Blackbird Interactive is looking for a talented, passionate, and driven 3D Animator to join our team for a 3-month full-time contract. In this role, you will help shape the visual identity and gameplay feel of an unannounced, world-class AAA sci-fi action title.
Blackbird Interactive operate as a remote-first workplace, offering flexible arrangements that empower our team to do their best work from anywhere in Canada. If you have a sharp eye for weight, timing, and mechanics, and you want to breathe life into characters, creatures, and hard-surface weaponry within a highly collaborative indie studio environment, we want to hear from you.
Canada Jobs 3D Animator Job Overview
| Category | Specification |
| Company Name | Blackbird Interactive (BBI) |
| Job Title | Animator |
| Contract Duration | 3 Months (Temporary Full-Time) |
| Work Model | Remote-First / Flexible Work Arrangements |
| Geographic Restriction | Must currently reside in Canada |
| Legal Requirement | Must be legally authorized to work in Canada |
| Annualized Salary Range | $70,000 – $85,000 CAD per year (pro-rated to contract length) |
| Core Software Focus | Autodesk Maya / 3ds Max & Engine State Machines |
| Project Type | AAA Sci-Fi Action Intellectual Property (IP) |
About Blackbird Interactive
Blackbird Interactive (BBI) is a creative-fueled, future-driven, independent game studio based out of Vancouver, BC. Founded by industry veterans, our mission is to build an environment where the best talent in the industry can find long-term fulfillment, expand their technical and artistic boundaries, and work on compelling projects. Our portfolio encompasses world-class, established IPs as well as our own original creations across multiple genres.
We believe that great games are made by diverse, autonomous teams working with a shared passion. As a remote-first studio, we prioritize clear communication, psychological safety, and work-life balance, ensuring our developers have the support they need to innovate.
Position Summary & Core Objectives
As a contract 3D Animator at Blackbird Interactive, you will work under the direct supervision and guidance of our Art Director and Character Art Lead. Your primary focus will be creating compelling, immersive, and high-quality keyframe animations for a diverse range of assets, including humanoid characters, alien or robotic creatures, complex weaponry, and dynamic environmental props.
Beyond generating raw animation data, you will be deeply involved in the technical implementation of your work. You will contribute to creating a clean, scalable animation and content pipeline that fits seamlessly within our project’s distinct sci-fi aesthetic. This is a highly cross-disciplinary role where you will collaborate closely with Technical Artists, Gameplay Programmers, and Designers to ensure your animations enhance the player experience, support gameplay mechanics perfectly, and remain highly optimized for performance. # Canada Jobs.
Detailed Responsibilities
1. Animation Creation & Asset Development
- Character & Creature Animation: Design and execute high-fidelity 3D animations for humanoids and creatures, establishing distinct personalities, weight, and behavioral traits that align with a AAA sci-fi setting.
- Weapon & Prop Mechanics: Create realistic, high-impact animations for complex sci-fi weaponry (including reloads, fires, malfunctions, and transformations) and interactive mechanical props.
- Stylistic Alignment: Ensure all animations strictly adhere to the established art direction, narrative tone, and gameplay pacing of the specific sci-fi IP.
2. Engine Integration & Technical Implementation
- State Machine Management: Implement, test, and refine animation states, blends, and events using proprietary game engine tools and node-based state machine architectures.
- Pipeline Ownership: Take full ownership of your assets from the initial keyframing phase in your 3D digital content creation (DCC) tool through to final implementation and tuning in the live game build.
- Asset Optimization: Apply industry-standard optimization techniques to minimize memory overhead and runtime performance costs without sacrificing visual fidelity.
3. Cross-Disciplinary Collaboration & Problem Solving
- Technical Art Partnership: Partner closely with technical artists to evaluate skeleton designs, provide constructive feedback on character rigs, and brainstorm creative workarounds for complex technical limitations.
- Asset Upcycling & Efficiency: Find clever, innovative solutions to reuse, retarget, or modify existing animation data to maximize efficiency and hit project milestones within the 3-month timeline.
- Autonomous Workflow: Manage your daily tasks effectively, communicate project updates transparently and proactively, and solve ambiguous design or technical challenges with minimal supervision.
Required Skills & Experience
To be successful in this role, you must demonstrate a proven track record of shipping or developing real-time 3D games and possess a deep understanding of animation theory applied to interactive media.
- Industry Experience: A minimum of four (4) years of professional experience working specifically as an animator within the video game industry.
- DCC Software Mastery: High proficiency in industry-standard 3D animation software, specifically Autodesk Maya or 3ds Max.
- Technical Toolsets: Proven experience working inside modern game engines, with a robust understanding of node-based animation state machines, blend trees, and event triggers.
- Foundational Art Skills: A profound understanding of classic animation principles (squash and stretch, anticipation, staging, follow-through, arcs, secondary action, timing, exaggeration, solid drawing, and appeal).
- Anatomy & Physics: A solid grasp of weight, physics, inertia, and skeletal anatomy for both human beings and quadrupedal/monstrous creatures.
- Communication Skills: Exceptional written and verbal English communication skills, with a proven ability to collaborate across engineering, design, and production teams.
Desired Pluses (Bonus Qualifications)
While not strictly mandatory, candidates who possess one or more of the following qualifications will be highly prioritized during the review process:
- AAA Track Record: Previous experience working on high-budget, large-scale AAA game productions, understanding the rigorous quality bars and technical constraints associated with them.
- Technical Art Literacy: A basic or intermediate understanding of 3D rigging concepts, skinning techniques, deformation constraints, and game-ready skeleton hierarchy design.
- Cinematic Flair: Experience animating in-engine cameras, designing cinematic sequences, or polishing real-time cutscenes.
- IP Familiarity: Prior experience working within established entertainment intellectual properties, showing the ability to respect and build upon existing visual guidelines and assets.
- Sci-Fi Passion: A genuine enthusiasm for sci-fi literature, cinema, art, and video games, which will help you naturally align with the project’s thematic goals.
Application Requirements
Because this is a specialized production role, applications cannot be considered without visual proof of your capabilities. When submitting your application, please ensure you include:
1. comprehensive CV/Resume detailing your professional experience, software competencies, and past shipped titles.
2. link to your digital portfolio or animation showreel. Your showreel should clearly highlight your best work in body mechanics, combat, creature movement, and weapon handling.
3. breakdown sheet indicating exactly what elements of the showreel you were responsible for (e.g., keyframing, rigging, layout, implementation) for each shot displayed.
Cultural & Working Environment at BBI ::
At Blackbird Interactive, we believe our remote-first model thrives on trust, clarity, and accountability. Even within a temporary 3-month window, you will be treated as an integral member of the development team. You will participate in daily stand-ups, sprint planning sessions, and artistic reviews. We utilize modern collaboration spaces (such as Slack, Miro, and Zoom) to maintain a highly connected, social, and creative studio culture despite working across various Canadian time zones. We value open minds, diverse perspectives, and a shared dedication to crafting memorable gaming experiences.
