Senior Animation Artist - VALORANT

As a member of the Animation team, you bring our Agents to life through classic animation principles and body mechanics. You will create high-quality animations for a high-performing team, still focused on growth and exploration. Your experience should show that you understand great and explosive timing, large contrast in silhouettes, and are keen to bring a sharp aesthetic to the gaming world. Your focus will be on breathing life into iconic characters and ensuring that we provide the best experiences for our players.

As a Senior Animator for VALORANT’s Character Team, you are responsible for animating our Agents–spanning across 1P, 3P, and Character Selects–ensuring their cohesion in style and quality supports VALORANT’s art direction and gameplay. Your craft expertise and high-level execution will help the team continue to push the envelope and refine creative and pipeline processes. Your excellent communication and collaboration skills will assist with achieving cross-discipline alignment on the projects you work on. You will report directly into the Animation Lead. 

Responsibilities:

• Create high-quality animation assets for the VALORANT team. This includes Agent gameplay, character selects, and new feature work being developed.
• Review animations with your team, and provide artistic and technical feedback.
• Collaborate in a cross-disciplinary environment of internal developers in the creation of in-game content.
• Approach problems with a technical mindset when ideating and troubleshooting animations.
• Anticipate and recognize potential conflicts or production issues and recommend appropriate solutions.
• Guide and mentor junior members of the team

Required Qualifications:

• 5+ years of experience creating high quality animations in gaming or entertainment
• Experience with Maya or similar programs and a strong understanding of AAA character creation pipelines.
• Understand body mechanics, acting, posing and storytelling techniques
• Understand physical motion, weight, balance, texture, form, and all other animation principles
• Excellence in collaboration and communication skills
• Experience shipping at least one game from a first person perspective

Desired Qualifications:

• Prior experience in game/film/cinematic development
• Experience developing in the Unreal Engine
• Familiarity with the VALORANT IP - gameplay, art, and animation style.

For this role, you'll find success through craft expertise, a collaborative spirit, and decision-making that prioritizes the delight of players. We will be looking at your past studies, experience, and your personal relationship with games. If you embody player empathy and care about the experiences of players, this could be the role for you!

Our Perks:

Riot has a focus on work/life balance, shown by our open paid time off policy, in addition to other perks such as flexible work schedules. We offer medical, dental, and life insurance, parental leave for you, your spouse/domestic partner and children, and a 401k with company match. Check out our benefits pages for more information.

Riot Games fosters a player and workplace experience that values teamwork embodied by the Summoner's Code and Community Code. Our culture embraces differences as a strength, and our values are the guiding principles for how we approach work. We are committed to putting diversity and inclusion (D&I) at the center of everything we do, and promoting a fair and collaborative culture where Rioters treat one another with dignity and respect. We encourage you to read more about our value of thriving together and our ongoing work to build the most inclusive company in Gaming.

It’s our policy to provide equal employment opportunity for all applicants and members of Riot Games, Inc. Riot Games makes reasonable accommodations for handicapped and disabled Rioters and does not unlawfully discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, national origin, age, handicap, veteran status, marital status, criminal history, or any other category protected by applicable federal and state law. We consider for employment all qualified applicants, including those with criminal histories, in a manner consistent with applicable federal, state and local law, including the California Fair Chance Act, the City of Los Angeles Fair Chance Initiative for Hiring Ordinance, the Los Angeles County Fair Chance Ordinance for Employers, the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, and the Washington Fair Chance Act.

Per the Los Angeles County Fair Chance Ordinance, the following core duties may create a basis for disqualifying candidates with relevant criminal histories:

• Safeguarding confidential and sensitive Company data
• Communication with others, including Rioters and third parties such as vendors, and/or players, including minors
• Accessing Company assets, secure digital systems, and networks
• Ensuring a safe interactive environment for players and other Rioters

These duties are directly related to essential operations, safety, trust, and compliance obligations within our organization. Please note that job duties may evolve based on business needs and additional responsibilities may be assigned as necessary to maintain operational efficiency and security.