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How much do character setup artist jobs pay per year?

As of May 29, 2026, the average yearly pay for character setup artist in the United States is $120,531.00, according to ZipRecruiter salary data. Most workers in this role earn between $121,000.00 and $127,000.00 per year, depending on experience, location, and employer.

What is a Character Setup Artist job?

A Character Setup Artist is responsible for preparing 3D character models for animation by creating rigs, skinning, and implementing deformation systems. They ensure characters move naturally by setting up joints, controls, and constraints that animators use to bring them to life. This role requires proficiency in rigging tools, scripting, and character anatomy to create efficient and flexible character rigs. Character Setup Artists work closely with modelers and animators to ensure seamless animation performance in films, games, and other media.

What are the key skills and qualifications needed to thrive in the Character Setup Artist position, and why are they important?

To thrive as a Character Setup Artist, you need a solid understanding of character rigging, anatomy, and animation principles, usually backed by a degree in art, animation, or a related field. Mastery of industry-standard 3D software such as Autodesk Maya, Blender, or 3ds Max, and familiarity with scripting languages like Python or MEL, are highly valued. Strong problem-solving skills, attention to detail, and effective communication make an individual stand out in this position. These abilities ensure characters are properly rigged and function seamlessly, fostering smooth collaboration across animation and production teams.

What are the typical daily responsibilities of a Character Setup Artist?

As a Character Setup Artist, your typical day involves creating and refining digital rigs for character models, which includes building skeletons, setting up controls, and ensuring characters deform correctly during animation. You’ll collaborate closely with modelers, animators, and technical directors to troubleshoot and optimize rigs for both performance and ease of use. Your work may also include developing custom rigging tools, performing quality checks, and sometimes skinning characters to ensure seamless movement. This dynamic role combines technical expertise with artistic sensibility to bring characters to life in animated productions or video games.
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What are the most commonly searched types of Character Setup Artist jobs? The most popular types of Character Setup Artist jobs are:
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Character Setup Artist jobs near you
Infographic showing various Character Setup Artist job openings in the United States as of May 2026, with employment types broken down into 87% Full Time, 11% Part Time, 1% Temporary, and 1% Nights. Highlights an 73% Physical, 5% Hybrid, and 22% Remote job distribution, with an average salary of $120,531 per year, or $57.9 per hour.

Character Technical Artist

Absurd Ventures

Santa Monica, CA • On-site

$130K - $165K/yr

Full-time

Medical, Dental, Vision, Life, Retirement, PTO

Posted 7 days ago

Job description

Summary
We are seeking a skilled Character Technical Artist to join our team and support the development of high-quality, performant characters for an all-new IP. This role sits at the intersection of art, animation, and engineering, ensuring that character assets are built, optimized, and implemented to the highest technical standards.
As a Character Technical Artist at Absurd Ventures, you will collaborate closely with Character Artists, Riggers, Animators, and Engineers to develop and maintain character pipelines, solve complex technical challenges, and help push the visual fidelity and performance of our characters in Unreal Engine.
Core Responsibilities
  • Partner with Character Artists to ensure character models meet technical, performance, and pipeline requirements.
  • Support and maintain character pipelines spanning modeling, rigging, skinning, deformation, and engine implementation.
  • Diagnose and resolve character-related technical issues, including geometry, skinning, deformation, LODs, and performance constraints.
  • Collaborate closely with rigging and animation to ensure characters are animation-ready and behave correctly in-game.
  • Implement and validate characters in Unreal Engine, ensuring correct setup for materials, LODs, cloth, and physics.
  • Develop tools, scripts, and workflows to improve efficiency and consistency in character production.
  • Create and maintain technical documentation for character pipelines, workflows, and best practices.
  • Proactively identify risks related to character production, performance, or pipeline bottlenecks and communicate them clearly to Production and leadership.
  • Provide technical guidance and mentorship to Character Artists and other content creators.

Core Qualifications
  • 5+ years of experience as a Character Technical Artist, Technical Artist, or similar role in the video game industry. Experience supporting character pipelines on at least one shipped AAA title.
  • Experience with character rigging, facial rigs, or motion systems.
  • Strong understanding of character modeling, topology, UVs, skinning, and deformation principles.
  • Significant experience working in Unreal Engine (preferably UE5), including character setup, LODs, physics, Control Rig and optimization.
  • Proficiency with industry-standard tools such as Maya and familiarity with Motion Builder, ZBrush and Substance Painter.
  • Solid scripting or tool development experience (Python, MEL, Blueprint, or similar).
  • Strong problem-solving skills with the ability to debug complex, cross-disciplinary issues.
  • Excellent communication skills and a collaborative mindset.

Plus if...
  • Familiarity with cloth, hair, or physics simulation workflows in Unreal Engine.
  • Experience with performance profiling and optimization on console hardware.
  • Previous experience establishing or evolving character pipelines on a large production.
  • Familiarity with proprietary or custom engine pipelines.

Description
  • Full-time job with benefits.
  • Role is on-site in Santa Monica, CA.
  • Office is located near downtown Santa Monica - near metro and freeways.

The base pay range for this position is $130,000 to $165,000 per year. Actual compensation is based on market location and may vary depending on job-related knowledge, skills, and experience. We also offer a competitive package of benefits including paid time off, sick time, company holidays, parental leave, medical/dental/vision insurance, life insurance, disability insurance, and 401(k) to regular full-time employees. Certain roles may also be eligible for bonus and equity.
About Absurd Ventures
Absurd Ventures is a media company creating new IP across all platforms and for all formats. Absurd Ventures is building narrative worlds, creating characters, and writing stories for a variety of genres, without regard to medium, to be produced for live-action and animation; video games and other interactive content; books, graphic novels, and scripted podcasts.

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