Experienced Technical Animator

Posted: almost 3 years
Art and Animation
Full-Time
£30,000 – £42,000 per annum
Remote possible - Europe time-zone or close to it

Why Us?!


Here at Super Spline we are a bunch of friendly, talented individuals, who thrive on creativity and the love of the art. We value every voice and we’ve worked hard to build a working environment that  is warm and welcoming. We hold ourselves to the high standards we set out to achieve, without doing overtime. We go out as a team every week for lunch, cinema trips for research and organise social events with other local animators. Having a relaxed atmosphere allows us to do what we do best: great animation, great development, and provide a great service to all our clients.

Variety is the spice of life, and that’s what we think is unique about Super Spline. We get short and long term projects, ranging from console to high end mobile games, VR experiences to trailers. Each project has it’s own challenges and creative problems to solve. Say good-bye to working on a project for 4+ years and it never seeing the light of day.

We offer:
  • A friendly relaxed team atmosphere with a commitment to open communication. 
  • No Crunch. Ever.
  • No project fatigue.
  • Relocation bonus.
  • 20 days paid holiday + 1 per year up to 24.
  • Your birthday off.
  • Christmas closure for 1.5-2 weeks.
  • Flexi time (39 hours per week).
  • Pension scheme
  • Half a day every week for training (Jnrs/Mids)
Our full-time positions are in our Leamington Spa studio, but remote work is also possible. (Please note: we are fully remote whilst Covid-19 is a threat)

The Position


We define the importance of skillset as follows:

  • Engine: Work in engine to provide animation solutions, for example: runtime IK, dynamic joints, custom retargeting etc
  • Tools: To write both Engine and Maya based tools to solve/speed up productions. 
  • Rigging: Creating bespoke game ready rigs, skinning, PSD, Blendshapes etc Familiarity with Advanced Skeleton a bonus. Ability to evaluate rigs/skeletons from existing productions and ingest into our workflow.
We are looking for someone with a broad base knowledge and an eagerness to learn new techniques and implement them. We often look to the pioneers of the industry and strive to bring the craft, tech and artistry they demonstrate into our daily practices. The ability to animate to a good standard would be great as we’ll have plenty of opportunity.

As a tech animator at Super Spline you will support animators on a day to day basis. We expect you to be able to troubleshoot and solve issues independently, as well as working closely with the team. You will also be expected to write tools/processes based on the tech roadmap. You should be comfortable implementing animations in game, including setting up animation graphs to hand over to programmers. The desired candidate may be an animator who has a technical savvy skill-set.

The right candidate has the opportunity to establish themselves in our small studio and help build our pipelines, streamline workflows and be intrinsic to the growth that we aspire to.

Required skills

  • Minimum 3 years in a similar role
  • Knowledge of game development workflows, most importantly within rigging and animation
  • Proficiency in Autodesk Maya and experience using its rigging / skinning tools
  • A solid foundation and understanding of rigging at an experienced or advanced level
  • Experience working with and/or creating animation tools and scripts (Python, MEL, Pymel)
  • Able to create rigs for characters and props for various styles (realistic, cartoony) using knowledge of anatomy for humanoid and animals
  • Experience rigging faces using joints, blendshapes, FACS etc. 
  • Working knowledge of creating assets for game engines including Unreal and Unity. 
  • A great sense of technical excellence, functionality, and problem-solving
  • A strong portfolio and willingness to complete a test to show skill level
  • Strong communication skills and ability to work in a team

Desired skills
  • Understanding of multi-layered deformation systems, deformers, blendshapes etc and how they work in real time game middleware
  • Experience of dynamics (cloth, muscles etc) and integrating them in games.
  • Experience with C# / Unreal Blueprints / Unity Editor Scripts
  • Experience with working with motion capture data in Maya
  • Strong animation skills and keen eye for detail

A Portfolio is required demonstrating all aspects of your skills, please include a link in your application. All further information is provided under non-disclosure agreement only. 

Applicants must be eligible to work in the U.K.

Job Expired

About Super Spline Studios

THE REMOTE ANIMATION DEPARTMENT

HIGH QUALITY & FLEXIBLE ANIMATION SERVICES FOR GAMES, TV & FILM

We’ve dedicated our 50+ years of shared experience to curating and supporting one of the best pools of animation talent in the country, ready to direct the right skills to the right project at the right time. Viewers and players now demand more and more from their digital entertainment, but we understand that it’s not always cost-effective for you to hire and maintain full-time animation teams in-house. So that’s where we come in!

We’ve worked on projects for Disney, DreamWorks, Nickelodeon, Warner Bros., Namco, Rovio, Intel, Cbeebies and Games Workshop, as well as a tonne of original titles too, for everyone from small indie startups through to international entertainment companies.

Aron, James & Eoin


Super Spline Studios

Company Website

United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

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Super Spline Studios

Company Website

United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

Jobs Posted: 0