Senior Animator

Job Description

Title: Senior Animator

Company Name: Thealon Animation Studios

Vacancy: 01

Age: Na

Job Location: Dhaka

Salary: Tk. 35000 - 45000 (Monthly)

Experience: --

Published: 2026-09-08

Application Deadline: 2026-09-18

Education:

Requirements: --

Skills Required:

Additional Requirements:

Responsibilities & Context:

Senior Animator: Character Animation & Visual Development

Location: Dhaka, Bangladesh
Employment: Full-time
Experience: 5+ years preferred
Department: Animation / Creative
Reports to: Animation Director / Creative Director

About Us

We are an animation studio developing original animated stories, characters and worlds with a distinctive cinematic visual language. Our ambition is not to simply produce conventional 2D or 3D animation — we're building a studio with a strong, recognizable artistic identity, combining the emotional storytelling and hand-crafted feeling of traditional animation with the cinematic depth, atmosphere and technical sophistication of modern animation. We're also exploring AI-native animation and interactive worlds, where characters, environments and stories can eventually exist beyond a single film or episode.

We're looking for a Senior Animator who can help us define and raise the quality bar of the studio.

The Creative Direction

Our visual ambition sits at the intersection of cinematic storytelling, expressive animation, rich world-building and emotional depth. We may look to works such as Arcane and Studio Ghibli as references — not to replicate their visual language, but to understand the qualities that make their worlds so compelling: distinctive character design, atmospheric environments, cinematic composition, emotional storytelling, and a strong sense of place.

Our goal is to develop a visual identity that is entirely our own — contemporary, cinematic, human and unmistakably original. The world should feel beautifully crafted without becoming overly polished; imaginative without losing authenticity; technologically ambitious while retaining warmth and emotional character.

The Creative Principles

• Cinematic — Every frame should feel intentional, with strong composition, lighting, depth and visual storytelling.

• Human — Characters should feel emotionally real and nuanced. Expression, gesture and small details should carry as much weight as spectacle.

• Atmospheric — Light, colour, texture, weather, architecture and environment should create a world that feels lived-in and memorable.

• Distinctive — We should avoid generic "AI animation" aesthetics or recognisable imitation of existing studios. Our visual language should be identifiable as ours.

• Culturally grounded — Where the story draws from a particular place, culture or community, visual design should reflect that identity authentically rather than relying on generic globalised imagery.

• Imaginative, but believable — The world can be fantastical and ambitious, but its materials, environments, characters and physical details should feel coherent and grounded.

Ultimately, the ambition is not to create something that looks like Arcane or Studio Ghibli. The ambition is to create something that makes people say: "I haven't seen anything quite like this before."

References for Quality and Ambition

Arcane / Fortiche — Cinematic composition, strong character acting, stylized 3D, hand-crafted 2D elements, excellent lighting and atmosphere, expressive faces, strong silhouettes, sophisticated camera language, dynamic action.

Studio Ghibli — Natural and believable movement, emotional subtlety, human gestures, environmental storytelling, beautiful background integration, quiet moments, attention to small details, characters that feel alive rather than mechanically animated.

Other useful references: Puss in Boots: The Last Wish, Klaus, Blue Eye Samurai, The Mitchells vs. the Machines, Love Death + Robots, Pixar character animation, Disney's strongest character-animation work, and high-end Japanese animated films. The objective is not imitation — our goal is to develop a new studio-specific visual language inspired by the strengths of these approaches.

What We Are Looking For

We are looking for an animator who understands that great animation is not simply about making a character move. It is about making the audience believe that the character thinks → feels → decides → reacts → acts.

You should have a strong understanding of: character acting, body mechanics, facial animation, gesture, timing and spacing, weight, anticipation, follow-through, secondary motion, posing, silhouette, camera awareness, emotional beats and cinematic storytelling.

You should be able to animate both:

• High-energy sequences — Action, running, fighting, jumping, falling, physical interaction, complex movement.

• Subtle sequences — A character thinking, breathing, looking, hesitating, listening, reacting, hiding emotion or simply walking into a room. The second category is particularly important to us.

Responsibilities

Character Animation

• Create high-quality character animation for films, series and short-form projects.

• Animate believable and emotionally engaging performances.

• Develop strong poses and silhouettes.

• Work closely with the Animation Director to establish performance standards.

• Refine facial expressions and body language.

• Maintain consistency across characters and sequences.

Acting & Storytelling

• Interpret storyboards and scripts into meaningful performances.

• Understand the emotional intention of every shot.

• Make acting choices rather than simply following mechanical instructions.

• Use timing, posing and movement to communicate character personality.

Cinematic Animation

• Work with camera composition and staging.

