The Community Choice Award is bestowed to the film with the most votes on Cartoon Recruit’s Discord server which did not receive an award from the panel. The award goes to A Night on the Other Side by BAACollective & Friends. Nicely done, Elliott, Jiwoo, and Barbara!

The Runner Up of the Jam, with nominations from more than half of the panel, is Doot Doot by the Terrific Three. Amazing work, Rachel Shone, Makis Tremblay, Katherine Zakaznikov!

The Winner of the Jam by unanimous decision was Trumpet Skull by Team Lonely Bones. Congratulations to Antonina Osnos and Darya Klimashevskaya!

Honorable Mention to Doot Doot by The Lone Drafter. Although it was not completed in time for the panel vote, Cartoon Recruit felt that this traditionally-animated contribution was worthy of recognition.

You can watch the entire playlist of portfolio jam submissions here:

Thank you to the judges panel and all of the artists who participated! This was a pleasure to host and I look forward to running more events for our community.

This week in animation:

Kidscreen asks: “Is an AI animation festival a good idea?”

After reporting on an AI short film festival, the children’s media trade publication Kidscreen is running a poll to hear from readers: “Should we be shunning films made with AI? Or is the industry shifting its stance on the emerging tech?” 

I can only speak from my own experience, as someone who has worked with both the organizers and sponsors of an animation festival. I have seen how vital those events are for artists when it comes to networking and finding community. When considering a festival for films without filmmakers, what I want to know is who would want to attend?

Academy Awards announces Animated Feature Film contenders

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced their list of 35 films eligible for consideration for the Animated Feature Film Oscar, per Hollywood Reporter. Notable highlights include Sony Pictures Animation’s KPop Demon Hunters and Pixar’s Elio, alongside underdogs like the genre-defying Chainsaw Man The Movie: Reze Arc, Sylvain Chomet’s A Magnificent Life, David Baute’s Black Butterflies and Genndy Tartakovsky’s Fixed.

Sharing perspective on Frieren fan art

SpaceDev1’s fan drawing of the title character from Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End made the rounds across social media with the caption: “I practiced drawing faces in a different angle, but it looks kinda weird lol.” Industry artists quickly chimed in with advice as well as their own attempts at the drawing, which Cartoon Brew collected. The amateur artist received the responses well: “I just shared it because it looked silly, but omg the publicity, the tips. I didn’t even know that drawing would touch that many people’s soul.”

Jobs worth a second look:

Production Coordinator (Series) at Sony Pictures Animation  (On-Site from Los Angeles, California) “The Production Coordinator provides essential support the Producer and Production Manager (PM) in overseeing front-end departments for CG animation series production, including story, assets, editorial, shipping, and post-production.”

Digital Colorist at DreamWorks (Hybrid from Glendale, California) “The Digital Colorist works with the VFX Supervisor, Directors and Producers to refine the color of the film.”

Producer (Color) at Company3 (On-Site from New York City, New York) “The Producer is responsible for overseeing the color workflow for assigned Colorists, managing day-to-day project execution, client relationships, and coordination with internal teams.”

Senior Materials Technical Artist (Star Wars Jedi) at Electronic Arts (Hybrid from Los Angeles, California, or Vancouver, British Columbia) “Collaborate with engineers to optimize material and rendering features for art needs. Identify and resolve performance and memory usage issues with engineers, artists, and designers.”

Line Producer (2D) at Atomic Cartoons (Remote (Local) from Vancouver, British Columbia) “Manage and lead the daily operations of the entire production. Prepare, maintain and update production schedules, budget and reports. Communicate directly with clients to discuss creative directions.”

Senior Texture Artist at Industrial Light and Magic (Hybrid from Vancouver, British Columbia) “The Senior Texture Artist is responsible for creating the textures, colours, and organic surface qualities needed in the completion of CG creatures and hard-surface models used in production.”

Senior Maya Animator at Pixomondo (Hybrid from Toronto, Ontario) “Working in close collaboration with the Production Staff, the Senior Animator will create top-notch animations and bring creatures, characters, objects and vehicles to life according to the project vision outlined by the Lead and/or Supervisor.”

