Job Description

Giant Ant is an award winning artist driven creative studio and animation house, located in Vancouver’s historic Strathcona. With 13 years of experience crafting meaningful work Giant Ant is known for creating rich animation with depth that connects by feel as much as look and style. 

Giant Ant seeks experienced Animation Artists to join the department on our 2D animated feature film adaptation of Sarah Leavitt’s graphic memoir, “Tangles: A Story About Alzheimer’s, My Mother and Me”.

As an Animation Artist, your primary responsibility will be to collaborate closely with Animation Supervisors and other crew members to produce exceptional digitally hand-drawn 2D animation. You’ll translate the storytelling poses depicted in the animatic into scenes that maintain character consistency and adhere to established style guides and model packs. We are primarily looking for candidates with exceptional hand drawn 2D animation and illustration experience. Well-rounded artists with a keen sense of timing and spacing, thoughtful acting, and previous experience are ideal.

Key Responsibilities:

• Work with Supervisors and Directors to understand the focus, intent, and context of the scenes before starting assigned shots.
• Effectively tell the story in a meaningful way through vivid and compelling character acting and movement with fluid and expressive motion across full sequences of the film.
• Demonstrating a keen understanding of animation timing to effectively convey emotion, action, and narrative beats in your scenes.
• Become exceptionally familiar with the design on the film using existing character and prop model sheets and builds.
• Work cleanly with your files to “plus up” the scene to be ready for the next stage in the pipeline.
• Draw upon your previous experience in 2D animation, whether in television or feature film, to deliver high-quality work that meets production standards.
• Block animation, most commonly using audio dialog track.
• Clearly show performance ideas and shot blocking in Director review (animation dailies).
• Work within the pipeline structure of the department, and Implement changes and revisions in accordance with the production schedule.
• Develop a working knowledge of necessary production tools
• Maintain an open and professional demeanor regarding direction, changes and shifting requirements.
• Be present for all meetings required, and maintain prompt communication within working hours.
• Collaborate with the other crew members and provide reasonable assistance and mentorship where needed.
• Work closely with supervisors, directors, production heads, and pipeline to identify and solve any technical issues as they arise.
• Be able to manage your own submission of files for approvals