Environment/Background Designer

Production - Unannounced Book-Based Animated Series

Format - Short-form digital animated series

Position Type - Contract

Work Arrangement - On-site, Kingston, Ontario (preferred)

Send Applications to: [email protected]

About the Role

We are looking for talented Environment Designers / Background Artists to join the design team on an upcoming book-based animated production. The initial engagement is for a short-form digital animated series, with the potential to lead into a planned long-form animated series based on the same property.

The production is primarily 2D Toon Boom Harmony with a stylized, cinematic and anime-influenced visual direction. We are looking for artists who can create memorable environments and atmospheric backgrounds while working efficiently within a modern, artist-directed, rapidly developing visual-development pipeline.

Strong background-painting ability is highly desirable, as there may be an opportunity for the successful candidate to continue into the background-paint phase of the production.

What You'll Do

● Design interior and exterior environments from scripts, storyboards and creative direction.

● Create environment designs and production-ready backgrounds.

● Rapidly explore compositions, locations, lighting, atmosphere and visual variations using traditional and approved AI-assisted workflows.

● Paint over, redraw, correct and refine exploratory material into consistent, production-ready artwork.

● Maintain visual and spatial consistency for recurring environments and locations.

● Prepare layered background elements for depth, parallax, camera movement and compositing where required.

● Respond efficiently to Director and Art Direction feedback and produce quick iterations while maintaining the established show style.

What We're Looking For

● Strong environment design, composition, perspective and drawing skills.

● Strong digital painting, colour, lighting and atmosphere skills.

● Ability to create cinematic, stylized and atmospheric interior and exterior environments.

● Proficiency with Photoshop or comparable digital drawing and painting software.

● Toon Boom Harmony experience is considered an asset.

● Maya, Blender, Unreal Engine or comparable 3D blockout experience is considered an asset.

● Anime-influenced, stylized or atmospheric animation experience is considered an asset.

Portfolio Required

All applicants must include a link to a portfolio of their relevant work in their application materials. Please include environment designs and backgrounds demonstrating composition, perspective, lighting, atmosphere and visual storytelling. Professional production work is preferred, but strong personal work demonstrating relevant skills may also be considered.

Where AI assisted, exploratory or collaborative work is included, applicants should clearly identify the nature of the work and their artistic contribution. We are particularly interested in artists who can use rapid exploration tools while retaining strong design judgment, consistency and final-art quality.

Contract Information

The initial contract is for a short-form digital animated series. There may be an opportunity for successful team members to continue onto the planned long-form series based on the same property, depending on production requirements, performance and availability.

Rate: $1,000-$1,200 per week based on a 40-hour work week. The final rate will be determined based on experience, skills and qualifications.

It is preferred that this position is primarily based on-site at our studio in Kingston, Ontario. Applicants should be based in Kingston or the surrounding area, or be able to work primarily on-site in Kingston. Remote applicants will be considered on a case-by-case basis.

Applicants must be legally eligible to work in Canada.

Application Details

Apply by email at Sign in to view email. Please write the position title in the email subject line for consideration.

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