2d Animator | CelAction

The Mission: Your primary goal is to deliver clear, believable, and entertaining performances. You take the “Approved” technical setup and final audio to create the acting and motion that brings the characters to life. You are the final link in the creative chain, responsible for the “soul” of the character and the clarity of the storytelling.

What You’ll Be Doing

• File Preparation: Isolate assigned scenes from multi-scene files, import the correct audio, and prepare your CelAction workspace for maximum efficiency.
• Animation Execution: Progress through the established pipeline of Keys, In-betweens, and Lip Sync. You focus on acting, timing, weight, and clarity of motion to ensure the performance is “on model” and “on brand.”
• Performance-Led Adjustments: You are permitted to make minor adjustments to camera framing or prop placement only when it is necessary to support a specific performance beat (ensure these changes are communicated to the Lead Animator).
• Refinement: Address technical and creative notes from the Lead Animator and Animation Supervisor accurately and efficiently to reach the final render stage.

Technical Rules (The “Must-Haves”)

• Strict Discipline: Stick strictly to the studio’s naming and versioning conventions in ShotGrid to ensure your work can be found and rendered by the back-end team.
• Tooling: Work exclusively in CelAction.
• No Building: You are a performer, not a builder. Do not build scenes from scratch or modify the source “Scene Planning” files. If a scene build is broken, flag it to the Lead Scene Planner immediately.
• Library Usage: Use approved character poses and expressions from the library to maintain visual consistency across the episode.

The Feedback Loop

• Creative Direction: You take notes and revisions from the Lead Animator and the Animation Supervisor.
• The Approval Gate: You must upload previews to ShotGrid at the “Keys” stage and the “Final” stage. Your work is not complete until it is officially marked as “APPROVED” in ShotGrid.
• Submission: Ensure all “Final” submissions are technically clean, with no overlapping rigs or display order errors.
• Own your Delivery: Ensure you meet all quotas and milestones per the production schedule. If any assignment is at risk of a delay, you must communicate this to your lead well in advance to ensure team-wide success.

Production & Logistics

• Quota Management: You are responsible for meeting your weekly frame quota. If you are ahead or behind, you must communicate this to the Lead Animator during daily check-ins.
• The Handoff: Once your scene is Approved, it moves to the Rendering and Compositing phase. Your responsibility for the shot ends once the final performance is locked.