Role Call Roundup: Evil Eye Pictures, Blizzard, Bardel Entertainment, UK Pay Transparency
As you were, recruits! And welcome to CartoonRecruit.com’s weekly Role 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.
Despite the mid-December slowdown in listings, we still have a packed newsletter! Job posts from December 8th to 14th include multiple open roles at Evil Eye Pictures, Blizzard and Bardel Entertainment, among other high-profile listings. And we’ll examine issues around compensation and pay transparency in the UK industry. Let’s go!
Don’t throw salt over your shoulder in San Francisco, California
Evil Eye Pictures was founded in 2004 by Dan Rosen (Compositor on The Matrix) and Matt McDonald (VFX Supervisor on The Curious Case of Benjamin Button). Originally focused on VFX for film, the studio now specializes in realtime animation and development work in the Unreal Engine on projects like LEGO Fortnite Odyssey and The Matrix Awakens: An Unreal Engine 5 Experience. This week the studio is hiring four roles related to their Unreal Engine projects.
A surprise flurry in Irvine, California
Blizzard Entertainment is a game developer in Irvine, California, which was acquired by Activision in 2008. Founded by Allen Adham, Frank Pearce and Michael Morhaime in 1991, the developer is best known for its franchises which include Warcraft, Diablo and Overwatch as well as the hit mobile game Hearthstone. This week, Blizzard is hiring for two additional roles in Irvine.
Additionally, Blizzard’s studio in Guildford, England is hiring a Weapons and Vehicles Artist.
Help productions meet a high bar in Vancouver, British Columbia
Bardel Entertainment was founded in Vancouver, British Columbia, in 1987. The studio’s name is a portmanteau of the co-founders Barry Ward and Delna Bhesania. The studio’s best known for their service work on 2D productions like Carol & The End of The World and Solar Opposites as well as 3D productions like The Dragon Prince and Sausage Party: Foodtopia. Bardel Entertainment is currently hiring for a quality control artist at their Vancouver location.
More job highlights from the past week
United States:
- Disney TVA is hiring an Executive Assistant (Development & Current) in Glendale, California
- Psyop is hiring a Freelance Producer in New York City, New York
- DreamWorks is hiring an Animation TA to work remotely
- See more
Canada:
- Rodeo FX is hiring a Senior Animation Artist (Temporary) in Montreal, Quebec
- Atomic Cartoons is hiring a CG FX Artist in Vancouver, British Columbia
- Ubisoft is hiring a Senior Concept Artist (Environments) in Toronto, Ontario
- See more
United Kingdom:
- DNEG VFX is hiring a Lead Compositor in London, England
- Blink Industries is hiring a Senior CG Lighting and Rendering Generalist in London, England
- Blinkink is hiring a Runner in Camden, England
- See more
Australia:
- Flying Bark Productions is hiring a Senior Animation TD in Sydney, New South Wales
- Luma Pictures is hiring a CG Supervisor in Melbourne, Victoria
- Framestore is hiring a Studio Runner in Melbourne, Victoria
- See more
A difficult year for animation workers, quantified
She Drew That is a UK organization, founded by freelance animator Hannah Lau-Walker, with the mission of providing women and non-binary animation artists with professional development, mentorship and networking opportunities. Since 2022, the organization compiles annual Salary Rates Reports which examine both pay and working conditions in the UK industry.
The 2024 Salary Rates Report reveals that 49% of participants feel that their current salary is unfair, the rate of decreased pay almost doubled over the previous year from 10% to 19%, and the average salary for women and non-binary artists is lower across every job category compared to men in the UK industry.
Given the nature of my own project, a recommendation at the end of the report stood out to me:
“Those working in the animation industry need to have robust personal networks to gather information about studios, clients, projects and patterns of behaviour that will enable them to feel more confident in establishing their rate of pay, and base their sense of fairness on the conditions that prevail in the marketplace.”
I see many studios list salary ranges for artists working in California or Vancouver, with those same studios omitting pay scale information in other regions — including anywhere in the UK. My personal feeling is that listing an honest ballpark figures saves both applicants and recruiters time and effort during the application process. Besides, we all know that if a studio’s salary or wages were actually “competitive,” they would just say the number.
Another week, another Bluesky Starter Pack
I published our third Animation Industry Starter Pack on Bluesky in three weeks. If you follow all three, you will have followed 447 animation artists, industry professionals and media accounts with no repeats. In terms of curation, I try to include accounts who someone with an interest in the animation industry might want to follow. As the list collects artists who work on a variety of projects, and may be following their own artistic interests, there may be nudity and mature content. Discretion is advised.
- Animation Industry and Artists Vol. 1
- Animation Industry and Artists Vol. 2
- Animation Industry and Artists Vol. 3
Artists who would like to be considered for an upcoming volume are welcome to message us on Bluesky.
Help us keep this production on track
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 which wasn’t hallucinated by a generative AI fever dream.
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 production.
We believe that the best thing that artists applying for a job can do is to research the studio they are applying to, and we want to help provide specific advice for artists applying to a wide variety 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.
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