Job description
We are Nebula Studio, a leading animation house creating immersive character-driven stories for film, TV, and AAA games. We are seeking a Senior 3D Character Animator to join our Los Angeles studio and help bring expressive characters to life with precision, timing, and emotional depth.
In this role, you’ll collaborate with directors, designers, and technical directors to craft performances that serve the storytelling goals of multiple projects. You will contribute to character performance pipelines, mentor junior artists, and ensure consistency with our studio's stylistic standards.
We value versatility, initiative, and a passion for narrative animation. If you have a strong reel that demonstrates acting through movement and a collaborative spirit, we’d love to hear from you.
Responsibility
- Create expressive, convincing character performances using timing, anatomy, and acting beats.
- Collaborate with directors, riggers, and lighters to ensure faithful character movement from concept to final render.
- Develop and maintain robust animation pipelines, style guides, and reference materials.
- Mentor junior animators, review work, and provide constructive feedback.
- Rigging collaboration: work with the rigging team to ensure deformation quality and efficient workflows.
- Optimize animations for performance in real-time engines (Unreal or Unity) as needed.
- Participate in review sessions, iterate quickly based on feedback, and deliver on schedule.
- Contribute to storytelling through kinetic motion and camera blocking in sequences.
Qualification
- 5+ years of professional 3D character animation experience in film, TV, or games.
- Expert-level proficiency with Autodesk Maya or equivalent, including rigging basics and blendshapes.
- Strong portfolio showcasing character animation, acting, and performance range.
- Experience with real-time engines (Unreal or Unity) is a plus.
- Solid understanding of anatomy, weight, timing, and pacing; ability to convey emotion through motion.
- Excellent communication and collaboration skills; ability to take direction and provide feedback to peers.
- Ability to manage multiple tasks, meet deadlines, and work in a fast-paced environment.
- Bachelor’s degree in Animation, Computer Graphics, or related field preferred.