At Brown Bag Films our motto is simple: “We love animation.” In fact, we love it so much we trademarked it! ‘We Love Animation™.’ That means we put our artists at the heart of everything we do! We are looking for an artist to join our team who shares our vision and will bring with them a passion for creating high quality content.

We are currently looking for a Design Supervisor to join one of our long running projects.

Reporting to: Art Director

Purpose: Why you’re here at Brown Bag Films

• To manage, mentor and develop a Production Design Team in the creation of Characters and Props for an animated production.

• To interpret the storyboard panels, using funpack/visual development as guidelines, to create characters and props for a 2D animated production.

Delivery: What you produce

• Characters and props that are drawn and created correctly in scale, and style for the animated production

• A well-functioning and developed team of production designers.

Measurements: How we measure it

• Character and prop designs meeting creative and managerial requirements, within stylistic guidelines and schedule

• Art Director and Director/Client approvals

• Team development & sustainability.

Key Responsibilities

What you are regularly responsible for doing:

• Managing and developing the Production Design team ensuring that the designs stay on style of the production. Includes:

• Working one on one with the Designers to mentor and providing regular feedback

• Communicating with the team the needs of the production and resolve any technical or artistic questions that the team may have

• Providing clear and concise upfront direction, offering adjustments and clarifications to the team as needed

• Creating an encouraging and engaging work environment within the team and advocating for them in respect of design quality, morale and schedule

• Being an exemplar to the team by producing an inspiring quota.

• Reviewing and/or approving:

o Production Designs, ensuring they are drawn in proper form, perspective and scale

o Ensuring designs are created properly in the authorized program i.e. Harmony, ready for scene planning and rigging

o Correct colour styling, using approved reference material, or stylistic guidelines for the production

o All character mouth charts ,hand charts, blinks etc. and all turnarounds and poses of characters and props

• Keeping the production designs on schedule and anticipating problems both technical and scheduling, offering solutions to these problems.

• Collaborating with Art Director and Director to find the best solutions for technical challenges.

Tracking progress of goals and milestones, identifying and acting on issues (such as vacations, sick days, missing assets, etc.) and collaborating with the Art Director or Production for larger consideration.

Key Requirements

Things that help you do your job (what is essential & what is desirable)

Knowledge:

• Strong knowledge in art and design with a focus on Animation.

• Strong artistic sensibility, centered on characters and props for animated productions and an ability to keep designs on style.

• Familiarity with the 2D pipeline.

• Knowledge of Toon Boom Harmony, Photoshop.

Experience:

• Character and Prop Design for an animated TV Series or Feature.

• Some leadership experience in managing and mentoring Teams in an animation environment and forecasting project solutions and requirements (desirable).

• Well-founded experience with asset tracking systems & workflow management software (e.g. Shotgrid).

Technical skills:

• Drawing within an animation environment.

• Expert in Harmony and Photoshop.

Behaviours (Competencies) – To be developed separately

Why work with us?

Perks! Perks! Perks! Not only is 9 Story Media Group / Brown Bag Films an amazing place full of artists, animators and creators from all corners of the industry, but we focus on helping staff grow and develop in their careers and make them long time team members. Along with a great work environment we offer first-rate health + dental benefits, summer hours, paid Health and Wellness Days, vacation periods that multiply with tenure, and more! We may love animation, but we love our employees even more!

Our Toronto office can be found in the cool and trendy Liberty Village with over 200 artists working on award winning animated children’s content. You will benefit from a competitive compensation package, interesting work and a fun/supportive work environment.

Applicants need to be legally eligible to work in Canada. Interested applicants are requested to share application with link to their portfolios.

We thank all applicants for their interest, however, only those selected for an interview will be contacted.

9 Story Media takes diversity and inclusion seriously and we are committed to ensuring equity in the recruitment process. Candidates from diverse backgrounds, including but not limited to, Indigenous peoples, Racialized and LGBT2SQ+ communities, candidates from a range of ages and religious beliefs and people with disabilities, are encouraged to apply. Should you require accommodation throughout the recruitment process, please let us know your requirements when contacted.

As a company, we deliver high-quality kids' content, and we seek to have diverse characters so that all our audience feels represented. We also want the same for our own workforce, and 9 Story Media is committed to looking for all kinds of talent to build a diverse workforce in which all identities are represented and respected.

Salary

Open to EU Candidates Only?

Expected Start Date