3D Animator (Contract)

Role & Responsibilities

HAUS is seeking an experienced freelance 3D Animator. The ideal person will be responsible for the following:

  • Animate Deep Tech Products and Systems: Take photoreal 3D assets and animate them into finished sequences across hero videos, product visualizations, scroll-triggered web animations, investor deck centerpieces, and social content. Your work translates static models into moving pieces that show how complex technologies actually operate: mechanical assemblies revealing internal geometry, exploded views resolving into product form, and systems firing or activating in believable sequence.

  • Camera Choreography and Shot Composition: Design and execute the camera work for every shot in a sequence, from establishing wides to detail-driven close-ups, tracking moves, and dramatic reveals. You understand cinematography as a communication tool that serves the story of the product, and you build camera work that reads with clarity across web, video, and presentation contexts.

  • Rigging for Mechanical and Articulated Assets: Build rigs that let hard-surface, mechanical, and industrial assets move accurately and efficiently. This includes articulated components such as hinges, telescoping mechanisms, and moving parts, along with constraint systems for mechanical linkages and clean rigging structures that other animators or lighting artists can work with without hitting hidden dependencies.

  • Work from Storyboards and Creative Direction: Execute against approved storyboards and creative direction, producing blocking passes, animatics, and preview renders for client review before committing to final rendering. You know when to follow the boards exactly and when to push back with a stronger solution, and you communicate those instincts to art directors clearly.

  • Collaborate Across the 3D Pipeline: Partner closely with modelers, lighting artists, and creative directors to make sure your animation aligns with what came before and supports what comes after. This includes flagging modeling issues that will impact animation early, structuring your scenes for efficient rendering, and preparing preview and final passes that make review cycles productive.

  • Iterate Through Review Cycles: Manage the pipeline from blocking to animatic to final animation, delivering client-reviewable versions at each stage. You handle revision rounds cleanly, protect timing decisions that matter, and use preview renders to catch issues before final rendering commits render time and cost.

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Requirements

  • Passion for Deep Tech: You must love deep tech and be genuinely excited by cutting-edge technologies.

  • Portfolio & Experience: Professional experience animating for commercial, product visualization, industrial, entertainment, or motion design work. Your portfolio must demonstrate strong hard-surface and product animation capabilities (mechanical systems, vehicles, products, engineered subjects) alongside camera choreography and shot composition. Character-only or purely stylized reels are not the right fit.

  • Technical Proficiency: Expert-level animation in Maya, Cinema 4D, Blender, or Houdini (or an equivalent industry-standard package). Deep understanding of animation principles including timing, weight, anticipation, and follow-through as they apply to mechanical and industrial subjects rather than character work.

  • Rigging Expertise: Demonstrated ability to build rigs for hard-surface, mechanical, and articulated assets. Familiarity with constraint systems, IK/FK setups where relevant, and clean rigging structures that support both your own animation work and downstream teammates.

  • Cinematography and Camera Sense: Strong instinct for camera work as a storytelling tool. You compose shots that read clearly, use camera moves purposefully, and understand how framing choices support or undermine the communication of a technical concept.

  • Working from Storyboards: Comfort executing against approved storyboards and creative direction, and confidence pushing back when a shot could be stronger with a different approach. You can produce blocking passes and animatics that give directors real decisions to make.

  • Pipeline Awareness: Understanding of where your work sits in the broader 3D pipeline, including how animation is used by lighting, rendering, and post-production downstream. You structure your scenes and files in a way that supports the whole team, not just your own step.

  • Attention to Detail: Precision matters. Timing that's slightly off, camera moves that feel arbitrary, or mechanical motion that doesn't respect physics all undermine the credibility of the piece. You take pride in animation that reads as intentional at every frame.

  • Communication & Teamwork: Excellent communication skills. You can talk to designers about visual intent, to directors about pacing and shot design, and to engineers about how a mechanical system actually moves. Since our team is distributed, you need to be comfortable working remotely, collaborating via Slack and Zoom, and proactively communicating status and blockers.

  • Tech Savvy & Curiosity: A genuine passion for technology and innovation is important. Our clients are building world-changing tech in AI, robotics, biotech, aerospace, and more. Your enthusiasm for these domains will help you build animation that feels true to the technologies it represents.

  • Bonus Skills: Experience with Houdini for procedural animation and simulations is a plus. Familiarity with motion graphics tools (After Effects, Rive), real-time rendering (Unreal Engine, Unity), or renderers like Redshift, Octane, or Arnold is useful. Any prior work in aerospace, defense, robotics, semiconductors, medical devices, or industrial visualization will help you understand our clients faster.

Preferences

About HAUS

HAUS is the world’s first integrated public relations and creative services agency purpose built for deep tech startups and scaleups. In January 2022, we set out on a mission to accelerate the adoption of technologies that maximize freedom, material abundance, and human flourishing. Since then, we’ve had the opportunity to support more than 100 startups, scaleups, venture firms, research labs, and other organizations in industries including artificial intelligence, aerospace, biotechnology, climate, defense, energy, advanced manufacturing, quantum computing, semiconductors, robotics, and more.

Salary Range

Compensation

Competitive; depends on experience and market rates

Location

Remote

Benefits

Submit Your Resume

The best candidates will have read this entire job description and apply via this portal with a short note showcasing their excellence in their craft and enthusiasm for the specific type of work we do at HAUS.

Please keep in mind that we receive an overwhelming number of submissions that are written by AI. If you keep your note human and show that you actually care about what we are doing specifically here at HAUS, this will be strongly considered along with your application.