Cartoon Saloon seeks "Key Posing Artist"

Cartoon Saloon

Cartoon Saloon in Kilkenny, Ireland, seeks a "Key Posing Artist" for their new feature film "Breadwinner".

According to the job description, "You’ll be responsible for finding storytelling poses from the board, improving upon them, putting them on model, and spelling out complex actions in a variety of ways for the next stage in the pipeline (animation) using existing character and prop model-sheets. We require artists with strong drawing skills to fulfill these roles."

So, what is this job exactly?

When does the job start?

Now. The role begins "as soon as possible" and will last for "approx. 7-8 months".

Where is the job located?
Applicants must be willing to re-locate to Kilkenny, Ireland, for the duration of the contract

Responsibilities Include:

• Working under the direction of the Animation Director to create high quality key posing in TVPaint
• Working within strict deadlines and meeting assigned weekly quotas and expectations;
• Working collaboratively in a team environment.

Qualifications Include:

• Previous work experience on at least one animated feature, preferably as Key Posing artist;
• Skilled at creating poses using TVPaint
• Strong sense of acting, staging, posing, timing, and the ability to stay on model;
• Previous work experience as model-sheet artist is a bonus;
• Ability to multi-task and prioritize;
• Ability to communicate in a professional and positive manner;
• Self-motivated with demonstrated initiative.

So what is this job, exactly? Is it an animation position? Or a story position? Well, it's kind of a hybrid of the two. Studios in the USA and Europe often off-shore much of their animation to overseas studios where labour is cheaper, and production costs are lower. Usually they don't want to do this, but they have to do it to keep their budgets down. 

Trouble is, when they offshore animation, they tend to lose control over the outcome. One way to keep control over the output of the overseas studio is to employ Key Posing Artists, who go through the story boards and do the key poses in any given shot. Essentially, if you applied for and got this job, you would be working as a lead animator, blocking out all the main acting poses, but leaving the break-downs and in-betweens to the overseas animator. It''s potentially a fun position, where you get to focus on the acting and the performance but you get to leave the details to others. 

If you're a good animator, and you have some experience with TV paint, this is a job well worth applying for.