3D Character Animator - Next Generation AI

Background

A revolutionary AI solution, born out of a gaming studio based in Haverhill (Suffolk), which is reshaping the future of AI with their hyper realistic avatars who can naturally converse to great detail, in any language of your choosing.

With many uses for the product, including concierge / receptionist / exhibitor / entertainment solutions, they are attracting enormous amounts of interest already and have a large number of projects set to kick off over the next few months.

Role Overview:

We’re looking for an experienced 3D Character Animator to join the creative team and help bring a diverse range of AI-powered, hand-crafted 3D characters to life. Built entirely in-house using industry-standard tools and the PBR pipeline, these characters are designed for expressive, real-time interaction.

This hands-on, production-focused role involves working closely with their Art Director, and 3D artists to deliver emotionally rich animations in Unity environments.

As the sole animator, you will help define and drive our animation pipeline and performance benchmarks.

This is a unique chance to work on cutting-edge real-time character performance systems, contributing directly to immersive, interactive, AI-powered experiences.

Responsibilities:

• Create dynamic full-body and facial animations using keyframe and MoCap workflows.
• Set up and refine character rigs for full-body and facial animation, working closely with the 3D art team.
• Perform skinning and weighting to ensure clean deformation during animation.
• Develop and refine facial performance using blend shapes, wrinkle maps, facial rigs, and visemes.
• Collaborate with 3D artists and developers to ensure assets are animation-ready and optimised for real-time performance.
• Set up, refine, and integrate animations in Unity, including asset implementation, state machine and blend tree setup, and quality testing.
• Maintain high-quality animation deliverables on tight deadlines, contributing creative ideas to character performance and storytelling.

Required Skills & Experience:

• Minimum of 4 years’ experience working as a real-time 3D character animator.
• Strong portfolio/showreel featuring both body and facial animation (keyframe and MoCap).
• Demonstrable proficiency with Unity, particularly in importing, testing, and refining animation workflows.
• Familiarity with rigging techniques including joint-based and blend shape-driven systems
• An understanding of physics-driven animation, inverse kinematics (IK), and runtime animation systems.
• Experience with motion capture pipelines and animation rigs.
• Practical experience working with blend shapes, wrinkle maps, facial rigs, and viseme systems.
• Strong understanding of character movement, weight, and physics.
• Solid understanding of animation principles; performance, timing, emotion, and body language.
• Comfortable working autonomously, while collaborating effectively with creative and technical team members.
• Knowledge of animation integration into engines, including blend trees, state machines, and performance constraints.