Technical Animator (Quadruped Characters) - Unreal Engine

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.