Studio: 4A Games
Job Opening: Facial Animator
Type: Full-Time
Qualifications & Skills:
- 5+ years of professional experience as a facial animator in games, film, or interactive media.
- Proven track record of delivering expressive, believable facial animation for high-end characters.
- Strong understanding of acting principles, lip-sync, timing, and emotional nuance.
- Advanced proficiency in Maya for keyframe and facial animation editing.
- Solid experience with game engines such as Unreal, Unity, etc.
- Familiarity with MetaHuman and/or custom facial rigs.
- Experience working with facial mocap data (ARKit, Faceware, Dynamixyz, etc.).
- Ability to retarget and refine mocap performance data onto stylized or realistic characters.
- Knowledge of blendshape systems and deformation logic.
- Understanding of real-time animation constraints (e.g., performance budgets, LODs).
- Ability to work within a cinematic or gameplay animation pipeline.
- Comfortable with asset integration, version control (e.g., Perforce), and team-based workflows.
- Strong eye for detail, realism, and expressive storytelling.
- Ability to give and receive feedback constructively.
- Organized, self-motivated, and capable of owning large animation tasks independently.
- Excellent communication skills – able to collaborate effectively with technical and creative departments.
- Experience with MotionBuilder for mocap cleanup.
- Scripting experience (Python, MEL) for automation or tool support.
- Familiarity with facial rig development or shape authoring tools (e.g. Ziva, FaceWare Retargeter).
- Experience animating non-human or stylized facial rigs.
