Senior Animation Artist (Gamedev)

TL;DR

Senior Animation Artist (Gamedev): Creating high-quality first-person weapon and third-person character animations for VALORANT premium content with an accent on weight, anticipation, and impact. Focus on implementing premium skin experiences in Unreal Engine and defining the quality standard for weapon-driven features like finishers and inspects.

Company

Riot Games is a leading game developer known for creating player-focused experiences, most notably League of Legends and VALORANT.

What you will do

• Create animation assets for iterative gameplay prototypes and premium skin content.
• Establish and uphold animation benchmarks to ensure consistency across skin releases (equips, reloads, firing, and inspects).
• Drive the evolution of VALORANT’s animation style by iterating on aesthetic directions.
• Implement and polish assets using Unreal Engine animation pipelines.
• Collaborate with artists, designers, and engineers to enhance the look and feel of premium skins.
• Provide and receive feedback to align on execution and goals within cross-functional teams.

Requirements

• 8+ years of professional experience in animation.
• 8+ years of professional experience working with Maya.
• A strong portfolio or demo reel showcasing foundation in classic animation principles.

Nice to have

• Advanced proficiency in Unreal Engine.
• Professional experience with FPS weapon animation pipelines and skin mechanics.
• Experience with both biped/creature character animation and weapon animation.
• Ability to diagnose and resolve technical animation and rigging issues in a real-time pipeline.
• Experience with source control systems such as Perforce.
• Experience mentoring other artists.

Culture & Benefits

• Full relocation support.
• Comprehensive health insurance for employees, spouses, and children.
• Open paid time off and retirement benefits with company matching.
• Life insurance, parental leave, and short/long-term disability.
• Play Fund to support gaming knowledge and community engagement.
• Matching program for donations to non-profits.

Hiring process

• Portfolio or demo reel review.
• Potential art test.