Background Artist job : Sony Pictures Animation is seeking a highly skilled, versatile, and collaborative Background Artist to join our episodic series division in Los Angeles, California. Known for pushing the absolute boundaries of visual storytelling, our studio prides itself on empowering visionary filmmakers to lead the creative process. We intentionally allow the distinct “hand of the artist” to be genuinely felt across every frame, producing bold, innovative, and deeply stylized content.
In this role, you will be responsible for designing, drafting, and painting detailed backgrounds and environmental layouts that ground our characters and define the worlds they inhabit. Working under the direct guidance of the Production Designer and Art Director, you will ensure that every environment aligns perfectly with the show’s established creative vision, tone, and unique aesthetic language.
Because each Sony Pictures Animation project features its own distinctive and outstanding visual ecosystem, we are looking for artists who possess incredible stylistic flexibility and a profound passion for environmental worldbuilding.
Background Artist Job Overview
| Category | Specification / Detail |
| Company Name | Sony Pictures Animation |
| Job Title | Background Artist – Series |
| Location | Los Angeles, California, United States |
| Department | Series Design & Development |
| Position Level | Mid/Senior Artist |
| Job Type | Full-Time |
| Classification | Union Covered Position (Subject to collective bargaining agreement benefits) |
| Anticipated Base Salary | $59.16/hour to $70.00/hour |
| Primary Software | Adobe Photoshop |
| Core Skillset Focus | Scene set design, orthographic drafts, floor plans, and digital environment painting |
| Application Requirements | Resume, Portfolio Link, and all necessary passwords included on the resume/cover letter |
Salary & Benefits Note: The actual base salary offered within the $59.16/hour to $70.00/hour range will depend on a variety of factors, including the candidate’s prior production experience, portfolio evaluation, and specific technical skill set. This role qualifies for comprehensive health, welfare, and retirement benefits pursuant to the applicable collective bargaining agreement.
About Sony Pictures Animation
Sony Pictures Animation is a premier global animation studio based in the heart of Los Angeles, California. We collaborate with top-tier artists, technicians, and filmmakers from around the world to create critically acclaimed, award-winning feature animation and highly successful animated series.
At our core, we value inventiveness and stylistic diversity. We actively reject a single, homogenized “studio style.” From the comic-book textures of Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse to the distinct, quirky linework of The Mitchells vs. the Machines, we treat every project as a blank canvas.
We fundamentally believe that a diverse and inclusive environment drives exceptional creativity. Sony Pictures Animation is an equal opportunity employer. We evaluate all qualified applicants without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, disability, veteran status, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, or any other legally protected characteristics.
Position Summary & Core Objectives
The Background Artist role at Sony Pictures Animation is a multi-faceted creative position that blends structural architectural draftsmanship with highly expressive digital painting. You are not simply applying color to an existing layout; you are a worldbuilder. You will construct the foundational spaces where cinematic narrative unfolds, ensuring that perspective lines, lighting keys, and shape languages actively reinforce the emotional beats of the script.
To succeed in this role, you must be a proactive communicator who thrives on artistic feedback. You will collaborate daily within a tight-knit Design and Paint team, ensuring a seamless translation of ideas from initial rough thumbnails to finalized, production-ready background plates. Additionally, you will think critically about upstream and downstream production pipelines, ensuring that your spatial designs translate cleanly for asset modeling, texturing, and final compositing teams.
Detailed Responsibilities
1. Environmental Design & Draftsmanship
- Spatial Architecture: Create comprehensive scene set designs, functional floor plans, and accurate orthographic designs with multiple camera angles to assist the layout and production pipelines.
- Stylistic Alignment: Draft and paint backgrounds, layouts, and environmental art assets that perfectly match the established style, linework complexity, and quality benchmarks of the specific series.
- Iterative Design: Rapidly execute rough concepts, clean revisions, and finalized background designs within tight, fast-paced episodic production schedules and deadlines.
2. Color, Lighting & Asset Management
- Color Project Execution: Remain agile and available to fulfill diverse color-centric tasks as required by production, including but not limited to color scripts, color lead sheets, cinematic lighting keys, keyframe paintings, and specialized background effects for specific episodes.
- Downstream Pipeline Consideration: Propose innovative design approaches that account for downstream departments, ensuring that background drawings provide clear spatial and structural information for 3D asset modeling and texturing teams.
- Asset Hygiene & Delivery: Ensure that all artwork files are meticulously organized, properly backed up, layered correctly according to studio standards, and that all packeting production materials are prepared on time for shipping.
3. Collaboration & Studio Communication
- Feedback Integration: Actively communicate with and apply creative feedback from the Production Designer, Art Director, and broader creative leadership teams with a positive, solutions-oriented attitude.
- Team Synchronicity: Work closely with the Design and Paint team to maintain visual consistency across episodes, sharing techniques, templates, and reference materials to keep the production unified.
Required Skills & Experience
Production Track Record: Previous professional experience as a background designer, painter, or layout artist on an animated feature film, television series, or high-end video game pipeline is strongly preferred.
Artistic Mastery: Must demonstrate elite, high-level traditional and digital drawing and painting skills, showcasing a powerful command of perspective, value structure, composition, and edge control.
Design Fundamentals: A rock-solid understanding of color theory, shape language, atmospheric depth, cinematic lighting behavior, and overall environmental design principles.
Stylistic Versatility: A diverse, dynamic portfolio that demonstrates the ability to quickly adapt to different artistic styles, ranging from hyper-stylized graphic looks to highly rendered realism.
Technical Proficiency: Advanced, professional-level knowledge of Adobe Photoshop, including custom brush management, layer optimization, and non-destructive digital painting workflows.
Communication & Articulation: Proven ability to articulate creative concepts, pitch visual ideas clearly to leadership, and interpret abstract creative direction into concrete visual designs.
Time Management: Exceptional organizational skills with a proven track record of managing heavy episodic shot quotas and meeting strict production deadlines under pressure.
Application & Submission Guidelines
To ensure your application is processed successfully by our creative recruitment team, please adhere to the following guidelines:
1. Resume: Submit an up-to-date professional resume detailing your studio history, union status (if applicable), and software proficiencies.
2. Portfolio Link: Provide a direct URL to your digital portfolio or website showcasing relevant background designs, environment sketches, layout blueprints, and final painted keys.
3. Password Accessibility: CRITICAL: If your portfolio, website, or specific galleries are password-protected, you must explicitly include the passwords directly within your cover letter and/or prominently at the top of your resume. Applications with inaccessible portfolios cannot be evaluated.
We look forward to reviewing your work and discovering the unique artistic perspective you can bring to the Sony Pictures Animation family!
