Senior Gameplay Animator at Skydance Games
Company: Skydance Games
Location: Santa Monica, Los Angeles / Austin, Texas / Seattle, Washington / Remote
Job Type: Full-Time / Remote
Salary: $120,000 – $135,000 per year (Los Angeles range)
About Skydance Games
Skydance Games, a division of Skydance and part of Paramount, is focused on building the future of
interactive entertainment across multiple platforms and genres. The studio is expanding beloved
franchises and developing new AAA experiences such as Marvel 1943: Rise of Hydra.
The team operates on a foundation of creativity, collaboration, and trust, empowering developers to
take ownership of their work and push the boundaries of immersive storytelling and gameplay innovation.
Job Overview
Skydance Games is seeking a Senior Gameplay Animator to join the core animation team developing a
high-quality AAA single-player action-adventure title using Unreal Engine. This role requires deep
expertise in gameplay animation, strong collaboration skills, and the ability to guide external
animation partners in a distributed development environment.
You will work closely with engineering, design, and cinematic teams to deliver highly polished
gameplay animations that enhance player immersion and storytelling.
Key Responsibilities
- Edit, refine, and tune motion capture-based animation content for gameplay systems.
- Create rapid prototypes including hand-keyed placeholder animations.
- Enhance motion capture animations to improve realism and cinematic quality.
- Collaborate with engineering, design, and animation teams to implement gameplay animation systems.
- Work closely with senior animators and designers to ensure timing, style, and expression meet gameplay needs.
- Communicate clearly with internal teams and external animation partners to maintain quality and schedules.
- Participate in motion capture shoots and assist with performance capture integration.
- Support the integration of gameplay animation with cinematic storytelling sequences.
- Partner with animation directors to maintain alignment with the narrative vision of the project.
Required Qualifications
- 6+ years of professional experience in gameplay animation for video games.
- Experience working on at least two shipped AAA titles as a gameplay animator.
- Strong background in third-person action-adventure gameplay animation.
- Experience mentoring or guiding other animators.
- Expertise with advanced animation systems such as Motion Matching and Motion Warping.
- Experience working in real-time game development environments using Unreal Engine.
- Strong prototyping and rapid iteration skills.
- Excellent communication and collaboration across multidisciplinary teams.
- Strong time management and long-term planning abilities.
Benefits
- Competitive salary and compensation package.
- Opportunity to work on high-profile AAA story-driven games.
- Collaborative studio culture with creative ownership.
- Remote-friendly work options and flexible collaboration.
- Career growth opportunities within a leading entertainment company.