Crafting fun experiences for players as an Animator

It’s Time for Talent – with Asker Markussen

Hi, my name is Asker, it’s nice to e-meet you! 👋

I initially joined Tactile in 2021 as a 3D Character Animator in the Creative Marketing department. A couple of years later, I got the opportunity to move to game production, where I now work as the Lead Animator on one of our newest games. In my role, I oversee all animation and work closely with the art team to create a fun experience for our players.

🚀 Before Tactile

I was always glued to the screen as a kid. Playing video games and watching every animated show I could find, so it was always my dream to work in games and movie production.

After high school, I knew I needed to grow not just as an animator, but also as a person. I enrolled in an online animation school at Animation Mentor and started a university program in software development at ITU at the same time. It was a lot of work, to say the least, but I learned so much.

After finishing the online animation course, I was offered a job at Tactile Games. Without much hesitation, I took a big risk and dropped out of university to work at Tactile full-time as a character animator.

💜 Joining Tactile

When I joined, I was totally green when it came to working full time in a professional environment and working as a 3D animator, so there was plenty of growing to do!  Luckily, the whole team in Creative Marketing made sure to take good care of me. People are extremely supportive here. Feedback and daily communication is essential to the development of the employees and the work we do at Tactile.

Joining tactile had a great impact on my growth as an animator. This was the first time I had been surrounded by like minded people who were all interested in creating art and animation and were all motivated to learn and grow their craft.

💪 Having an impact

I am currently on a team working on one of our new games. I spend most of my time animating in Maya, giving feedback and implementing art and assets in Unity. It is a great mix between artistic and technical skills that I find very fun and there is always more to learn.

My favorite part of working with a new, smaller team is that experimentation and fast iteration is possible. It is so much fun to see great ideas have an impact on the final product and that everyone can work together and collaborate on a specific vision.

It is also very rewarding to see your hard work become part of a bigger product and how a lot of work and polish can take a game from good to great.

📚 The keys to success

If you are looking to get into animation in the gaming industry here’s some tips from my experience:

• Master the basics. In gaming, animations are often short and precise and each animation will be seen dozens or even thousands of times by each player, so every movement matters.
• I think now more than ever it is important to be open minded and curious about new tools and work flows, and embrace disciplines outside of your comfort zone.
• AI is one of the biggest shifts we’ve seen and while it comes with plenty of unknowns, it also opens up exciting new possibilities for animators and artists alike.

Thanks for sharing, Asker! 💜