Previs Artist (Part-Time) at Blue Zoo (Hybrid from London, England) “Their day-to-day focuses on expert camera work, dynamic acting choices, and visualising sequences from storyboards and animatics, whilst sticking to production deadlines and meeting that all important brief from our Directors and Clients.”

VFX Coordinator at Aardman (On-Site from Bristol, England) “The purpose of this role will be to work with the VFX Producer and Snr CG/ VFX Coordinator to provide support to the CG and VFX team.”

Didn’t find the opportunity you were looking for? In the past week, we added 74 new jobs to CartoonRecruit.com.

Want to be featured in an upcoming issue?

Are you responsible for hiring decisions at your studio? Get in touch with us on LinkedIn! We are currently working on Q&A discussions with recruiters at studios, and participating could put a link to your studio's career page directly in the inboxes of talented artists searching for their next productions.

We believe that the best thing that artists applying for a job can do is to research studios before they apply. Our goal is to provide specific advice for artists applying to very different kinds of studios.

Signing off for now

That’s all for this week, recruits! Have thoughts or feedback about our project? Feel free to message me by email at mike@cartoonrecruit.com, or send a DM to our LinkedIn page or @cartoonrecruit.com on Bluesky. I will do my best to reply to every non-spam message I receive.

Never want to miss an update? If you are not already subscribed by email, you can get new posts like this directly in your inbox.

#rolecallroundup

We first announced the jam’s theme on Discord on November 1st, but if you’re not into Discord you can still participate. When I pitched the jam to my earlybird followers, I promised that the theme would be both goofy and thematic to Halloween. I think I’ve fulfilled that promise.

The official theme for Cartoon Recruit's 2025 portfolio jam is…

“Doot doot”

A reference to a mysterious GIF of a skeleton playing the trumpet, also known as ‘Trumpet Skull’ or ‘Mr. Skeltal.’ This prompt can be interpreted however you like, with or without influence from the animated GIF itself.

The original animation was made by Cathy Jarboe. There’s a terrific YouTube video called no one knows who created skull trumpet (until now) by Jeffiot that goes into the GIF’s origins and deconstructs 3D animation techniques from the late 90s.

If you’d like to participate in the jam, you can read more details about the event and register your team here.

Since it wouldn’t be an animation jam without a bit of healthy competition, we invited seven industry artists to join our judges panel. Each judge has the opportunity to cast votes for their three favorite films. The film with the most votes will be crowned winner of the jam during the awards ceremony on November 30th!

Meet this animation jam's judges panel:

• Brent Smith is a layout artist, 3D generalist and creative producer with nearly 20 years of experience working in Toronto’s animation industry. He also has a well-earned reputation for connecting artists and storytellers.
• Eden Timm is a director, animator, storyboard artist, and college instructor. Their most recent projects include storyboarding at WildBrain Studios and animating on Giant Ant Films' upcoming feature.
• Jake Hollander is an LA-based writer and supervising director, with directing credits on Duncanville and Krapopolis. His indie work includes My Wife the Monster and The Yolk Bros.
• Kaitlin Sutherland is a Vancouver-based director and storyboard artist. Her production credits include episode director on The Proud Family: Louder and Prouder and Assistant Director on One-of-a-Kind Marcie.
• Lindsay Knowler is a Vancouver-based supervising 2D rigging artist and production trainer. She is also the founder of Eat Your Peas, the first animation production school that works like a real studio.
• Megan Ferguson is a director with over 15 years of experience working in the animation industry. She is also a founding member of Ottawa Animators Talking Socially (OATS).
• ZeBirdBrain is a Montreal-based YouTube creator known for producing in-depth Harmony and Storyboard Pro tutorials. She also recently published a series with advice for freelancers in the animation industry. (You can also join her Discord server.)

This is a community event where teams of artists work together to produce 20-seconds of animation, each following a theme. The purpose of this jam is to give students and early-career artists an opportunity to collaborate on portfolio pieces together.

Teams of three are encouraged, but projects could be completed by groups of any size. There are no restrictions on techniques or software, so long as assets are not generated by AI. (We’re not here to help HAL 9000’s portfolio.)

Update: We just announced the judges panel for this animation jam.

Update 2: We officially announced the jam’s theme.

When’s the portfolio jam?

