3D Thumbnail Designer

The Future Animations; Bengaluru; Remote; INR 558,000 - 1,339,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health insurance

Job summary

The Future Animations is seeking a passionate 3D thumbnail artist to transform sketches into finished 3D scenes for YouTube channels. You will model, light, render in Blender, then composite in Photoshop to produce attention-grabbing thumbnails.

Work is fully remote with a fast-paced, volume-driven environment. You will maintain the visual identity of multiple channels, build a reusable library of poses and lighting setups, and deliver several thumbnails daily to deadlines.

Qualifications

• Strong 3D skills in Blender: character posing, scene layout, lighting, rendering.
• A real eye for composition — you understand focal point, contrast, readability at phone size.
• Speed. This is a volume role. Several finished thumbnails a day, every day.
• You can take a note and turn it around the same day without getting precious about it.

Responsibilities

• Take a thumbnail sketch and build it as a 3D scene: characters, props, composition, camera.
• Light and render it to our look, then finish and composite in Photoshop.
• Hold the visual identity of the channel you are working on; each one looks different on purpose.
• Produce several finished thumbnails a day across multiple channels, to deadline.
• Build and reuse a library of poses, props, expressions and lighting setups so the next thumbnail is faster than the last.
• Make variants for testing when asked, and learn from which ones won.

Skills

3D skills

Composition eye

Fast tempo work

Lighting

Rendering

Tools

Blender

Photoshop

Job description

We are The Future Animations. We animate one of the fastest-growing story universes on YouTube — twelve channels, billions of views a month, 330 artists, all remote.

A thumbnail is the only part of a video every single person sees. On a channel this size, the gap between a good thumbnail and a great one is measured in millions of views. That is the job.

The role

You build finished 3D thumbnails from a sketch. A sketcher hands you the composition; you build it in 3D, light it, render it, and finish it in Photoshop until it is ready to publish.

You are not designing in a vacuum. Every thumbnail has a story behind it, a target emotion, and a channel style to hold. Your job is to make someone stop scrolling without lying to them about what the video is.

You report to our Packaging lead, who reviews every thumbnail before it goes out.

What you'll do day to day

• Take a thumbnail sketch and build it as a 3D scene: characters (We will send characters blender files), props, composition, camera.
• Light and render it to our look, then finish and composite in Photoshop.
• Hold the visual identity of the channel you are working on. Each one looks different on purpose.
• Produce several finished thumbnails a day across multiple channels, to deadline.
• Build and reuse a library of poses, props, expressions and lighting setups so the next thumbnail is faster than the last.
• Make variants for testing when asked, and learn from which ones won.

What we need from you

Must have

• Strong 3D skills in Blender: character posing, scene layout, lighting, rendering.
• Strong Photoshop: compositing, colour, retouching, text and type treatment.
• A real eye for composition — you understand focal point, contrast, readability at phone size.
• Speed. This is a volume role. Several finished thumbnails a day, every day.
• You can take a note and turn it around the same day without getting precious about it.

Nice to have

• Experience designing YouTube thumbnails, especially for channels doing serious view counts.
• An understanding of CTR: why one thumbnail gets clicked and a prettier one does not.
• Character work — expression, posing, emotion on a face.
• Any 2D illustration or matte-painting ability.

Your degree, your city, or how many years you have been doing this. We care about your portfolio and how fast you work.

What we give you

A shared asset library — characters, props, environments — that you help grow.

A lead who reviews your work and gives you a decision and a reason, same day.

A 200+ artist Discord where people actually answer.

Paid monthly, on invoice, on time.

Payment can be anywherefrom ₹50,000 to ₹1,20,000 per month+performance bonus and health insurance.