Contract Advanced Animator Job at Certain Affinity in Austin

Advanced Animator - 3 Month Contract

As a Contract Advanced Animator at Certain Affinity, you will operate as a high-impact contributor responsible not only for delivering exceptional animation content, but for defining, elevating, and enforcing animation standards across a large-scale live service title. You will partner closely with leadership and cross-disciplinary teams to ensure animation quality scales with the needs of a global player base, while driving consistency across both first- and third-person experiences.

This role requires deep expertise in facial animation systems, including FACS-based workflows, and a proven ability to influence pipelines, mentor senior talent, and guide visual direction at a systemic level.

Responsibilities

• Partner with the Art Leads, Design, Engineering, and Technical Animation to define and uphold animation standards, style guides, and best practices across the project
• Act as a quality bar setter, ensuring animation fidelity, consistency, and responsiveness meet the demands of a live service environment
• Create high-quality animation content, including complex gameplay, cinematic, and FACS-driven facial animation systems
• Own and evolve facial animation pipelines, ensuring scalability, reusability, and performance across a large content footprint
• Collaborate with technical teams to drive improvements in tools, runtime systems, and workflows, with a focus on efficiency and long-term maintainability
• Provide advanced mentorship and critique, elevating both senior and mid-level animators through structured feedback and hands-on guidance
• Review and guide implementation to ensure animation integrates cleanly within gameplay systems and adheres to performance constraints
• Support cross-team alignment by translating creative goals into actionable animation direction, particularly in ambiguous or evolving areas
• Contribute to feature-level animation direction, helping shape how animation supports gameplay readability, feel, and player engagement

Requirements

• 6+ years of experience in game development focused on character animation
• Shipped multiple titles, including at least one live service or large-scale multiplayer game
• Demonstrated experience operating at a senior-plus level, influencing quality and workflows beyond individual asset contribution
• Strong expertise in realistic animation, including mocap cleanup, polish, and high-end keyframe work
• Deep experience with facial animation pipelines, including FACS-based systems and blendshape-driven performance
• Expert understanding of animation principles across characters, cameras, and gameplay systems
• Advanced experience with Unreal Engine (UE5 preferred) and real-time animation systems
• Proven experience developing animation for both first-person and third-person gameplay
• Strong understanding of performance constraints and optimization for console and PC
• High proficiency in Maya and familiarity with MotionBuilder or equivalent tools
• Demonstrated ability to define direction with minimal oversight and drive alignment across teams
• Extensive experience mentoring and elevating other animators, including senior peers

Extra Credit

• Experience leading or directing facial performance capture sessions, including actor direction with FACS in mind
• Strong collaboration with Technical Animation on rigging, facial systems, and runtime solutions
• Experience reviewing and coordinating work across multiple contributors or external partners
• Background in acting, anatomy, or facial performance analysis
• Familiarity with procedural animation systems, runtime blending, or live service content iteration workflows