Senior 3D Animator - Game Studio Career Growth in Columbus
Career & Market Insight
Role Level & Market Positioning: This is a senior IC (individual contributor) animation role targeting 5+ years of experience. In the mobile games market, senior 3D animators at studios comparable to HyperHug typically earn $50,000–$85,000 annually depending on geography and studio size. Without salary disclosure, candidates should benchmark carefully and negotiate accordingly.
Skills You'll Build: This role offers meaningful depth in a niche but high-demand specialization:
- FPS/TPS weapon animation — a premium skill in the shooter genre, valued at Riot, Activision, and indie studios alike.
- Mocap pipeline integration — an increasingly critical skill as studios adopt performance capture workflows.
- Unity animation systems — practical engine-side expertise that complements art skills.
Culture & Green Flags: "High autonomy," "no micromanagement," and "your ideas have a real place here" signal a trust-based, creative-first environment — typical of lean game studios. The adoption of new tools and AI pipelines suggests a forward-thinking team rather than one stuck in legacy workflows.
Potential Considerations: The Russian C1 requirement effectively narrows the candidate pool to CIS-region talent or fluent Russian speakers, which may limit diversity of thought but signals a cohesive team culture. No explicit mention of paid time off or benefits beyond salary and remote work — worth clarifying in interviews. The studio's focus on a single mobile title means your career trajectory is tied to that game's commercial success.
HyperHug is an international game development studio specializing in the shooter genre. Our main office is based in Cyprus, but our talented team works remotely from around the world. We're developing Oxide: Survival Island, an immersive multiplayer survival shooter for mobile platforms, and we're always looking for motivated individuals who want to grow with us, contribute their creativity, and help shape the future of our games.
We are looking for a Senior 3D Animator to join the development of our flagship game, Oxide: Survival Island. You will be responsible for creating high-quality first-person and third-person animations for weapons, characters, and in-game objects, while collaborating closely with designers, artists, and technical teams to bring immersive gameplay experiences to life.
What You'll Be Doing:
- Creating keyframe animations for characters, weapons, and gameplay objects in both first-person and third-person perspectives.
- Cleaning and refining motion capture data as we adopt mocap into our pipeline.
- Producing animations for skins and additional in-game content.
- Preparing and exporting animation assets for integration into Unity.
- Maintaining high animation quality with strong attention to posing, timing, and weight.
Why You'll Enjoy Working With Us:
- Interesting weapon work: both real-world firearms and fantasy skins, including upgradeable skins and progression lines.
- We're always looking for a fresh visual take and growing the artistic side of the team, so your ideas about how animation should look and feel have a real place here.
- We explore and adopt new technologies and tools in our pipeline instead of working by inertia.
- We provide all the software, plugins, AI tools, and asset libraries you need for your work.
- High autonomy: we trust your expertise and don't micromanage.
What We Expect From You:
- 5+ years of experience in animation production.
- 3+ years of experience creating animations for games.
- A strong portfolio showcasing different types of animation.
- Experience working with keyframe animation.
- Experience animating first-person and third-person weapons.
- Professional experience working with Maya.
- Strong understanding of animation principles, including posing, timing, and a sense of weight.
- Understanding of how animation systems function inside game engines.
- English - B1+ level, Russian - C1 level.
A Strong Plus:
- Experience working with mocap animation.
- Experience with character emotes and body mechanics.
- Experience working on shooters or survival games.
What We Offer:
- Competitive salary.
- Remote work format.
- A passionate and supportive team that values creativity and ownership.
- Opportunities for professional growth.
- A culture built on initiative, transparency, and collaboration.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is this role fully remote or do I need to be based in Cyprus?
Is Russian language fluency required for this position?
What software and tools will I be working with?
Is there a salary range for this Senior 3D Animator role?
What type of animations will I be creating most often?
