Gameplay Animator

Are you an experienced Gameplay Animator with strong 3D character animation skills and a passion for creating expressive, stylized gameplay moments?

Join a creative game team bringing a new stylized world to life. You’ll work closely with art and design to produce animations that enhance game feel, character personality and overall player experience. This is a contract position based in downtown Toronto, with hybrid flexibility.

About the role

You will create dynamic, high‑quality gameplay animations for characters, creatures and select objects, contributing directly to how the game feels moment‑to‑moment. Working collaboratively with the art, tech and design teams, you’ll bring expressive character moments to life while ensuring animations integrate smoothly into Unity. This role is ideal for an animator who loves stylized movement, strong personality work and gameplay‑driven animation.

What you’ll do

• Animate a wide range of characters, animals and occasional objects
• Create dynamic gameplay animations and strong expressive character moments
• Produce facial animations using rigs and sprite swaps
• Implement, integrate and refine animations directly inside Unity
• Collaborate with the Art Director to support and enhance the visual direction
• Work with tech and design teams to ensure animations function within technical constraints
• Apply animation blending, layering and retargeting techniques for consistency and efficiency
• Contribute to overall game feel and animation quality through iteration and feedback

What we’re looking for:

Experience

• At least one commercially shipped game as a 3D character animator
• Strong proficiency in Autodesk Maya
• Experience creating 3D character animations including actions, poses and facial work
• Ability to commute to or relocate to the Greater Toronto Area
• Legally authorized to work in Canada
• Available to work on‑site three days per week

Skills

• Solid understanding of core animation principles
• Strong sense of game feel and timing
• Ability to animate a variety of personalities and movement styles
• Understanding of additive and procedural animation techniques in Unity
• Experience with animation retargeting across rigs
• Strong communication and cross‑discipline collaboration skills
• Ability to implement animations in Unity

Nice to have

• Knowledge of rigging and skinning workflows
• Traditional animation skills
• Personal interest in action or board sports

Working style / behaviours

• Collaborative and communicative
• Detail‑oriented with strong ownership of quality
• Comfortable iterating quickly in a gameplay‑driven environment
• Enjoys working closely with cross‑functional teams

Why join

• Contribute to a stylized game with strong artistic direction
• Work alongside a talented and supportive creative team
• Hybrid workplace flexibility
• Opportunities to shape the personality and feel of a new IP

If you’re a gameplay‑focused animator who thrives in a collaborative, creative environment, we’d love to hear from you. Apply now, or email Joe McKernan - jm@skillsearch.com

Years of experience and salary levels are shown purely as a guide. We will only consider applications from candidates that can demonstrate the skills or experience required for the role.

Please be aware that while we would love to respond to every application we receive, due to high numbers we cannot guarantee this. We do however appreciate any time you invest into the application and will make sure to get in touch should anything in future more closely fit your skillset.