The jam’s theme will be announced at 8:00 PM Eastern on Saturday, November 1st on Cartoon Recruit’s discord server. The theme will be silly and appropriate for post-Halloween. Artists will have up to 7 days to complete their jam films. In order to participate, projects must be uploaded to YouTube by November 24 before midnight (in your timezone) with links sent by email to mike@cartoonrecruit.com along with your team’s name.

To allow for participation from the widest pool of artists, project days may be non-consecutive. This helps working artists participate after work or on weekends. We are not strictly enforcing these time limits; it’s mostly there to keep the scope of the project manageable. We encourage everyone to work at a reasonable pace and get plenty of sleep.

The films will each be screened during a livestream on Cartoon Recruit’s Discord server at 8:00 PM Eastern on Sunday, November 30th. There will be a panel of judges as well as a community vote.

How to portfolio jam?

If you don’t already have a team assembled, you can look for one on the Cartoon Recruit Discord server through the #​portfolio-jam-lfg board or anywhere else you can wrangle friends and colleagues together. Once you have a team of three ready, fill out this form.

Will there be prizes?

Cartoon Recruit doesn’t endorse spec work or contests. We’re only playing for bragging rights and a film that you can feel proud to have in your portfolio.

Hey, uh, what’s Cartoon Recruit?

CartoonRecruit.com is an ad-free job board for finding studios actively hiring in animation, game development and VFX. Whether you’re an early career artist or a seasoned professional, our goal is to provide the resources that you need to connect with your next animation job. And we’re interested in hosting more online events in the future.

This week in animation:

Tea Leaves Last gives artists experience on key creative roles

The Animation Guild’s Keyframe Magazine ran a story on a project led by Saira Umar (executive producer, supervising director and writer), Stephanie Sim (writer and story editor), and Hye Lynn Park (director). The project, Tea Leaves Last, was made possible by Asians in Animation, a non-profit dedicated to supporting Asian talent in the animation industry. The animatic pilot screened at Titmouse’s studio in Burbank over the summer.

Glitch Productions to co-produce a 6 x 22 Lackadaisy mini-series

The Australian animation studio best known for their work on Murder Drones, The Amazing Digital Circus, and Knights of Guinevere announced a new label during their livestream event to help independent productions connect with funding and distribution. The first project announced under the new Glitch Presents label is Lackadaisy, whose independent pilot episode featuring a plucky cast of rum-running cats reached 17 million views.

New York Comic-Con teasers abound

Animation Magazine covered a series of series announcements at New York Comic-Con. Among the lineup was a new DC series Bat-Fam (familiar to viewers of Merry Little Batman) alongside new seasons for Invincible, Primal, Fionna and Cake, Iyanu, Your Friendly Neighbourhood Spider-Man and X-Men ’97.

Jobs worth a second look:

Character Designer at DreamWorks (Remote from Los Angeles, California) “Demonstrates strong conceptual ideas and visual creativity to form original characters. Explores and generates a large quantity of diverse ideas for film’s characters.”

Art Lead (Teamfight Tactics) at Riot Games (On-Site from Los Angeles, California) “As an Art Lead at Riot, you will manage a team of Artists and oversee the development and growth of the team.”

Visual Development Intern (Spring 2026) at DreamWorks (Hybrid from Glendale, California) “For feature animated films, Visual Development artists imagine and propose ideas for what the animated world should look like based on the story, characters, and action.”

Cleanup & Color Artist at Studio MoonMoon (Remote from New York City, New York) “Open to international artists and part time availability. Program experience open to any of the following: TVPaint and/or Clip Studio Paint.”

CG Generalist (Expression of Interest) at Company3 (Remote from Toronto, Ontario) “The CG Generalist is responsible for completing a diverse array of 3D-related tasks, maintaining a high degree of adaptability and a wide breadth of CG skills.”

Senior Nuke Pipeline TD at Pixomondo (Hybrid from Toronto, Ontario) “As Nuke Pipeline TD, you work within our global pipeline team to build Nuke-related pipeline tools and participate in meetings with departments using Nuke to gather requirements and suggest solutions to help the teams work more efficiently.”

2D Animator at Big Bad Boo (On-Site from Vancouver, British Columbia) “Big Bad Boo Studios is looking for an experienced and talented Animator for an upcoming 2D animated action-adventure series.”

