Lead Cinematic Artist / 3D Animator (Unity)

What if the trailer decided whether a game gets built at all?

That's the bet behind Lake System.

Hi, I'm Tom, founder of a Berlin/Lisbon PC studio built as a "game factory" - and I'm looking for a Cinematic Artist / 3D Animator (Unity) to create the trailers our whole model runs on.

WHAT WE'RE BUILDING

We start with a strong concept (mostly affordable co-ops), build a near-final-quality trailer in Unity before any prototype exists, seed it on TikTok, and watch the wishlists come in. Our publisher funds production for the concepts that take off. The target: 2 great trailers a month and 3-6 productions in parallel. In this model, the trailer isn't marketing - it's the game before the game, and this role is the heart of the studio.

OUR MISSION

Emotionally rich, meaningful games people remember for years. The trailer is where that emotion shows up first.

WHERE WE ARE

Early stage, growing fast: trailer team of 15, company of 20+ across Germany, Portugal, France, Poland, and Armenia. Our first trailer is in final production. And the news I'm genuinely proud of: we've just been selected for gamescom's Invest Circle - the main investor pitching of the industry's biggest event. Cologne, this August.

THE ROLE

You own the cinematic side of our trailers - from blocking shots to the final cut, all inside Unity.

• Build sequences with Timeline + Cinemachine: cameras, cuts, movement, pacing.
• Assemble scenes from prefabs and asset packs; lighting and post to near-final quality.
• Animate or adapt character and prop animation for your shots.
• You'll fit if you love making 30-60 seconds of footage feel like a finished game.
• Fully remote. Can start part-time. Ideally you can jump in this or next week.

QUALIFICATIONS

• Solid Unity experience: Timeline, Cinemachine, clean prefab workflows.
• 3D animation skills - or a strong hand at directing and retargeting existing animation.
• Experience with AI-enhanced pipelines.
• An editor's eye: composition, rhythm, and what makes the first 3 seconds hook.
• Comfortable with Git/GitHub in team Unity projects.
• Strong English, comfortable in a remote, distributed team.
• Nice to have: VFX, video editing (Resolve/Premiere), Blender, shipped game trailers.

THE HONEST PART

This is an early equity play: for the first couple of months the team works for equity plus a virtual salary paid out later as a bonus - no cash salary yet. In exchange, you get a real stake in every game we ship, on terms that disappear once we have funded positions. The earlier you join, the bigger your share.

SO WHEN DOES A REAL SALARY KICK IN?

A ~2-5 month horizon, on two tracks at once:

1. Publisher funding once a project passes validation (2 months+).
2. A seed round we're actively raising - now with a gamescom investor stage to pitch it on (3 months+).

GET IN TOUCH

Interested? Happy to talk: I'd love to show you our pitch, our first trailer, and the other projects we are working on.

Have a great day!

Tom