animation systems for multiplayer projects, including networked locomotion, prediction, and reconciliation.
- Synchronizing Montages and locomotion states in networked gameplay.
- Collaborating with animators, game designers, and programmers.
- Developing and improving the animation pipeline and internal tools.
Requirements
Candidates must have:
- 5+ years of experience in technical animation / gameplay animation.
- Hands-on experience with quadruped characters.
- A portfolio with quadruped animation examples.
- Strong knowledge of Unreal Engine, including Animation Blueprints, Control Rig, IK Rig / Retargeter, Blend Spaces, and State Machines.
- Solid understanding of animal biomechanics and quadruped locomotion.
- Experience with rigging, skinning, and skeleton setup.
- Experience with motion capture pipelines.
- Experience with Maya, MotionBuilder, or similar DCC tools.
- Understanding of root motion, animation curves, notifies, montages, and additive animation.
- Experience debugging and optimizing animation systems.
- Understanding of local vs. replicated character state.
- Awareness of latency, desync, animation popping issues, and ways to minimize them.
- Conversational English.
- Experience working on AA or AAA game projects.
Nice to Have
Additional skills that would be beneficial include:
- Experience animating large quadrupeds (heavy/massive locomotion).
- Motion Matching / Pose Search.
- Full Body IK / procedural locomotion.
- Experience with Python or scripting.
- Experience with C++ in Unreal.
- Building animation tools.
- Experience optimizing NPC crowds or large numbers of skeletal meshes.
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Xsolla
View Company ProfileXsolla (operating at xsolla.com) is a global video game commerce platform engineered for developers and publishers seeking to launch, grow, and monetize their games at scale. Founded in 2005 by Aleksandr Agapitov and headquartered in Los Angeles, California, Xsolla specializes in providing end-to-end solutions that streamline the complexities of in-game transactions, subscriptions, and digital distribution—problems many developers face when scaling their businesses. Under the hood, Xsolla’s technology integrates secure payment processing, funding matchmaking through its Xsolla Funding Club, and tools for distribution and marketing, all designed to reduce friction for both creators and players. This allows indie studios and AAA publishers alike to focus on content creation while leveraging Xsolla’s infrastructure to handle global transactions, currency conversions, and audience engagement. While specific funding details are not publicly disclosed, the company’s influence in the gaming industry underscores its role as a critical enabler for digital commerce in games.
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