2D Animator (Adobe Animate) at Atomic Cartoons (Remote (Local) from Vancouver, British Columbia) “Animate in a team environment on a sequence of shots within a streaming series schedule. Demonstrate a strong sense of performance, posing, timing, weight, and lip sync.”

Unreal Artist (Mid/Senior) at Milk VFX (On-Site from London, England) “We’re seeking a skilled Unreal Artist to join our VFX team, creating high-quality environments and cinematic visuals for film and television.”

2D Character Layout Artist at Glitch Productions (Remote, North America timezone preferred) “This role will see you collaborating with our 2D Team to help bring our upcoming anime 2D animated show to life.”

Didn’t find the opportunity you were looking for? In the past week, we added 90 new jobs to CartoonRecruit.com, which is well above average!

Want to be featured in an upcoming issue?

Are you responsible for hiring decisions at your studio? Get in touch with us on LinkedIn! We are currently working on Q&A discussions with recruiters at studios, and participating could put a link to your studio's career page directly in the inboxes of talented artists searching for their next productions.

We believe that the best thing that artists applying for a job can do is to research studios before they apply. Our goal is to provide specific advice for artists applying to very different kinds of studios.

Signing off for now

That’s all for this week, recruits! Have thoughts or feedback about our project? Feel free to message me by email at mike@cartoonrecruit.com, or send a DM to our LinkedIn page or @cartoonrecruit.com on Bluesky. I will do my best to reply to every non-spam message I receive.

Never want to miss an update? If you are not already subscribed by email, you can get new posts like this directly in your inbox.

#rolecallroundup

This week, I’m back from the Ottawa International Animation Festival and was excited to meet a few of Cartoon Recruit’s community members in-person for the first time. The next major animation festival is LightBox Expo, which just made it a little easier to connect with their guests and panelists. There’s also a new animated pilot that I’m excited about as well as leaked test footage from a shelved Genndy Tartakovsky project. It’s been quite a week!

This week in animation:

SpindleRoo animates Homestuck’s pilot episode

Describing my 16-year history with Andrew Hussie’s MS Paint Adventures series would be like describing an acid trip. The most lucid statement I can make is that Homestuck is a sprawling multimedia chimera spanning comic panels, chat logs, flash animation and interactive game-like elements. Vivienne Medrano’s SpindleRoo was responsible for production on the animated pilot, which is now available to watch on YouTube. Notably in this adaptation, John Egbert is voiced by Toby Fox, who contributed significantly to Homestuck's original soundtrack before developing acclaimed indie games like Undertale and Deltarune.

Genndy Tartakovsky releases Black Knight test footage

Genndy Tartakovsky (creator of Samurai Jack, Hotel Transylvania and Primal) shared a 50-second animation clip on Instagram of test footage for a project called Black Knight. Tartakovsky claims to be sharing the teaser in hopes of convincing a studio that there would be an audience for the production. The only detail we have about the plot: “Our Knight Armor is 20 feet high and controlled by a knight inside using ropes, pulleys and levers. The setting is around the 14th century.” The post currently has more than 50,000 likes on Instagram.

Follow LightBox Expo’s exhibitors and presenters

Looking for another reason to get into BlueSky? LightBox Expo made it a little easier to connect with the animation community by adding a Starter Pack of 57 artists, studios and groups who are exhibiting, presenting or otherwise participating with this year’s event.

Looking for more artists to follow? We also published a series of animation industry Starter Packs, which you can find here: Vol 1, Vol 2, Vol 3, Vol 4.

Jobs worth a second look:

Head of Story (Feature) at Sony Pictures Animation (On-Site from Los Angeles, California) “The Head of Story works closely with the Directors and Producers to translate the story from the script to a visual representation of the narrative.”

CG Supervisor at Laika (On-Site from Hillsboro, Oregon) “The CG Supervisor is responsible for overseeing all VFX shot production elements for stop motion feature films and is the key collaborator in realizing the creative vision of the Director.”

Senior 2D Animator at Innersloth (Remote from Redmond, Washington) “Your focus will play a crucial role in delivering completed animation assets for a new IP, along with assisting in art asset concept and design.”

