Unity Animation expert to complete a Ready Player Me avatar integration
Budget: $25 – $50 USD
We have a large Unity application where users talk with avatars for eduational purposes. We've decided to replace our old and limited avatar models by using Ready Player Me (RPM) , see https://readyplayer.me/, which allows any number of custom avatars loaded at runtime.
What we have done:
- Re-written our code to integrate RPM SDK and load avatars in runtime
- A junior animator have re-created most of our animations in Maya suitable for to the new avatar rigs (mostly animations for dialogue, e.g. moving arms, idle anims, facial animations)
- We have an automated lipsync system
- We have assets for scripting/automating eyes and blinking
It works, but we want to add a level of polish to how these animations are used in the app. The animations are dynamically triggered by how the dialogue is going but this can cause strange transitions or jankiness. Some animations can be improved, and some animations tend to look worse after imported into Unity. We also have issues with animations when the avatars are of too different size or the environment change size, creating collisions, or when different animation systems interfere with each other, such as from the state machine vs the scripts that control head movements.
What we need to do in this job:
- Review the dynamic animations in-app and suggest improvements, including how to achieve them and time estimation
- We will prioritize these improvements and fix the most important first, with both in-house developer and your help
We are looking for an expert in Unity animations. The focus is not to be to create new animations in a tool like Maya, it's to use existing ones dynamically and effectively in Unity.
You should be experienced with:
- Unity Animation State Machines, including advanced topics like animation layers, masks and custom scripts for StateMachineBehaviours in order to achieve dynamic animations and transitions
- You know how to optimize animation in Unity, based on Project configuration, settings for importing animation assets, etc
- You have experience of lipsync, dynamic eye movements, gaze, etc
- You have experience animating avatars involved in dialogue and know how to make it look natural
- You can do some scripting in C#
- Bonus if you have used the new Unity Animation Rigging package for achieveing good dynamic animation of avatars, as we are considering adoping this
- Bonus if you have worked with Ready Player Me avatars before
We aim to move quickly in picking the right candidate and getting started. To help us with that, please respond with specific examples of where you have the experience we are looking for, e.g. previous game projects and what you did in them.
What we have done:
- Re-written our code to integrate RPM SDK and load avatars in runtime
- A junior animator have re-created most of our animations in Maya suitable for to the new avatar rigs (mostly animations for dialogue, e.g. moving arms, idle anims, facial animations)
- We have an automated lipsync system
- We have assets for scripting/automating eyes and blinking
It works, but we want to add a level of polish to how these animations are used in the app. The animations are dynamically triggered by how the dialogue is going but this can cause strange transitions or jankiness. Some animations can be improved, and some animations tend to look worse after imported into Unity. We also have issues with animations when the avatars are of too different size or the environment change size, creating collisions, or when different animation systems interfere with each other, such as from the state machine vs the scripts that control head movements.
What we need to do in this job:
- Review the dynamic animations in-app and suggest improvements, including how to achieve them and time estimation
- We will prioritize these improvements and fix the most important first, with both in-house developer and your help
We are looking for an expert in Unity animations. The focus is not to be to create new animations in a tool like Maya, it's to use existing ones dynamically and effectively in Unity.
You should be experienced with:
- Unity Animation State Machines, including advanced topics like animation layers, masks and custom scripts for StateMachineBehaviours in order to achieve dynamic animations and transitions
- You know how to optimize animation in Unity, based on Project configuration, settings for importing animation assets, etc
- You have experience of lipsync, dynamic eye movements, gaze, etc
- You have experience animating avatars involved in dialogue and know how to make it look natural
- You can do some scripting in C#
- Bonus if you have used the new Unity Animation Rigging package for achieveing good dynamic animation of avatars, as we are considering adoping this
- Bonus if you have worked with Ready Player Me avatars before
We aim to move quickly in picking the right candidate and getting started. To help us with that, please respond with specific examples of where you have the experience we are looking for, e.g. previous game projects and what you did in them.