Technical Animator - Remote or On Site

Studio Wildcard•Redmond, WA

117d•Hybrid

About The Position

Studio Wildcard, the developers of ARK: Survival Evolved, are expanding and updating their beloved features for ARK Survival Ascended. They are looking for a talented and passionate Technical Artist to create high-impact work for the expanding ARK franchise. This role involves creating sophisticated IK solutions, rigging characters and creatures, designing advanced procedural animation systems, building responsive state machines, developing physics-based animation systems, leveraging Houdini for procedural generation and optimization, solving complex technical animation challenges, performing quality checks and optimization, and creating technical documentation. The position offers the flexibility of being remote or on-site.

Requirements

3+ years of professional experience as a Technical Animator / Technical Artist in game development, with at least 1 shipped title
Strong expertise in Unreal Engine Animation Blueprints, procedural animation techniques, IK/FK systems, and real-time character/creature workflows
Practical experience with physics simulation in real-time engines (ragdoll, active physics blending, joint constraints, momentum-based animation)
Ability to quickly adapt to new pipelines, tools, and evolving engine features
Excellent problem-solving skills and strong communication
Maya rigging experience

Nice To Haves

Previous work on creature animation
Programming experience
Rigging pipelines from Maya UE5
Motion capture experience
Familiarity with performance optimization
Houdini experience

Responsibilities

Create sophisticated IK solutions (foot placement, terrain adaptation) in Unreal Engine Control Rig and Anim Blueprints
Rig human characters, dinosaurs, and fantasy creatures with precise attention to anatomy, understanding joint placement and muscle deformation
Design and implement advanced procedural and gameplay-driven animation systems using Animation Blueprints (AnimBPs) in Unreal Engine 5
Build responsive state machines, blend spaces, pose drivers, animation modifiers, notifies, and layered logic tightly coupled to gameplay and physics
Develop physics-based animation systems including active ragdoll blending
Leverage Houdini to procedurally modify, generate, or optimize meshes and skeletons (e.g., procedural bone/joint chain creation based on anatomical references, topology adjustments for deformation, procedural merging of skeletons)
Solve complex technical animation challenges while collaborating with modeling, animation, design, and engineering teams
Perform quality checks, optimization (including LOD behavior), and seamless engine integration
Create clear technical documentation and help evolve the animation & rigging pipeline