When we think of the IT world, our minds often jump to rows of numbers, complex databases, and cold corporate logic. But there is a corner of the tech industry where those numbers come to life—where they run, jump, and even cry. That world is gamedev, and specifically, one of its most fascinating niches: animation engineering.
Today, my guest is Adrianna Bielak, known online as the geeky unicorn dev. Adrianna is a unique figure in the industry; she is an animation engineer, a researcher, and a professional choreographer and dance educator. She has worked on high-profile titles like The Alters and currently spends her time figuring out how to make digital characters move in a way that doesn’t just look “correct” but actually moves the players on an emotional level.
We sat down to discuss why “simple character movement” is actually a complex system of interconnected parts, why there’s a shortage of specialists despite industry-wide layoffs, and how mathematics can be used to describe the wrenching pain of the soul.
Who Exactly is an Animation Engineer?
Kajo: Adrianna, I’m so glad you could make it. I want to start with the basics because for many people outside the industry, gamedev is just “making games.” When you say you are an animation engineer, what does that actually mean in your daily practice? How does it differ from a traditional animator?
Adrianna: It’s a great question to start with. To put it simply: animators care about how a character moves, while animation engineers care about making sure that movement can actually happen within the game engine and that it remains responsive. An animator creates beautiful, expressive sequences in programs like Maya or Blender. My job is to take that data and build a system that “knows” when a character should start running, how to blend smoothly from a walk to a sprint, and what to do when the character suddenly has to stop on uneven terrain.
Kajo: So, you are essentially the bridge-builder between pure art and the underlying code?
Adrianna: Exactly. An animation engineer handles the entire “pipeline”. I have to understand the needs of the artists while keeping an eye on performance. In video games, unlike in film, animation isn’t linear. A player can change direction, jump, or take damage at any second. My work involves creating the logic that manages this—state machines, animation graphs, and solutions like Inverse Kinematics (IK), which automatically adjusts a character’s feet to the stairs they are climbing.
The Tools and the Process of Bringing Characters to Life
Kajo: You mentioned software like Maya and Blender. What does the whole process look like before we, as players, see that smooth movement on our screens?
Adrianna: It’s a multi-stage process. It starts with Digital Content Creation (DCC) artists. Then we have riggers—a crucial stage for animation. A rigger builds the character’s skeleton, sets constraints, and creates the controls that the animator eventually moves. If a character has a face, the rigger creates systems for smiling or blinking. Once the animator has this “digital puppet,” they create the movement—either manually, frame by frame, or by using motion capture technology.
Kajo: Motion capture always looks fascinating in “making of” videos—actors in tight suits with white dots. Does that make your job easier?
Adrianna: It’s a powerful tool, but it isn’t a “make animation” button. Raw motion capture data is often “dirty” and requires cleaning and adaptation. My task within the game engine (like Unreal Engine or Unity) is to make sure those recordings work with the game’s mechanics. For example, if we have a recording of someone sitting in a chair, I have to write a system that adapts that character’s position to any chair in the game world so they don’t end up hovering in mid-air.
Why Does Game Animation Sometimes Look “Stiff”?
Kajo: We often see games with incredible, photorealistic graphics and lighting, but as soon as the character starts running, something feels “off.” We hit that “uncanny valley.” Why does animation often seem to lag behind visual fidelity?
Adrianna: This stems from the history of technological development. For decades, computational power was the bottleneck. It was easier to render a beautiful static texture than to calculate the complex deformations of muscles and clothing in real-time. Animation was often treated as a “flavor”—a nice extra rather than a core priority.
Now, that is changing. Players are more sensitive than ever. If a character looks like a real person but turns in place like a robot, the brain immediately flags it as an error. Today, animation engineering is a battle for every millimeter of smoothness. We use advanced math to smooth transitions and ensure feet don’t slide across the ground—a problem known as “foot sliding”.
Kajo: What you’re saying about precision and data really resonates with what we do at KajoData. In data analysis, we often have massive amounts of “raw” information that is just noise without the right system and context. If any of you are fascinated by structuring this kind of chaos—whether in gamedev or business—that’s exactly what we teach in KajoDataSpace: how to turn data into concrete action. But back to gamedev. Adrianna, is heavy math a requirement for your work?
Mathematics as a Language of Expression
Adrianna: Yes, and it’s something that often scares beginners, but it is absolutely beautiful. In animation engineering, we work with vectors, matrices, and quaternions. When a character needs to look at an object, I have to calculate the rotation of the neck bone in 3D space. But it’s not just about the final position. I have to make it look human, which means it can’t be linear. Human movement has dynamics: acceleration and deceleration. We use interpolation curves to describe how quickly a character turns their head.
Kajo: You once mentioned the “mathematical notation of emotions”. That sounds almost poetic. What do you mean by that?
Adrianna: Imagine a character who is injured. Their walk animation needs to change. But in a game, we can’t have a separate animation for every single degree of injury. Instead, we create systems that “mix” the healthy walk with a limp using weights. If a character has 50% health, we take 0.5 of one animation and 0.5 of another. But what if the character is injured and carrying a heavy object? That’s another layer of mathematical data we have to stack. As an engineer, I have to program this so the result looks like pain, exhaustion, or determination. That is the mathematical notation of emotion—using numbers to describe a character’s state of mind.
