Technical Animator (6-month Contract)
Top Benefits
About the role
Blackbird Interactive is a creative-fueled, future-driven, independent game studio where the best talent in the industry can find long-term careers to help grow their abilities while working on a wide range of projects, which encompass world-class IPs as well as our own creations across multiple genres.
In 2022, we announced that our studio is implementing a four-day work week as well as supporting in-studio, remote within Canada, and hybrid work arrangements as permanent options to our employees.
Blackbird Interactive is seeking a passionate Technical Animator to join our team on an upcoming first-person narrative thriller.
Do you have a broad range of creative and technical experience setting up characters and animation in Unreal Engine 5? Are you skilled at working under a strong technical brief? If so, we’d love to hear from you!
At BBI, we’re a creative-fueled, future-driven, independent game studio where top industry talent can grow their careers while working on both world-class IPs and original creations across multiple genres.
We’re looking for a Technical Animator to help modernize our animation, rigging, and content workflows for this first-person Unreal 5 project. This role is ideal for someone passionate about tools, pipelines, and enabling teams to do their best work while working within performance and platform constraints.
You’ll join a fast-moving team developing the second installment of a new IP, with a focus on creating rigging systems, batch tooling, Maya automation, scratch animation, asset validation, and maintaining a clean and scalable animation/content pipeline.
We support both remote and hybrid working arrangements across Canada (Vancouver, BC). At BBI, you’ll find a flexible, forward-thinking environment where creative voices are valued and nurtured.
Please include a link to your showreel with your CV.
Responsibilities
- Develop and maintain Maya and Unreal-based pipelines and tools to support animation, rigging, and content export workflows
- Collaborate with animators and riggers to define modular rig standards (including facial morphs, attachments, decay systems, and variant support)
- Build, refactor, and modernize existing pipelines and tools
- Partner with engineers and designers to ensure pipeline output integrates cleanly into the game engine, supports gameplay systems, and meets performance targets
Requirements
- 4+ years of experience in technical art, technical animation, animation, or tools development for games
- Strong knowledge of rigging workflows
- Experience with, or demonstrable skill in, MetaHuman and Unreal Engine
- Familiarity with game-ready skeleton design, skinning, and animation scene structure
- Comfort working in Perforce-integrated pipelines and managing scene referencing/export workflows
- Basic animation skills (complemented by the animators on the project)
- Strong communication skills and a collaborative mindset
Bonus Points For
- Passion for games
- Passion for film and cinematography
- Experience manipulating Unreal camera rigs and setups
About Blackbird Interactive
Blackbird Interactive (BBI) is a creative-fueled, future-driven, independent studio - behind such games as Homeworld: Deserts of Kharak, Hardspace: Shipbreaker, and the upcoming Homeworld 3, Minecraft Legends, and Crossfire: Legion. Founded by Rob Cunningham, Yossarian King, and Aaron Kambeitz in 2010, the award-winning Vancouver studio boast its own internal CG cinematics department, led by the founder of Pixar Canada, and has also been involved in various game-adjacent projects over the years - such as Project Eagle with the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and other initiatives with the eatART Foundation and Sanctuary AI. BBI was listed among the fastest growing Canadian companies by revenue in 2020 and 2021 by The Globe and Mail and Deloitte.
Technical Animator (6-month Contract)
Top Benefits
About the role
Blackbird Interactive is a creative-fueled, future-driven, independent game studio where the best talent in the industry can find long-term careers to help grow their abilities while working on a wide range of projects, which encompass world-class IPs as well as our own creations across multiple genres.
In 2022, we announced that our studio is implementing a four-day work week as well as supporting in-studio, remote within Canada, and hybrid work arrangements as permanent options to our employees.
Blackbird Interactive is seeking a passionate Technical Animator to join our team on an upcoming first-person narrative thriller.
Do you have a broad range of creative and technical experience setting up characters and animation in Unreal Engine 5? Are you skilled at working under a strong technical brief? If so, we’d love to hear from you!
At BBI, we’re a creative-fueled, future-driven, independent game studio where top industry talent can grow their careers while working on both world-class IPs and original creations across multiple genres.
We’re looking for a Technical Animator to help modernize our animation, rigging, and content workflows for this first-person Unreal 5 project. This role is ideal for someone passionate about tools, pipelines, and enabling teams to do their best work while working within performance and platform constraints.
You’ll join a fast-moving team developing the second installment of a new IP, with a focus on creating rigging systems, batch tooling, Maya automation, scratch animation, asset validation, and maintaining a clean and scalable animation/content pipeline.
We support both remote and hybrid working arrangements across Canada (Vancouver, BC). At BBI, you’ll find a flexible, forward-thinking environment where creative voices are valued and nurtured.
Please include a link to your showreel with your CV.
Responsibilities
- Develop and maintain Maya and Unreal-based pipelines and tools to support animation, rigging, and content export workflows
- Collaborate with animators and riggers to define modular rig standards (including facial morphs, attachments, decay systems, and variant support)
- Build, refactor, and modernize existing pipelines and tools
- Partner with engineers and designers to ensure pipeline output integrates cleanly into the game engine, supports gameplay systems, and meets performance targets
Requirements
- 4+ years of experience in technical art, technical animation, animation, or tools development for games
- Strong knowledge of rigging workflows
- Experience with, or demonstrable skill in, MetaHuman and Unreal Engine
- Familiarity with game-ready skeleton design, skinning, and animation scene structure
- Comfort working in Perforce-integrated pipelines and managing scene referencing/export workflows
- Basic animation skills (complemented by the animators on the project)
- Strong communication skills and a collaborative mindset
Bonus Points For
- Passion for games
- Passion for film and cinematography
- Experience manipulating Unreal camera rigs and setups
About Blackbird Interactive
Blackbird Interactive (BBI) is a creative-fueled, future-driven, independent studio - behind such games as Homeworld: Deserts of Kharak, Hardspace: Shipbreaker, and the upcoming Homeworld 3, Minecraft Legends, and Crossfire: Legion. Founded by Rob Cunningham, Yossarian King, and Aaron Kambeitz in 2010, the award-winning Vancouver studio boast its own internal CG cinematics department, led by the founder of Pixar Canada, and has also been involved in various game-adjacent projects over the years - such as Project Eagle with the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and other initiatives with the eatART Foundation and Sanctuary AI. BBI was listed among the fastest growing Canadian companies by revenue in 2020 and 2021 by The Globe and Mail and Deloitte.