Lead Technical Animator

Creative Assembly is looking for a Lead Technical Animator to join our talented team to work on our new project, a sequel to Alien: Isolation.

This role will be based at our studio in Horsham, UK and can be offered as hybrid / in-studio / fully remote within country of employment. Further details can be discussed during the recruitment process.

Note: Applications for this role will ideally include a portfolio (or link to a portfolio).

The Role

As the Lead Technical Animator, you will spearhead efforts to enhance the quality and efficiency of our character, animation, and supporting pipelines. This pivotal role bridges the gap between art, animation, and technology, ensuring the development, integration, and delivery of high-quality character, animation, and technical solutions across the project. Your work will ensure that animations and characters are not only visually stunning but also seamlessly functional within the engine, providing players with an engaging and immersive experience.

This is a new project, being built in UE5, this role offers an exciting opportunity to have a significant influence on the foundational technology and evolving look and feel of the game.

What you’ll be doing

On a day-to-day basis, you will:

• Apply your technical expertise directly in creating, developing, and managing our character and animation pipeline – from DCC to engine.
• Devise, assist and implement character and animation systems, rigs, tools, and pipelines.
• Collaborate and work closely with animators, motion capture technicians, artists, technical artists, and engineers, in helping deliver engaging and immersive characters.
• Review existing workflows, tools, and systems, identifying and solving technical challenges within the animation pipeline.
• Research emerging technologies; improving efficiency and quality of our character and animation assets and pipeline.
• Adapt to learn new skills that will help elevate and offer new solutions to meet the design, gameplay, and project requirements.
• Tackle day-to-day requests for improvements and bug fixes.

What we are looking for

Essential

• A passion for games and games animation
• Strong ability to communicate clear direction, break down tasks and feedback to help mentor, guide and educate fellow teammates.
• Experience with commonly used DCCs such as Maya & MoBu
• Excellent knowledge of Python and coding standards
• Excellent knowledge of complex rigging systems
• Excellent understanding of in-engine character and animation systems – locomotion, modular character setups, runtime deformation and physics
• Previously worked on AAA titles in an equivalent role.

Desirable

• Solid understanding of 3D math (linear algebra, vector and matrix math)
• Experience with Unreal Engine
• Experience with complex face rig setup - FACs based.
• Experience with C++ /Maya API & Plugin writing
• Experience with 3DS Max & Blender
• Experience with motion capture pipelines and shoots