VFX Artist (Contract) at Insomniac Games (Remote from Burbank, California) “In this role, the VFX Artist is responsible for creating VFX to work and assist in gameplay, environment, and cinematics of a game.”

VFX Paint & Beauty Retouch Artist (Expression of Interest) at Company3 (Remote from Toronto, Ontario) “We are seeking a highly talented and meticulous VFX Paint/Beauty Retouch Artist to join our team.”

Mid-Level Lighting Artist (TMNT) at Mikros Animation (On-Site from Montreal, Quebec) “The Mid Lighting Artist contributes to the visual look of shots by applying lighting setups that enhance storytelling, mood, and consistency.”

Look Development Artist at Image Engine (Hybrid from Vancouver, British Columbia) “The Mid Look Development Artist is responsible for delivering high quality assets across multiple shows in a quick and efficient manner.”

CG Generalist & Assets Artist at Outpost VFX (On-Site from London, England) “As a CG Generalist, you will be responsible creating assets, and helping out through modelling, texturing and look development.”

Experienced Character Designer at Blue Zoo (Hybrid from London, England) “The Character Designer will be creating stylised characters, working closely with the Art/Creative Director, and will be responsible for the development of the persona, appeal and design of characters.”

Lead 2D FX Artist at Glitch Productions (On-Site from Sydney, New South Wales) “Design and animate high-quality 2D effects (such as explosions, smoke, fire, weather, magic, etc.) that fit the style and tone of our projects.”

Didn’t find the opportunity you were looking for? In the past week, we added a respectable 51 new jobs to CartoonRecruit.com!

Want to be featured in an upcoming issue?

Are you responsible for hiring decisions at your studio? Get in touch with us on LinkedIn! We are currently working on Q&A discussions with recruiters at studios, and participating could put a link to your studio's career page directly in the inboxes of talented artists searching for their next productions.

We believe that the best thing that artists applying for a job can do is to research studios before they apply. Our goal is to provide specific advice for artists applying to very different kinds of studios.

Signing off for now

That’s all for this week, recruits! Have thoughts or feedback about our project? Feel free to message me by email at mike@cartoonrecruit.com, or send a DM to our LinkedIn page or @cartoonrecruit.com on Bluesky. I will do my best to reply to every non-spam message I receive.

Never want to miss an update? If you are not already subscribed by email, you can get new posts like this directly in your inbox.

#rolecallroundup

Next week I will be at the Ottawa International Animation Festival and The Animation Conference, so feel free to @-me if you will be attending the picnic or have a film in competition. This past week we were surprised by a new music video, celebrated all of the nominees for the Primetime Emmy Awards, and saw a departure from a major studio. Plenty to catch up on!

Three Things

Watch Rebecca Sugar’s music video ‘Ice Water’

The crew at Jellybox Studio, previously best known for their work on the Animation Workers United shorts featuring animated power couple Umbert Actually and Misterman Guyfella, produced the music video for Ice Water, a track from Rebecca Sugar’s new album Lonely Magic. Directed and storyboarded by Sugar, any frame of the video would fit right at home in an early 1990s OVA. The video beautifully captures the sense of possibility while studying art and you can watch it on YouTube.

TAG Members reflect on Primetime Emmy Nominations

Keyframe Animation, the trade publication run by The Animation Guild, posted an interview with two directors who were competing for Outstanding Animated Program at the Primetime Emmys this Sunday. While I have affection for Bob’s Burgers and would have liked to see the newcomer Common Side Effects take home the prize, I can’t say I’m disappointed to see Arcane pick up another award this season. Congratulations to all nominees!

Final co-founder Joel Kuwahara leaves Bento Box

Bento Box’s co-founder and President of Production stepped down last Friday, leaving on good terms according to the studio’s statement to AWN. Of the other two co-founders, Scott Greenberg departed in 2023 while Mark McJimsey left in 2016. This news follows Dana Tafoya-Cameron’s and Michelle Huynh’s recent promotions to EVP roles last month, which seems to suggest a planned transition to new leadership.

Ten Jobs

CG Animation Intern at Walt Disney Animation Studios (On-Site from Burbank, California) “As an Animation Apprentice, your program is structured to introduce you to the art of animation, our studio culture, and our production environment.”

