# Animation Director

## Details

- **Company:** [Makeshift Software](https://hitmarker.net/companies/makeshift-software.md)
- **Location:** Columbus, Ohio, USA
- **Contract type:** Full Time
- **Level:** Senior \(5+ years\)
- **Salary:** $145000 - $150000 / year
- **Tags:** Animation, 3D, Technical Art, Game Development
- **Posted:** 2026-09-07
- **Apply:** [View and apply on Hitmarker](https://hitmarker.net/jobs/makeshift-software-animation-director-4717125)

## Description

**Makeshift Software Inc.** | Remote (3–6 months) → Hybrid On-Site **Full-Time**

### About Hexborn

[**Hexborn**](https://store.steampowered.com/app/3770540/Hexborn/)is our upcoming dark fantasy action RPG — a brutal blend of hack-and-slash combat, deep dungeon crawling, guild progression, and player-driven rivalry set in a world consumed by an ever-expanding corruption known as the Graveglass Blight.

Players rise from an unknown mage into the leader of a legendary guild, mastering arcane combat, recruiting allies, forging relics, and descending into cursed ruins and large-scale raids to uncover the truth behind their rare ability to fly.


The demo is live now on [Steam](https://store.steampowered.com/app/4810690/Hexborn_Demo/).


We're building toward a cinematic bar that matches the quality references below — both in gameplay animation and in prerendered cutscenes — and we need someone who can lead that effort end to end, from mocap capture through final render.

### The Role

We're looking for an experienced Animation Director to lead animation for **Hexborn** — setting the creative and technical bar across gameplay animation, cinematics, and prerendered film sequences, and building the team and pipeline needed to hit it consistently.

You'll own the full animation pipeline from mocap cleanup through rigging through final cinematic output, while directing a team and keeping animation tightly aligned with the rest of art and design.

This is a leadership role with real hands-on depth expected. You'll be setting direction and reviewing work, but also expected to get into rigs, mocap data, and render setups yourself when the bar demands it.

### 
What You'll Do

- Set and enforce the animation quality bar across gameplay, cinematics, and **prerendered cutscenes/film**
- Direct and clean up **motion capture data** to production-ready quality
- Build and maintain **extensible control rigs** for both **biped and creature** character types
- Own prerendered cinematic pipelines using **Blender, VRay, and Houdini**
- Provide **art direction** for the animation team, and streamline collaboration between animation, character art, and cinematics
- Establish workflows and standards that let the animation team scale without sacrificing consistency
- Work within our existing animation tooling: [Animation Sets in use](https://assetstore.unity.com/lists/list-2475999758859) and our broader [workflow tools](https://assetstore.unity.com/lists/list-2475835924355)
- Partner with engineering to ensure animation systems (blending, IK, procedural layers) support director-level intent

### Quality Bar References

To give a sense of the cinematic and animation quality we're aiming for:

1. [Reference 1](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KRZFrlWDqCE)
2. [Reference 2](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dWLalg6YvG4)

### Perks & Tools

- **OptiTrack Prime 41** motion capture system
- **Faceware Mark IV** mocap helmets for facial performance capture
- Industry-grade workstation, built to spec: [see our standard build](https://pcpartpicker.com/user/Copywright/saved/sFc7pg)
- Remote for the first 3–6 months, transitioning to hybrid on-site thereafter

### Work Arrangement

We'll start fully remote for a 3–6 month grace period while you ramp up and get embedded with the team, then transition to a hybrid on-site schedule in Columbus, OH.

Columbus is also a genuinely affordable place to build a life relative to the coastal cities most gamedev careers run through. Cost of living runs roughly:

**50%** below Seattle and Santa Cruz — driven mostly by housing, where Columbus's median home price (around **$263K**) compares to *$808K* in Seattle and **$1.24M** in Santa Cruz — and it stays competitive even against Montreal, historically one of the more **cost-conscious** major gamedev hubs in North America.

[Makeshift Software Inc](https://makeshift.software) *is the developer and publisher of **Hexborn**.*