The Labor Market Paradox: Where are the Specialists?
Kajo: Let’s move to a topic that has been heating up the IT industry lately. We hear about mass layoffs in gamedev and a tough environment for juniors. On the other hand, when I talk to industry insiders, I hear that experts like you have more work than they can handle. How do you reconcile these two views?
Adrianna: It is a painful paradox. It is true that there are many people on the market right now who can “click” around a game engine at a basic level. But there is a massive shortage of specialists with deep technical knowledge. Many companies relied on “out of the box” solutions for years, but when it comes to making AAA titles, standard tools aren’t enough.
You need people who can write their own animation systems, optimize code so the game doesn’t lag on consoles, and understand the physics of movement. Animation engineering is a role at the intersection of systems programming and artistic intuition. There are dramatically few such people on the market.
Kajo: So, the advice for someone wanting to enter gamedev in 2026 is: find a niche and master the fundamentals?
Adrianna: Absolutely. Don’t be afraid of math and physics. There are plenty of courses on how to make a simple game in Unity. But if you understand how spatial transformations work under the hood or how to manage memory in C++, you become resilient to market fluctuations. Companies will always need people who can solve difficult optimization problems.
Choreography and Code: How Dance Helps Programming
Kajo: I have to ask about this. You are a professional choreographer. At first glance, that seems worlds away from sitting in front of a monitor writing C++ scripts. How do these two passions influence each other?
Adrianna: For a long time, I thought I had to choose. In the dance world, I was “the technical one” who made Excel sheets for the lighting technicians. In the IT world, I was “the artist”. Animation engineering finally allowed me to merge these worlds.
My dance background gives me a huge advantage when working with animators and during motion capture sessions. I “feel” where a character’s center of gravity is. I know that if a character takes a step forward, the hips must react in a specific way. When I see an animation that doesn’t look right, I can tell them exactly why—not just intuitively, but mechanically.
Kajo: It’s incredible how your hobby became your differentiator. I often tell my students that their previous experiences—whether in logistics, finance, or even sports—can be their greatest asset after transitioning to IT. You are living proof of that.
Adrianna: Yes, it’s so important. We shouldn’t forget what we did before. In gamedev, people look for “domain knowledge”. If you’re making a game about cars, knowledge of vehicle mechanics is priceless. If you’re making a game about dance or sword fighting, my knowledge of biomechanics is key. It makes you more than just a “coder”; it makes you a partner in the creative process.
Will AI Replace Animation Engineers?
Kajo: We have to touch on AI. We see generators for images and video, but what about game animation? Are algorithms about to replace animation engineers and animators?
Adrianna: My approach to AI is pragmatic. It’s a brilliant tool for prototyping. In my research, I’m looking at how AI can help generate movement variants. Instead of manually keying 50 types of falls, we can train a model to do it dynamically.
But there is one big problem: optimization. AI models generate solutions that are computationally very “heavy.” In games, where we have to render a frame in 16 milliseconds, there is no room for slow algorithms. Animation engineers will be needed to tame these “intelligent” AI systems and ensure they run smoothly on the player’s hardware. AI won’t replace creativity and the understanding of biomechanics, but it will certainly change our toolkit.
Kajo: What about writing code with AI? Do you use Copilot or similar tools?
Adrianna: Yes, but with great caution. AI is great at boilerplate code. However, in niche fields like advanced animation engineering, AI often hallucinates. The training data for this specific field is very sparse online. Often, AI suggests solutions that look logical but would cause a performance catastrophe in the game engine. You still need to know what’s happening “under the hood”.
How to Break into the Industry
Kajo: Adrianna, to wrap things up, what would you advise someone who is listening to us and thinking, “This sounds like a dream job, I want to bring characters to life”? Where should they start?
Adrianna: First: Game Jams. These are 48-hour marathons where you create a game from scratch. Nothing teaches teamwork and real-world problem-solving under pressure like a Game Jam. You’ll meet people, learn how to communicate between artists and programmers, and build your first portfolio.
Second: Build a team-based portfolio. Making games “for your drawer” by yourself is fine, but companies want to see that you can implement a designer’s or a sound artist’s vision and communicate effectively with them.
Third: Specialize. Pick one area—whether it’s physics, animation, or UI—and become truly good at it.
And most importantly: play games, but do it analytically. Ask yourself why the jump in Mario feels so satisfying, or why a character in another game feels sluggish.
Kajo: Thank you so much for this conversation, Adrianna. You’ve opened my eyes to how much work and science goes into those few seconds of movement on the screen. It was a fascinating lesson in merging passion with hard engineering.
Adrianna: Thank you, Kajo! It was a real pleasure. See you somewhere in the game world!
Summary
It’s fascinating how the gaming industry is evolving and how many specialized roles are appearing at the intersection of different fields. I hope Adrianna’s story showed you that there is a place in IT for your unique talents—even those that seem completely unrelated to coding. If you want to build the solid foundations that allow for this kind of professional flexibility, check out KajoDataSpace.
If you found this interview valuable, please share it on your social media—LinkedIn, Facebook, or Instagram. Every share helps me reach people who want to consciously build their careers in the world of data and technology!
The article was written by Kajo Rudziński – analytical data architect, recognized expert in data analysis, creator of KajoData and polish community for analysts KajoDataSpace.
That’s all on this topic. Analyze in peace!
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