Absurd Ventures
Absurd Ventures is hiring: Senior Animator in Santa Monica
Absurd Ventures - Santa Monica, CA, United States, 90411
Work at Absurd Ventures
Overview
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Overview
Summary
We are seeking a highly skilled and experienced Senior Animator to join our dynamic team. As Senior Animator, you will be responsible for creating high-quality character and creature animations that define the quality of animation across our game world. You will have a direct impact on the player's experience by ensuring that our animations are fluid, realistic, and enhance the overall gameplay.
Core Responsibilities
Core Qualifications
Plus if...
Description
The base pay range for this position is $125,000 to $160,000 per year. Actual compensation is based on market location and may vary depending on job-related knowledge, skills, and experience. We also offer a competitive package of benefits including vacation time, sick time, company holidays, parental leave, medical/dental/vision insurance, life insurance, disability insurance, and 401(k) matching to regular full-time employees. Certain roles may also be eligible for bonus and equity.
We are seeking a highly skilled and experienced Senior Animator to join our dynamic team. As Senior Animator, you will be responsible for creating high-quality character and creature animations that define the quality of animation across our game world. You will have a direct impact on the player's experience by ensuring that our animations are fluid, realistic, and enhance the overall gameplay.
Core Responsibilities
- Create high-quality keyframe and motion capture animations for player characters, enemies, and NPCs.
- Work closely with designers and engineers to ensure animations integrate seamlessly into gameplay and AI systems.
- Help define and refine animation pipelines and workflows to maximize efficiency and quality.
- Collaborate with technical animators and engineers to develop animation state machines, blend trees, and procedural animation solutions.
- Maintain a high level of artistic and technical quality while meeting project deadlines.
- Mentor and support junior animators, sharing knowledge and best practices.
- Provide feedback and iterate animations based on playtests and internal reviews.
Core Qualifications
- 5+ years of experience in animation for games.
- Strong proficiency in Maya.
- Experience working with animation systems in modern game engines (Unreal Engine preferred).
- A strong understanding of animation principles, character performance, and motion dynamics.
- Familiarity with motion capture processes, cleanup, and implementation.
- Experience with state machines, blend trees, and animation-driven gameplay mechanics.
- Ability to collaborate across disciplines and communicate effectively with designers and engineers.
- A strong portfolio demonstrating high-quality character animation.
Plus if...
- Experience working in Motionbuilder.
- Experience with procedural animation and runtime animation techniques.
- Familiarity with scripting or tools development (Python, MEL, Blueprint, etc.).
- Background in combat animation, creature animation, or cinematic animation.
- Previous experience mentoring or leading a small team of animators.
Description
- Full time job with benefits
- Role is on-site in San Rafael, CA or Santa Monica, CA.
The base pay range for this position is $125,000 to $160,000 per year. Actual compensation is based on market location and may vary depending on job-related knowledge, skills, and experience. We also offer a competitive package of benefits including vacation time, sick time, company holidays, parental leave, medical/dental/vision insurance, life insurance, disability insurance, and 401(k) matching to regular full-time employees. Certain roles may also be eligible for bonus and equity.