• Understand how animation interacts with cinematography, lighting and editing.

• Create animation that works as part of a complete cinematic sequence rather than as isolated shots.

Visual Development

• Participate in developing our studio's animation language.

• Experiment with stylized movement, timing and visual effects.

• Help establish reusable animation principles and standards.

• Contribute ideas for improving the quality and efficiency of our production pipeline.

Collaboration
Work closely with the Animation Director, Creative Director, storyboard artists, character designers, 3D artists, 2D artists, layout artists, FX artists, lighting artists, editors and technical artists.

Senior-Level Expectations

We are looking for someone who can do more than execute instructions. A senior animator at our studio should be able to say: "This shot technically works, but the character isn't emotionally believable yet."

You should be comfortable: reviewing your own work critically, giving constructive feedback to other animators, breaking down difficult animation problems, helping junior animators improve, establishing animation standards, taking ownership of sequences, working independently when required, and communicating clearly with directors and artists. You may eventually be responsible for mentoring a small animation team.

Technical Skills

Strong experience with at least one major animation pipeline is required — this may include Maya, Blender, Cinema 4D, 3ds Max, Unreal Engine, Houdini, After Effects, Toon Boom, Blender Grease Pencil, or other professional animation tools. You do not need to know every software package — what matters more is your understanding of animation fundamentals and cinematic performance. Experience with both 2D and 3D animation is a strong advantage.

AI & New Technology

We are actively exploring how AI can become part of the future of animation production. You do not need to be an AI engineer, but you should be curious about new technology, comfortable experimenting with AI-assisted workflows, interested in procedural animation and new production techniques, open to learning new tools, and able to distinguish between a useful production tool and a gimmick. We're particularly interested in developing workflows where artists remain responsible for creative direction while AI and procedural systems accelerate repetitive or technical work.

The Bigger Vision

We're interested in building more than individual animated films. Our longer-term vision is to create living animated worlds where characters have consistent identities, memories and relationships; environments have history and rules; stories can evolve; animation can become interactive; and the same world can eventually exist in film, games, VR and other formats.

This means the animator's role may eventually extend beyond creating individual shots. You could help us define how a character moves, how a character expresses fear, how a world feels when someone walks through it, and how our studio's animation language becomes recognizable. That is the kind of thinking we value.

Who We Want

You may be a great fit if you obsess over movement and acting, notice tiny details in great animation, care about emotional storytelling, can explain why a shot works or doesn't, enjoy studying animation frame by frame, are comfortable experimenting, want to build something rather than simply complete assigned shots, want your work to contribute to a recognizable studio style, and are excited by the intersection of animation, technology and storytelling.

Who May Not Be a Good Fit

This role may not be right for someone who only wants to execute predefined instructions, is focused purely on technical movement without acting/storytelling, is uncomfortable with experimentation, does not actively study animation, is unwilling to receive or give feedback, or is looking only for a conventional production-animation position.

Portfolio Requirements

Your portfolio/demo reel is the most important part of your application. Please provide:

1. Demo Reel — Preferably 60–120 seconds. Show your strongest work first.

2. Character Acting — At least 1–2 examples showing emotion, facial expression, body language, dialogue or non-verbal acting.

3. Body Mechanics — Examples of walking, running, jumping, weight shifts, physical interaction.

4. Cinematic Shot — If available, a complete sequence showing staging → acting → camera → timing → final shot.

5. Breakdown — For selected shots, show blocking, spline/refinement and final animation. We want to understand how you think, not only the final result.

Application Task

Shortlisted candidates may be asked to complete a small animation test focused on character acting, emotional storytelling and movement quality — rather than simply technical complexity. We may provide a character and a short scenario and ask you to create a 5–10 second shot.

What Success Looks Like

After joining, your goal is not simply "complete X shots per week." Your bigger objective is to help us create animation that people can recognize as ours. We want viewers to eventually see a character move for three seconds and think: "That looks like their studio." That level of identity is what we're trying to build.

Compensation

Competitive compensation based on experience, portfolio quality and demonstrated skill. We're particularly interested in long-term relationships with senior artists who want to grow with the studio.

How to Apply

Please send: CV, demo reel, portfolio, 2–3 strongest individual shots, software/tools you're proficient in, a brief description of your role in the work shown, current location, availability/notice period, and expected compensation.

Important: Please clearly identify which parts of your portfolio were created by you personally when showing team or studio work.

Our Creative Reference in One Sentence

We are looking for emotionally sophisticated character animation, cinematic staging, painterly environments, expressive movement and a handcrafted feeling — using modern 2D & 3D techniques and emerging technology to create a visual language that is uniquely ours.