3D Animator (Blender)

Role Summary

Produce high-quality animal animations in Blender with a strong understanding of anatomy and motion. Support the pipeline with basic rigging capabilities, enabling simple rig edits, weight fixes, and minor control adjustments to keep animation workflows efficient.

Key Responsibilities

• Animate animals across a wide range of behaviors: walk/run cycles, flight, swimming, idle loops, interactions, and expressive performance.
• Apply anatomy, biomechanics, and behavior principles to achieve believable movement.
• Perform basic rigging tasks, including:
• Editing existing rigs
• Setting up simple IK/FK systems
• Adjusting weights and deformation issues
• Creating simple controllers
• Collaborate with modeling and rigging teams to ensure rigs function cleanly for animation.
• Block, refine, and polish animations using Blender's graph editor and NLA tools.
• Optimize animations for real-time engines or cinematic requirements as needed.
• Test and implement animations in Unity or Unreal when required.
• Maintain consistency with the project's animation style and motion standards.
• Prepare documentation for animation workflows and rigging notes.

Required Expertise

• Strong command of Blender animation tools: keyframing, graph editor, constraints, NLA.
• Solid understanding of animal anatomy and believable locomotion principles.
• Basic rigging proficiency: simple rigs, weight painting, constraint setup, troubleshooting minor deformation issues.
• Ability to animate in both realistic and stylized modes.
• Familiarity with real-time engine animation workflows is an advantage.
• Understanding of secondary motion (tails, wings, ears, body follow-through).

Experience Requirements

• 24 years of animation experience.
• Portfolio/showreel demonstrating animal animation and basic rig adjustments.

Performance Metrics

• Movement accuracy and animation polish.
• Rig adjustment efficiency and reliability.
• Compatibility with engine or rendering pipeline.
• Consistency with style and behavior requirements.
• Speed of iteration and low revision rate.