Role Call Roundup: Aardman, Disney Television Animation, Epic Games
Up and at 'em, recruits! And welcome to CartoonRecruit.com’s weekly Roll Call Roundup. On the main page, I monitor and curate links to job posts (updated daily) from an ever-expanding list of animation studios. This blog is where I reflect on job posts from the past week and take a closer look at hiring trends across the animation industry.
Congratulations to Raphael Jacovsky for winning last week’s giveaway for The Art of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem. This week we are collecting new job opportunities from Aardman, Disney Television Animation and Epic Games, and I have thoughts about job titles that don’t accurately reflect what studios actually want.
Peek over the garden wall to Bristol, England
Aardman Animations Limited is an Academy Award-winning studio headquartered in Bristol. The studio, founded by Peter Lord and David Sproxton, is best known for their stop motion animated productions, chiefly the Wallace & Gromit films and the televised children’s series, Shaun the Sheep. Recent projects include Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget and a charming Over the Garden Wall special. The studio is currently hiring for four roles related to stop motion animation and one for VFX.
- Senior Art & Puppets Production Coordinator
- Puppets Production Manager
- Art Production Manager
- Art & Puppets Production Assistant
- VFX Supervisor
The House of Mouse is hiring for a new series in Los Angeles, California
Disney Television Animation is the division of The Walt Disney Company responsible for producing animated television series and direct-to-video films. This studio, based out of Glendale, is best known for their acclaimed series, Big City Greens, The Owl House, The Ghost and Molly McGee as well as Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur. The studio is currently hiring for three roles on an unannounced series.
In addition, the feature department at Walt Disney Animation Studios, in Burbank, is also hiring for three new roles:
Epic Games is powering up in Cary, North Carolina and Montreal, Quebec
Founded by Tim Sweeny in 1991, Epic Games is the studio and publisher behind Fortnite, Unreal Tournament and Fall Guys. The company also acquired Psyonix (in 2019), Mediatonic (in 2021), and Harmonix (in 2021). Epic Games is currently hiring for roles related to a collaboration on an “all-new games and entertainment universe” with The Walt Disney Company. Over the past week, the studio has been hiring for six new roles, split between their studios in North Carolina and Quebec.
- Senior Technical Artist (Cary)
- Lead Gameplay Animator (Cary)
- Senior Concept Artist (Cary)
- FX Artist (Montreal)
- Senior Concept Artist (Montreal)
- Environment Artist (Montreal)
More job highlights from the past week
United States:
- Blizzard is seeking a Senior World Artist in Santa Monica, California
- Skybound is looking for a Senior Franchise Producer (The Walking Dead) in Los Angeles, California
- Sony Pictures Animation is hiring a Visual Development Artist in Culver City, California
Canada:
- Brown Bag Films is hiring a Production Manager in Toronto, Ontario
- Copernicus Studios is hiring a 2D Storyboard Supervisor & Director remote in Nova Scotia or Ontario
- Mainframe Studios is looking for a Junior Maya Animator in Vancouver, British Columbia
United Kingdom:
- Framestore is seeking a FX Technical Director in London, England
- Lola Post Production is looking for a Senior Lighting Artist in London, England
- Playground Games is hiring a Graphic Designer (Contract) in Leamington Spa, England
Australia:
- Flying Bark Productions is seeking a Senior Previs & Proxy Artist in Sydney, New South Wales
- Glitch Productions is hiring a Senior Pipeline Technical Director in Sydney, New South Wales
- DNEG VFX is looking for a Environment Generalist in Sydney, New South Wales
What’s out-of-scope in a job post?
Steve Reach, a 3D character animator and previz artist posted an observation about certain job posts for 3D Animators on LinkedIn. Despite the title of the role, the responsibilities mentioned modelling and rigging.
“In my experience, riggers don't usually animate and animators don't normally rig, as these aspects, despite their being closely related and linked in the core function of a rig, are 2 very different skillsets.”
While we usually post advice for job applicants, we feel that it’s counter-productive for studios to post job titles that don’t accurately match the work required. It is already challenging for industry artists to find relevant opportunities, and search tools like CartoonRecruit.com rely on studios providing titles which correctly match the role.
If a studio wants to hire someone who can animate, model and rig — they might consider hiring for a 3D Generalist. Or, better yet, hiring a 3D Modeller, a 3D Rigging Artist as well as a 3D Animator. Otherwise posting opportunities with misleading job titles wastes their time as well as the artist’s.
Help us keep this production going
CartoonRecruit.com is a website built from the ground up for industry artists searching for their next animation production. Our directory will always be provided to the community as a free service. With that said, if you find our project useful and want to help connect more artists to meaningful work, you can contribute by becoming a Patreon Supporter.
When artists contribute to our $1 / Pay What You Want tier, they gain full access to CartoonRecruit’s Discord community. You also help cover costs associated with running the last website on the internet that isn’t owned by an investment firm that was acquired by a shell company run by a hedge fund.
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 plan on hosting Q&A discussions on this blog, and participating could put a link to your studio's career page directly in the inboxes of talented artists searching for their next production.
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.