Animatic Editor (Family Series) at Disney Television Animation (On-Site from Glendale, California) “The Animatic Editor will handle video editing, media management, basic sound, music and delivery.”

Production Coordinator (Series) at Sony Pictures Animation (On-Site from Los Angeles, California) “The Production Coordinator supports the Producer and Production Manager who supervises the management of one or more front end departments for a production.”

Freelance 3D Artist (Docuseries) at Newscape Studios (Remote from Austin, Texas) “The role involves recreationing [sic] of crime scenes and other historical moments in a simplified style using Blender.”

Layout Artist (Expression of interest) at Rodeo FX (Remote from Toronto, Ontario) “The Layout Artist will capture camera movements and create the layout for 3D environments, ensuring to meet the high quality standards of Rodeo FX.”

Senior CG Look Development Artist at ZŌIC (Remote (Local) from Vancouver, British Columbia) “The Sr CG Look Development Artist is responsible for generating textures and surfaces in the production of high quality, accurate, photo-real and stylized CG characters and creatures.”

DMP Lead (Feature) at Bardel Entertainment (Hybrid from Vancouver, British Columbia, or Montreal, Quebec) “As the Matte Painting Lead, you will be responsible for overseeing and executing the creation of stunning digital matte paintings that seamlessly blend with computer-generated environments.”

Character Artist (Contract) at Jagex (Remote (Local) from Cambridge, England) “As a Character Artist, your day to day production will be extremely varied, ranging from crafting player worn outfits, armor, weapons, and other character related props as well as creating NPC creatures of all shapes and sizes.”

Generalist Artist (All Levels) at Industrial Light and Magic (Hybrid from London, England) “The Generalist demonstrates a strong base of knowledge in 3D Computer Generated Imagery creation.”

3D Character Animator (Entry Level) at Blue Zoo (Hybrid from Brighton, England) “Our junior animators are able to deliver characterful animated performances that support the style and narrative of our projects.”

Didn’t find the opportunity you were looking for? In the past week, we added a respectable 72 new jobs to CartoonRecruit.com! Not too shabby…

Want to be featured in an upcoming issue?

Are you responsible for hiring decisions at your studio? Get in touch with us on LinkedIn! We are currently working on Q&A discussions with recruiters at studios, and participating could put a link to your studio's career page directly in the inboxes of talented artists searching for their next productions.

We believe that the best thing that artists applying for a job can do is to research studios before they apply. Our goal is to provide specific advice for artists applying to very different kinds of studios.

Signing off for now

That’s all for this week, recruits! Have thoughts or feedback about our project? Feel free to message me by email at mike@cartoonrecruit.com, or send a DM to our LinkedIn page or @cartoonrecruit.com on Bluesky. I will do my best to reply to every non-spam message I receive.

Never want to miss an update? If you are not already subscribed by email, you can get new posts like this directly in your inbox.

#rolecallroundup

This past week’s theme seems to have been inevitability. Warner Bros. became the third major studio to file lawsuits against Midjourney, following lawsuits from Disney and Universal. PBS let go of 15% of its staff after the Trump administration cut $1.1 billion of funding from public broadcasting. And Nelvana, Canada’s oldest animation studio, will no longer produce animation as of this week.

On the bright side, we added 85 new jobs to our directory last week, including a paid storyboarding internship at Sony Pictures Animation. 

Three Things:

Warner Bros: That’s not all, folks!

Animation Magazine reports that Warner Bros. filed a lawsuit against Midjourney, becoming the third major studio to seek damages against the text-to-image generative AI service. Their claim alleges that Midjourney creates ‘high quality, downloadable images” of their characters even when users do not directly mention the studio’s intellectual property within prompts. The company is seeking $150,000 per infringed work.

A Public Broadcasting Disservice

Over the past several months, PBS eliminated nearly 100 jobs including 34 employees from the most recent round of job cuts according to Axios. This matters for our industry because PBS is a significant buyer of high quality children’s programming, including animated shows like Xavier Riddle and the Secret Museum, City Island and Carl the Collector. 

Mostly dead is slightly alive?

