Three Things, Ten Jobs: Celebrating milestones in CG animation
As you were, recruits! Here on CartoonRecruit.com’s blog, I reflect on the past week in the animation industry and highlight job listings that might go overlooked. This week, I’ve been thinking about CG animation. If you’re my vintage or older, the first CG feature film you watched was probably Toy Story.
Working with 1995’s state-of-the-art technology, toys were an ideal cast; if the characters are supposed to have glassy eyes and plastic skin then you neatly avoid the depths of the uncanny valley. While the progress towards realism is an impressive series of technical accomplishments, I’ve personally enjoyed seeing films over the past decade embrace stylized characters, effects and movement like KPop Demon Hunters, Turning Red, the Spider-Verse series and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem.
Three Things:
Celebrating milestones throughout the history of cg animation
The Animation Guild’s Keyframe Magazine posted a retrospective on the history of CG animation. From the ballroom in Beauty & The Beast to groom fx in Zootopia to compositing hand drawn lines and textures onto 3D surfaces in films like Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, it’s worth taking stock of the progress that artists made advancing the medium.
KPop Demon Hunters’ artists share video references
Artists at Sony Pictures Imageworks, including Eric Stinnissen (senior animator), Daniel Ceballos (senior animator) and Joy Liu (animation lead), shared reference footage used for scenes in KPop Demon Hunters. The original animated film is still trending in Netflix’s top 10. Spotted by Cartoon Brew.
Disney continues to tap pop-punk stars, appealing to millennial parents
After first bringing on Patrick Stump (Fall Out Boy) to perform the theme song for Marvel's Spidey and his Amazing Friends in 2021, Disney Junior has returned to the mid-2000s punk-rock well. The house of mouse is bringing in Mark Hoppus (Blink-182) on the theme song for the upcoming series Iron Man and His Awesome Friends. Reported in The Wrap.
Ten Jobs:
Character Designer at Flying Bark Productions (Hybrid from Glendale, California) “Our LA studio is seeking a highly creative and skilled Character Designer to bring unique, expressive, and stylized characters to life for our upcoming CG animated series.”
Episodic Director at Flying Bark Productions (Hybrid from Glendale, California) “You will be responsible for interpreting the series vision at the episode level and leading a team of storyboard artists to ensure the storytelling, pacing, tone, and performances meet the creative and technical standards of the series.”
Production Coordinator (CG Series) at Disney Television Animation (Hybrid from Glendale, California) “We are seeking a highly organized and proactive Production Coordinator to support the day-to-day operations of a CG television series.”
Production Assistant at Scanline VFX (Hybrid from Los Angeles, California) “As a Production Assistant, you will perform a variety of tasks for the production and stage teams to support demos, testing, and shoots.”
Character Concept Artist (Freelance) at Bonfire Studios (Remote from Irvine, California) “We’re looking to collaborate with freelance character concept artists excited by the challenge of designing striking, emotionally resonant characters for Arkheron, our original dark fantasy IP.”
Senior Lighting Artist at Highdive (On-Site from Montreal, Quebec or Toronto, Ontario) “Light scenes and levels beautifully and maintain them throughout all development stages of the game.”
Production Assistant at Barnstorm VFX (Remote (Local) from Montreal, Quebec) “The PA role at Barnstorm provides the Production department with daily support, while having an opportunity to learn about the Production and VFX pipeline.”
Designer at WildBrain (Hybrid from Vancouver, British Columbia) “Work with the Art Director and other Designers to create original, engaging, performable characters and props according to the style of the production”
CG Animator (Mid-Level) at Image Engine (Hybrid from Vancouver, British Columbia) “The Mid-level Animator is responsible for delivering high quality work in a quick and efficient manner. They will apply notes provided by the Animation Supervisor/Leads.”
Lead Modelling Artist at Blue Zoo (Remote (Local) from England outside London) “Our Lead Modelling Artists are incredible world builders and excellent motivators. They build characters, props & environments with charming details that help tell the stories.”
Didn’t find the opportunity you were looking for? In the past week, we added 61 new jobs to CartoonRecruit.com!
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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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