Technical Artist / Art Implementer
At Studio MDHR, every frame of animation is drawn by hand. As our Art Implementer, you’ll be responsible for bringing those animations into Unity and making them feel as good to play as they look.
This role sits at the intersection of animation, gameplay, and technology. You’ll work closely with animators, designers, and programmers to translate hand-drawn animation into responsive, polished gameplay. Every day you’ll make creative and technical decisions about timing, transitions, and state changes, while preserving the animator’s intent to ensure the game feels great in players’ hands.
This isn’t simply importing assets into Unity. It’s about understanding why an animation works, knowing when it needs to change to support gameplay, and making thoughtful implementation decisions that serve both.
If you love hand-drawn animation, care deeply about game feel, and enjoy solving problems that don’t have obvious answers, we’d love to hear from you.
What You’ll Do:
- Own the implementation of hand-drawn 2D character, environment, and effects animation in Unity while preserving the artistic intent of the original animation
- Collaborate closely with animators, designers, and programmers to ensure animation drives gameplay through precise timing, transitions, hitboxes, effects, and player feedback
- Make implementation decisions around frame counts, playback logic, and animation behavior to achieve the best possible player experience
- Identify technical and creative challenges early, proposing solutions that balance artistic vision with gameplay requirements
- Troubleshoot animation implementation issues including import pipelines, playback performance, memory usage, and timing
- Continuously improve the quality, consistency, and efficiency of our animation implementation pipeline
What We’re Looking For:
- Significant hands-on experience implementing 2D animation in Unity
- A strong understanding of traditional animation principles, including timing, spacing, anticipation, weight, follow-through, and visual clarity
- Excellent instincts for game feel and how animation influences responsiveness, readability, impact, and player feedback
- Experience balancing artistic fidelity with gameplay needs, making thoughtful decisions when those priorities compete
- The ability to work comfortably with animators, designers, and programmers, translating the goals of each discipline into practical implementation decisions
- A sharp artistic eye and excellent animation taste, you can recognize when motion feels wrong and know how to improve it
- Comfort working in an evolving production environment where collaboration, iteration, and problem solving are part of the daily process
Nice to Have:
- Experience with Toon Boom Harmony workflows and export pipelines
- Experience building Unity tools, editor extensions, or animation workflows
- Familiarity with shader development or optimization for hand-drawn 2D games
- Experience working with animation state logic and gameplay-driven animation systems
- Shipped a game featuring hand-drawn or frame-by-frame 2D animation
Why This Role Is Different
The best implementation is invisible.
Players won’t notice when you’ve adjusted the timing of an anticipation, shortened a recovery, or changed the way an animation transitions into gameplay. They’ll simply feel that the game is responsive, satisfying, and alive.
Success in this role comes from making hundreds of thoughtful decisions that preserve the soul of the animation while creating an exceptional gameplay experience.
Think you’d be a great fit? We’d love to hear from you. Please → click here ← to apply!
Studio MDHR is an equal opportunity employer committed to diversity and inclusion.