Senior Character Rigger

Department: Design

Location: Abu Dhabi

Employment Type: FullTime

We are seeking a hands-on, production-proven Senior Character Rigger to join Analog as an individual contributor. This is a rigging-focused role, centered on building high-quality, animator-friendly rigs in Autodesk Maya for real-time 3D and AR/VR experiences.

This position is intended for a specialist rigger who actively builds, debugs, and ships rigs in production. It is not a hybrid Tech Artist or animation systems role. We are open to strong mid-level or senior candidates, provided they are deeply hands-on today.

Responsibilities

• Design, build, and deliver production-ready character and creature rigs in Autodesk Maya

• Own skeleton setup, skinning, deformation systems, constraints, and corrective solutions

• Create clean, stable, and animator-friendly control rigs focused on performance and usability

• Collaborate closely with animators to support expressive and efficient animation workflows

• Ensure rigs meet real-time engine constraints (Unity / Unreal) in collaboration with technical teams

• Debug, iterate, and improve rigs based on animation and runtime feedback

• Maintain and improve existing rigs without compromising quality or consistency

This Role Is Not

• A Tech Artist or tools-focused role

• A lead-only or supervisory position with limited hands-on rigging

• An animation-first position

• A Blender- or 3ds Max–centric rigging role

Qualifications

• Expert-level rigging experience in Autodesk Maya (non-negotiable)

• 5+ years of professional experience as a character or creature rigger

• Proven experience shipping real-time 3D projects (AAA games, AR/VR, or high-end interactive experiences)

• Strong understanding of anatomy, deformation, skinning, and corrective techniques

• Solid grasp of animation fundamentals (timing, weight, staging) to support animator needs

• Experience working with Unity or Unreal pipelines from a rigging perspective

• Ability to work independently, take ownership, and deliver production-ready work

• Strong communication skills and ability to clearly explain rigging decisions

Nice to Have

• Cloth, hair, or secondary motion setups in Maya or real-time environments

• Motion capture familiarity and basic mocap cleanup workflows

• Understanding of character modeling and texturing pipelines

Portfolio Requirement

• Applicants must provide a portfolio that clearly demonstrates:

• Multiple fully built character or creature rigs

• Clear evidence of personal, hands-on contribution

• Deformation quality, control design, and animator usability

Candidates should be comfortable walking through their rigs and explaining how and why they were built.