Are you a skilled animator with passion for pushing the boundaries of what's possible in gaming? Do you have strong understanding of technical Animation,  including traditional animation principles and techniques as well as experience with new technologies and tools, and the ability to bring characters to life in Unreal Engine? Do have a strong understanding of rigging and skinning, and are comfortable troubleshooting and debugging technical issues? If so, we want you to join our team as a Technical Animator!
As a Technical Animator at Underdog Studio, you'll have an opportunity to work with Unreal Engine 5 and other cutting-edge technologies as you help create high-quality animations for characters, creatures, and objects in our games. You’ll get to work on exciting projects for a leading gaming company, and have an opportunity to collaborate with a talented team of developers and artists.
If you're ready to take your career to the next level and join a company that values creativity and innovation, we want to hear from you!

Your responsibilities will include:

• Creating high-fidelity animation Rigs.
• Involvement in researching the latest technical breakthroughs related to animations and motions within Unreal Engine.
• Prototyping animation systems.
• Helping to define and establish agreed technical constraints together with the Technical Lead for internal and outsourcing teams.
• Working closely with the Animation Lead to facilitate the creation of pipelines for
  animation. Supervise internal and external animation deliveries to meet technical
  requirements for animation.
• Working closely with internal and external teams to secure deliverables of properly rigged characters and associated technical animation requirements.
• Performing rig fixes and troubleshooting during production and overseeing the skinning of a wide variety of characters.
• Providing ongoing informal and structured technical feedback to colleagues to maintain high standards of quality. Helping to ensure that art and animation quality remains uncompromised by limitations of technical processes.
• Contributing to the estimation, planning and prioritization of tasks.

To qualify for this role, you'll need to have:

• Love for first-person shooters
• Ability to script in Maya and Motion builder
• Ability to create and define tools for art and animation pipelines
• Working knowledge of industry-standard project management tools and source
  control software
• Maya knowledge and experience (rigging, HIK, managing refs, creating tools etc.)
• Motion Builder knowledge and experience (Characterising, Solving, Retargeting,
  import\export etc.)
• Good all round UE Knowledge and Experience
• Good fundamental knowledge and capability of UE Animation systems, including
  Blueprints\State Machines, ControlRig, etc.
• An understanding of Motion Matching and its implementation
• Experience with building procedural character systems, eg, Ground alignment/
  Foot IK, Aim controllers etc. utilizing UE ControlRig.
• Experience with MetaHumans, skeleton\rigs (Body and face)
• Facial animation systems (Knowledge and experience of methods for MetaHuman facial animation, FaceCap\Lip-Syncing; Live-Link\ARKit, Nvidia Audio2Face, etc.)
• Strong verbal and written communication skills, with the ability to effectively
  convey ideas and information
• A desire to constantly learn and grow

What we offer 

• Attractive remuneration, holidays and social events. Our environments thrive with collaborative team-work with people from all around the world, different nationalities, and languages.  
• A supportive community inclusive of LGBTQ+, and any age, ethnicity, religion, or disability. We care about the wellbeing of our employees and have a dedicated employee wellbeing programme.  
• Flexibility with our core hours, and no-notice holidays.  
• Annual discretionary studio bonus  
• Free games and merchandise   
• Wrap parties for game releases  
• Remote/Homeworking with flexible working schedules, a fun environment, and a relaxing culture, including the opportunity to work with the leading technology and creative minds in the world.  
• Learn as you work and be part of something real that changes the face of gaming - forever

 We are an equal opportunities employer with a commitment to building a diverse workforce, representative of the world we live and game in!
Accessibility is at the heart of our games and we reflect that in how we operate as a business. Should you require adjustments or flexible arrangements to interview, or take up a role at with us, please let us know in your application and we will accommodate to the best of our ability.