2D Spine Animator

Role Overview

We are looking for a skilled 2D Spine Animator

who specializes in character rigging, skeletal animation, and animated icons.

The ideal candidate has strong technical knowledge of Spine and can manage the full animation workflow, from artwork preparation and rig setup to animation, optimization, export, and implementation support.

You will work closely with artists, designers, developers, and producers to create expressive, polished, and production-ready animations.

Key Responsibilities

Spine Rigging

• Build clean and efficient character and icon rigs using Spine.
• Set up bones, slots, attachments, meshes, skins, constraints, and animation controllers.
• Create accurate mesh weights and smooth deformations for characters, clothing, hair, props, and facial features.
• Use inverse kinematics, transform constraints, path constraints, and clipping masks where required.
• Create reusable rig structures and animation templates to improve production efficiency.
• Prepare artwork for rigging by separating layers and identifying movable parts.
• Maintain correct hierarchy, pivot points, naming conventions, and folder structures.
• Troubleshoot rigging issues such as mesh distortion, clipping, incorrect layering, and broken constraints.
• Optimize rigs to reduce unnecessary bones, vertices, keys, and attachments.

Character Animation

• Create character animations such as idle, walk, run, attack, reaction, celebration, dialogue, transformation, and transition animations.
• Animate facial expressions, lip movements, body language, clothing, hair, props, and secondary elements.
• Apply strong animation principles, including timing, spacing, posing, anticipation, weight, follow-through, and exaggeration.
• Ensure character movement remains consistent with the approved design, personality, and visual style.
• Create smooth loops and natural transitions between animation states.
• Adapt animations for different character sizes, proportions, and art styles.
• Polish animation curves and keyframes to achieve smooth and controlled movement.

Icon and Object Animation

• Rig and animate icons, symbols, logos, buttons, props, and environmental elements.
• Create idle, activation, impact, transformation, reveal, looping, and transition animations.
• Add secondary movement and visual feedback to improve clarity and impact.
• Ensure small animations remain readable at different sizes and resolutions.
• Create reusable animation systems for similar icon or object groups.

Technical Animation and Optimization

• Prepare clean and production-ready Spine files for implementation.
• Export skeleton data, texture atlases, and supporting assets using the correct project settings.
• Ensure animation names, skins, slots, attachments, and events follow technical requirements.
• Add and manage animation events for sound, effects, gameplay actions, and transitions.
• Optimize animation files for performance, memory usage, and file size.
• Test rigs and animations in the target engine or application.
• Work with developers to resolve runtime, export, layering, scaling, and playback issues.
• Review implemented animations and make adjustments based on technical or visual feedback.

Collaboration and Quality Control

• Work closely with concept artists and 2D artists to ensure artwork is suitable for rigging.
• Provide guidance on layer separation, hidden artwork, overlapping joints, and asset preparation.
• Translate storyboards, references, and animation briefs into finished animations.
• Participate in animation reviews and provide constructive feedback.
• Maintain visual and technical consistency across characters and animation sets.
• Identify potential rigging or animation risks early in production.
• Manage multiple animation tasks while meeting production deadlines.
• Maintain organized source files, exports, and version control.

Requirements

• Professional experience as a Spine Animator, 2D Animator, Technical Animator, or similar role.
• Strong proficiency in Spine.
• Strong experience in skeletal rigging, mesh creation, weighting, skins, constraints, and attachment setup.
• Strong understanding of character animation principles and body mechanics.
• Ability to create expressive character performances and polished animation cycles.
• Experience animating icons, objects, props, and interface elements.
• Ability to prepare and organize layered artwork for rigging.
• Understanding of real-time animation workflows and implementation requirements.
• Ability to optimize rigs and animations without reducing visual quality.
• Strong attention to detail, organization, and problem-solving skills.
• A portfolio or animation reel demonstrating Spine rigging and animation work.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience implementing or testing Spine animations in Unity or another real-time engine.
• Experience creating reusable character rigs and modular animation systems.
• Knowledge of advanced Spine features such as skins, linked meshes, skin constraints, deform keys, and animation events.
• Basic knowledge of visual effects, motion graphics, or frame-by-frame animation.
• Experience with Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, After Effects, or similar tools.
• Experience working across different styles, including cartoon, fantasy, stylized, and semi-realistic artwork.
• Basic understanding of scripting or technical animation pipelines is an advantage.

Key Skills

• Spine rigging
• Skeletal animation
• Character animation
• Mesh weighting and deformation
• Bone and slot hierarchy
• Constraints and inverse kinematics
• Skins and attachments
• Facial and lip-sync animation
• Icon and object animation
• Animation events and transitions
• Rig and animation optimization
• Real-time engine implementation
• Technical troubleshooting
• File organization and version control

Success in This Role

The ideal candidate can handle the complete Spine production process, including artwork preparation, rigging, animation, optimization, export, and implementation support.

They should be able to create technically reliable rigs, smooth deformations, expressive character animations, and polished icon animations while maintaining clean and efficient production files.