Technical Animator

Supermassive Games have produced some of the most recognisable and compelling storytelling titles in the world of AAA games.  The BAFTA-winning Until Dawn, the cinematic masterclass of The Dark Pictures Anthology, the multi-award winning The Quarry, the action-packed rollercoaster horror VR titles Switchback VR and Rush of Blood to the world of Little Nightmares, and many more!  

Time and time again, our incredibly talented and passionate team have delivered games that strike fear into all that dare to play. 

We’re now on the hunt for a Senior Technical Animator to join us here at Supermassive Games.  Fancy joining our team and creating your own story?

In this role you’ll be:

The role of Senior Technical Animator is to bridge the technical and creative aspects of game production. Collaborating across disciplines to plan, prototype and develop gameplay systems with complex behaviours and mechanics. 

As a Senior Technical Animator, you will enhance animation quality and push boundaries to match our game style.  Working closely with the Animation Director, you’ll take ownership of the technical aspects of animation integration and systems.

If you consider yourself to be a Mid Level Technical Animator or unsure whether your experience is strong enough. We would still love to hear from you!

A typical day will look like:

• Overall responsibility for the technical side of all animation systems, maintaining existing systems and looking to improve where possible
• Create, establish and maintain animation blueprints to ensure animations look good, blend well, and play nicely in-game
• Act as a key stakeholder in any new animation system or feature, collaborating with other disciplines from planning to prototype, to finally maintaining a fully working feature
• Implement assts into the game engine, setting up and connecting all relevant content for state machines, simulations, gameplay systems, logic and cutscenes
• Set up runtime simulations, such as ragdolls, cloth or hair dynamics and procedural animation to characters and objects
• Cost required technical work and suggest appropriate implementation plans, provide proactive progress updates
• Ensure project assets are organised and adhere to project/studio conventions and best practices, including maintaining a tidy working structure and naming convention
• Act as a mentor and coach to more junior members of the team, providing advice and guidance where needed to assist with their personal development and growth

Requirements

Background and skills that would best suit this position:

• Strong knowledge of animation state machines, gameplay mechanics and animations, in engine IK and physics systems and technical knowledge of Unreal Engine, specifically all aspects of the animation blueprint (ABP)
• Experience Programming with Scripting Languages (Mel/Python, PySide/PyQt UI Frameworks), motion capture, key frame and facial pipelines.
• Experience using animation software such as Motion Builder, & Maya with a basic understanding of fundamental animation and rigging principles.
• Experience in the latest developments of animation related aspects of unreal. Such as the control rig BP, Metahuman animator, Motion matching. 
• Ability to determine best integration approach to best fit feature.
• A “fail early, fail often” mentality to support iterative processes striving for quality
• Expert problem-solving and debugging skills
• Demonstrable experience of owning a feature, area or game level
• Background to include working on realistic, high-quality, cinematic animations
• Proven ability to balance quality with technical restrictions
• Experience of mentoring and supervising others
• Preferably at least a shipped title as technical animator.  

Benefits

The Perks of being a Supermassive Superstar are:

• 25 Days Annual Leave (3 of which are used when we close the studio for our end of year break)
• Private Medical Insurance (BUPA) 
• Life Assurance (6 x annual salary)
• Salary Exchange Pension Scheme
• Employee Assistance Programme
• Income Protection  
• Enhanced Family Leave (maternity and paternity pay) 
• Generous staff referral scheme