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Hi, I'm Abhinav Karanwal, a senior animator with 17+ years of experience delivering high-fidelity facial animation and combat/cinematic animation for AAA and mobile titles across Rockstar, EA, Garena, and Reliance Games. I specialize in FACs-based facial rigs, hand-keyed animation, and mocap pipelines, and I excel at building scalable, cross-functional pipelines that cut production time and cost while preserving artistic quality. I thrive in collaborative environments with design, engineering, and UI/UX teams to create believable characters and cinematic moments. I enjoy mentoring junior artists, reviewing assets, and shaping robust rigs and pipelines that support growth across platforms and engines like Unity and Unreal. I'm open to global relocation and excited to contribute to ambitious projects worldwide.…Hi, I'm Abhinav Karanwal, a senior animator with 17+ years of experience delivering high-fidelity facial animation and combat/cinematic animation for AAA and mobile titles across Rockstar, EA, Garena, and Reliance Games. I specialize in FACs-based facial rigs, hand-keyed animation, and mocap pipelines, and I excel at building scalable, cross-functional pipelines that cut production time and cost while preserving artistic quality. I thrive in collaborative environments with design, engineering, and UI/UX teams to create believable characters and cinematic moments. I enjoy mentoring junior artists, reviewing assets, and shaping robust rigs and pipelines that support growth across platforms and engines like Unity and Unreal. I'm open to global relocation and excited to contribute to ambitious projects worldwide.

Abhinav Karanwal

Animator, 3D Animator, Animation Director, +2

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Hi, I'm Abhinav Karanwal, a senior animator with 17+ years of experience delivering high-fidelity facial animation and combat/cinematic animation for AAA and mobile titles across Rockstar, EA, Garena, and Reliance Games. I specialize in FACs-based facial rigs, hand-keyed animation, and mocap pipelines, and I excel at building scalable, cross-functional pipelines that cut production time and cost while preserving artistic quality. I thrive in collaborative environments with design, engineering, and UI/UX teams to create believable characters and cinematic moments. I enjoy mentoring junior artists, reviewing assets, and shaping robust rigs and pipelines that support growth across platforms and engines like Unity and Unreal. I'm open to global relocation and excited to contribute to ambitious projects worldwide.…Hi, I'm Abhinav Karanwal, a senior animator with 17+ years of experience delivering high-fidelity facial animation and combat/cinematic animation for AAA and mobile titles across Rockstar, EA, Garena, and Reliance Games. I specialize in FACs-based facial rigs, hand-keyed animation, and mocap pipelines, and I excel at building scalable, cross-functional pipelines that cut production time and cost while preserving artistic quality. I thrive in collaborative environments with design, engineering, and UI/UX teams to create believable characters and cinematic moments. I enjoy mentoring junior artists, reviewing assets, and shaping robust rigs and pipelines that support growth across platforms and engines like Unity and Unreal. I'm open to global relocation and excited to contribute to ambitious projects worldwide.

Available to hire

Hi, I’m Abhinav Karanwal, a senior animator with 17+ years of experience delivering high-fidelity facial animation and combat/cinematic animation for AAA and mobile titles across Rockstar, EA, Garena, and Reliance Games. I specialize in FACs-based facial rigs, hand-keyed animation, and mocap pipelines, and I excel at building scalable, cross-functional pipelines that cut production time and cost while preserving artistic quality.

I thrive in collaborative environments with design, engineering, and UI/UX teams to create believable characters and cinematic moments. I enjoy mentoring junior artists, reviewing assets, and shaping robust rigs and pipelines that support growth across platforms and engines like Unity and Unreal. I’m open to global relocation and excited to contribute to ambitious projects worldwide.

Skills

3D Animation

Unity

3ds Max

Experience Level

3D Animation

Expert

Unity

Expert

3ds Max

Expert

Language

English

Fluent

Work Experience

Mocap Cleanup Specialist (Body and Facial)

January 1, 2026 - Present

Remote short-term contract for a console title. Tools: MotionBuilder, Maya and Unreal Engine 5.3.

Senior Animator at Garena

July 1, 2021 - December 31, 2025

Produced gameplay and cinematic animations for an upcoming stylized F2P mobile title. Designed a shared 3-rig animation system with Face Bones (Avg/Fem/Fat), reused across 40+ characters, reducing animation production time and cost by about 70%. Authored technical animation documentation covering rigging and export pipelines. Reviewed in-house and outsourced animation assets. Collaborated with modeling and design teams to improve character animation performance. Partnered with the modeling team to correct topology, edge loops, and proportions for seamless rig behavior across shared rigs.

Senior Facial Animator at Rockstar Games India

January 1, 2018 - June 30, 2021

Created cinematic facial animation using motion capture and hand-keyed refinement. Delivered performance animation for narrative sequences and in-game moments. Integrated and debugged animation assets inside the RAGE engine. Assisted leads with animation reviews and mentoring junior artists.

Senior Facial Animator at Technicolor – Rockstar Dedicated Unit

July 1, 2016 - December 31, 2017

Cleaned complex full-body motion capture data. Produced facial performances using markerless capture pipelines. Assisted with rigging and animation troubleshooting.

Senior Lead Animator at PlayMotion

April 1, 2014 - June 30, 2016

Led animation benchmarks and production quality. Built the 3ds Max → Unity animation pipeline. Directed cinematic trailers including storyboards and camera animation.

Senior Character Animator at Electronic Arts

April 1, 2013 - March 31, 2014

Created gameplay animation and character rigs; rebuilt old animation pipeline into Maya-based export workflow; prototyped creature rigs for gameplay systems.

Senior Animator at Reliance Games

May 1, 2010 - March 31, 2013

Led a 10-member animation team delivering multiple mobile titles. Defined combat animation timing and frame data with programmers. Designed rigs and animation systems for 30+ characters. Built the studio’s animation production pipeline.

Senior 3D Artist at Diginatives

January 1, 2009 - December 31, 2010

Created game-play animation and character rigs for Gurgaon projects. Rebuilt animation pipelines.

Animation Instructor at Digital Asia School of Animation

January 1, 2008 - December 31, 2009

Instructed animation and related topics.

Senior Animator at Paradox Studios

January 1, 2006 - December 31, 2008

Created animation for games.

3D Artist at Root Info Solutions

January 1, 2005 - December 31, 2006

Produced 3D assets for projects.