A spokesperson from Corus Entertainment went on the record with The Globe and Mail to clarify that while its subsidiary Nelvana will no longer produce animation the brand will still exist, “focusing on distribution, merchandising, and managing existing properties.” That may be cold comfort to the artists who completed production on the studio’s final series last week. Nelvana was founded in 1971, making it Canada’s oldest animation studio, best known for their work on Rock & Rule, The Adventures of Tintin, and Beetlejuice’s animated series.

Ten Jobs: 

Background Paint Lead (Family Series) at Disney Television Animation (On-Site from Glendale) “This is a key leadership role that partners with the Executive Producer, Art Director and Line Producer to execute the creative vision of the series.”

Story Apprentice (Feature) at Sony Pictures Animation (On-Site from Los Angeles, California) “The Story Apprentice closely partners with the Head of Story and Lead Story Artist(s) on the production to explore options when working on storyboard cleanup and revisions, thumbnails, rough drawings, and completed panels on a feature in production.”

Lead Character Designer at Flying Bark Productions (Hybrid from Glendale, California) “Our LA studio is seeking a highly creative and skilled Lead Character Designer to bring unique, expressive, and stylized characters to life for our upcoming CG animated series.”

CG Environment Artist at Laika (On-Site from Hillsboro, Oregon) “The CG Environment Artist constructs CG environments that are cohesive with the film's look and blend with other elements from plate photography.”

Technical Artist (World) at Blizzard (Hybrid from Albany, New York) “As a key member of the development team, you will be responsible for supporting and optimizing art production through technical and artistic expertise.”

Production Assistant at ICON Creative Studio (On-Site from Vancouver, British Columbia) “As a Production Assistant, you will be a vital support figure in our animated TV show production. Contribute to daily operations, gaining hands-on experience in the animation industry.”

CG Senior FX Artist (Unreal) at WildBrain (Hybrid from Vancouver, British Columbia) “In this role you create high-calibre dynamic and riveting visual effects while meeting production deadlines.”

Lighting Artist (Feature Animation) at Bardel Entertainment (Hybrid from Montreal, Quebec) “You will be responsible for lighting and shading scenes, characters, and environments to achieve the desired visual aesthetic, mood, and storytelling impact of our animated project.”

2D Animator (Multiple Roles) at Wild Child (Hybrid from Stirling, Scotland) “Wild Child Animation is looking to expand our 2D Animation team ahead of a new production, Captain Onion’s Buoyant Academy for Wayward Youth.”

After Effects Compositing Artist at A Productions (On-Site from Bristol, England) “A Productions are looking for 2 After Effects Compositors to work with us for a few weeks on a new 2D pre-school series in our Bristol based studio.”

Didn’t find the opportunity you were looking for? In the past week, we added 85 new jobs to CartoonRecruit.com! That’s 16 more than last week.

Want to be featured in an upcoming issue?

Are you responsible for hiring decisions at your studio? Get in touch with us on LinkedIn! We are currently working on Q&A discussions with recruiters at studios, and participating could put a link to your studio's career page directly in the inboxes of talented artists searching for their next productions.

We believe that the best thing that artists applying for a job can do is to research studios before they apply. Our goal is to provide specific advice for artists applying to very different kinds of studios.

Signing off for now

That’s all for this week, recruits! Have thoughts or feedback about our project? Feel free to message me by email at mike@cartoonrecruit.com, or send a DM to our LinkedIn page or @cartoonrecruit.com on Bluesky. I will do my best to reply to every non-spam message I receive.

Never want to miss an update? If you are not already subscribed by email, you can get new posts like this directly in your inbox.

#rolecallroundup

This week’s post is a little late, with me up proofreading in the wee hours of Labour Day as we tick into September 1st. I’m looking forward to attending the Ottawa International Animation Festival later this month and recently had a chance to check in with the crew behind Baltimore’s Sweaty Eyeballs festival on Toon Boom Animation’s YouTube channel.

What else have I been looking at this week? I’m geeking out about a Crunchyroll superhero series, meanwhile Netflix released their first guidelines for generative AI use on productions, and there’s a new video of another scary android that might be waking up.

Three Things:

Why did nobody tell me about To Be Hero X?

