Senior Gameplay Animator (M/F/NB) - BGE2

Ubisoft is a global leader in video games, with teams around the world creating original and memorable gaming experiences, from Assassin's Creed to Rainbow Six, Just Dance, and many more. We believe that diversity of perspective drives both players and teams forward. If you are passionate about innovation and want to push the boundaries of entertainment, join our adventure and help us create the unknown!

Why we need you:

Beyond Good & Evil 2 is an open-world action-adventure game set in a captivating space opera universe. It is also the direct prequel to the 2003 classic! Thanks to the technological advances brought about by our proprietary Voyager engine, Beyond Good & Evil 2 aims to offer an organic, seamless experience of exploration and space piracy on a solar system scale, featuring exotic locations, colorful characters, and countless mysteries to discover, either solo or with friends. If you're looking for a unique adventure, join our team and help us create System 3! 

We are expanding our 6-person Gameplay Animation team to take on major challenges in Beyond Good & Evil 2.

Join an experienced team where everyone is an owner of their features, in a stimulating AAA environment.

Become a key player in creating animations that will thrill players.

Responsibilities: 

What you will do:  

Create and integrate gameplay animations.

• Produce and integrate gameplay animations (combat, locomotion, traversal) with a high level of responsiveness and readability, and work independently on a subsystem (e.g., combat or traversal) from the outset.
• Adapt animations to gameplay constraints: responsiveness, readability, timing.
• Work from keyframes and/or motion capture, adjusting, reworking, and energizing the data to match the artistic direction.
• Export and test animations using internal tools.
• Energize the animation, give it movement, and place it in context (beyond simple mocap cleaning).

Development of gameplay-oriented animation systems

• Participate in the prototyping and polishing of animation systems until the final version.
• Ensure compatibility with game mechanics (combat, interactions).
• Contribute to the development of Main Character & NPC animations (combat, behaviors).

Inter-team collaboration

• Work closely with:• the Animation Art Director,
• the Lead Animator and the team of animators,
•  the Game Designers (intentions, readability),
• the Gameplay Programmers (integration, debugging, technical constraints),
•  the Technical Animators (pipelines, state machines, animtrees).

      • Identify needs, report problems, and propose appropriate solutions.

Quality, optimization & iteration

• Test the game to identify additional animation needs.
• Iterate on integrated content to ensure consistency, artistic fidelity, and performance.
• Maintain a high level of quality while respecting the technical constraints of the internal AAA engine.

Your work environment :

• Based at Ubisoft Montpellier, under the supervision of the Lead Animator (minimum 3 days on site)
• Experienced and specialized team.
• Tools: MotionBuilder (main), internal AAA engine, Jira, Perforce (P4V).
• Animation style: Semi-realistic, stylized, gameplay-oriented.

Technical skills

• Solid background in 3D animation — share your demo reel with your best animations.
• Excellent minimum proficiency in MotionBuilder (keyframe + mocap).
• Very good skills in combat gameplay animation.
• Proficiency Experience with game engines, animation pipelines, import/export, Perforce.
• Experience on AAA projects.
• Ability to communicate in English (spoken and written).

Nice to have

• Knowledge of Maya (optional).
• Appetite for Tech Anim (state machines, animtrees, pipeline).
• Understanding of French.

Soft skills:

• Autonomy and initiative: ability to quickly grasp topics, propose solutions, and move forward without constant supervision.
• Excellent communication: essential for collaborating effectively with different teams.
• Artistic sense and attention to detail: ensuring animations are consistent with the stylized semi-realistic artistic direction.
• Interdisciplinary collaboration: working with a variety of profiles and understanding their constraints to find appropriate solutions.

The recruitment process:

Our recruitment process

• Review of your application: our team will carefully review your application and portfolio.
• Interview 1: Introduction (1 hour, via video conference): a discussion with a member of the recruitment team to get to know you better and check that your background matches our expectations.
• Interview 2: Artistic (1 hour, via video conference): with members of the team (Animation Director and Animation Team Lead) to discuss your methodology and skills, as well as a live discussion about your demo reel.
• Artistic test: a one-day exercise to assess your mastery of tools and artistic sensibility.

Other information:

• Location: Montpellier.
• Start date: You can join the team as soon as possible.

Check out this guide to help you with your application, and learn about our actions to encourage more diversity and inclusion.