I recently stumbled on a BlueSky post from Kasey Gifford about To Be Hero X, a Chinese animated series available to stream on Crunchyroll. In the series, social media popularity gives heroes powers and weaknesses in a way that is much satirically sharper than I would have expected a Bilibili co-production to be. The series also experiments with a wide variety of animation styles, both CG and 2D.

Netflix publishes guidelines on generative AI use

Netflix released a new document about generative AI, intended to give productions best practices when developing content for their streaming service. The main concerns weighted appear to involve legal risks, audience perception, and impact on union roles, though it does list reference images as ‘low risk.’ It’s worth noting that Netflix has faced criticism from Riot Games employees over an AI generated promo image for Arcane last November.

Glitch Productions releases first trailer for Knights of Guinevere 

Glitch Productions, best known as the studio behind the smash hit indie series, The Amazing Digital Circus, released an official trailer for their new 2D series, Knights of Guinevere. Co-created by The Owl House veterans (Dana Terrace, John Bailey Owen and Zach Marcus), the series is described as a psychological thriller set on a planet-wide theme park with a broken princess android deciding the fate of the protagonists. We also noticed at least 50 separate job postings from the studio since last summer, which is always a plus!

Ten Jobs: 

Senior Gameplay Animator at Blizzard (Hybrid from Albany, New York or Irvine, California) “As a Senior Animator, you'll be animating a diverse range of compelling characters and creatures that support an engaging, dynamic, and satisfying gameplay experience.”

Senior Character Artist (Contract) at Insomniac Games (Remote from Burbank, California) “In this role, you will be responsible for modeling character art assets (models, textures, and shaders for characters, props, and other key assets) at the highest quality level set by Lead Artists and Art Directors.”

Compositor (Temporary) at Company3 (On-Site from Santa Monica, California) “Company 3 currently has openings for a project hire Compositor to work on projects within our VFX department.”

Production Coordinator at Brown Bag Films (Remote from Toronto, Ontario) “To ensure that all assigned aspects of the Production are executed in a timely manner, of high quality and in accordance with the schedule in liaison with the Production Manager, the crew and/or external partners.”

Digital Design Lead at Guru Studio (Hybrid from Toronto, Ontario) “You’ll be the creative spark behind bold digital campaigns, visually stunning pitch decks and high-impact videos (Shorts, reels, etc) optimized for today’s fast-moving platforms.”

LookDev Supervisor at DNEG VFX (On-Site from Vancouver, British Columbia) “As a Look Development Supervisor, you will guide the creative and technical standards for lookdev across productions, ensuring assets are visually striking, production-ready, and pipeline-efficient.”

Development Animator at ICON Creative Studio (On-Site from Vancouver, British Columbia) “We’re looking for a Development Animator to help shape the visual narrative of our animated TV shows.”

VFX Editor (Shaun the Sheep) at Aardman (On-Site from Bristol, England) “You will be required to track the status and be aware of all VFX shots throughout the movie and be the main point of contact of editorial for the VFX department.”

Environment Generalist TD at DNEG VFX (On-Site from London, England) “Environment Generalist TDs at DNEG are passionate about collaborating and problem solving to create and compose spectacular photorealistic environments on our highest calibre feature film projects.”

Toon Boom Harmony Compositor at Elk Studios (Hybrid from Dundalk, Ireland) “We are on the lookout for experienced Compositor to join the growing team as we start production on an exciting new long form 2D animated series.”

Didn’t find the opportunity you were looking for? In the past week, we added 69 new jobs to CartoonRecruit.com! That’s three more than last week. Also: nice.

Want to be featured in an upcoming issue?

Are you responsible for hiring decisions at your studio? Get in touch with us on LinkedIn! We are currently working on Q&A discussions with recruiters at studios, and participating could put a link to your studio's career page directly in the inboxes of talented artists searching for their next productions.

We believe that the best thing that artists applying for a job can do is to research studios before they apply. Our goal is to provide specific advice for artists applying to very different kinds of studios.

Signing off for now

That’s all for this week, recruits! Have thoughts or feedback about our project? Feel free to message me by email at mike@cartoonrecruit.com, or send a DM to our LinkedIn page or @cartoonrecruit.com on Bluesky. I will do my best to reply to every non-spam message I receive.

Never want to miss an update? If you are not already subscribed by email, you can get new posts like this directly in your inbox.

#rolecallroundup