Art Director

Aura Productions; United States; Remote; USD 30,000 - 50,000; Part time

Job summary

Aura Productions seeks a part-time Art Director for a visually driven short-form animated series. This remote-friendly role involves collaborating closely with the Director and Showrunner to ensure visual consistency and strong composition. Candidates must have experience in Japanese anime style and a strong eye for cinematic elements.

Qualifications

• Previous experience illustrating for animation projects is a must.
• Demonstrated ability to draw in Japanese anime style.

Responsibilities

• Review episodic frame sets alongside the Director and Showrunner.
• Provide visual and compositional feedback on key visuals.
• Participate in storyboard reviews and provide quick composition sketches.

Skills

Cinematic Composition

Lighting

Color Theory

Collaboration

Sketching

Job description

Art Director – Short-Form Series (Part-Time, Remote)

We’re looking for an Art Director to support a visually driven short-form animated series, composed of approximately 40 episodes, each ranging from 20 to 35 frames, and draws heavily from the visual language of classic Japanese anime. The Art Director will collaborate closely with the Director and Showrunner to ensure visual consistency, clarity, and strong composition throughout the production process.

Key Responsibilities:

Review episodic frame sets alongside the Director and Showrunner to provide visual and compositional feedback. Not all episodes will require detailed notes—focus is on key visuals that need refinement.

For color and lighting, provide loose sketch-over notes or lighting direction to guide the production team.

For storyboards, participate in reviews and, when requested by the Director or Showrunner, provide quick composition sketches to help visualize alternative camera angles or staging solutions.

What We’re Looking For:

A strong eye for cinematic composition, lighting, and tone

Ability to communicate visually through quick, effective sketches

Collaborative spirit and experience working in fast-paced, animated productions

This is a part-time, remote-friendly contract role with flexible scheduling based on weekly episode reviews.

Project Visual Style

Our project is defined by a cel-shaded, hand-drawn look inspired by classic 90s anime aesthetics. We aim to evoke the visual sensibilities of titles like Evangelion, Cowboy Bebop, or Yu Yu Hakusho, with a focus on bold lighting, cinematic framing, and emotionally expressive character designs.

If you're passionate about crafting emotionally driven visuals in a classic anime style and enjoy working collaboratively to shape a stylized visual narrative, we’d love to hear from you.

Please submit your portfolio (Japanese anime style only) along with your application.

Please refer to below press release to learn more about our company, project, and reference image:

https://variety.com/2025/digital/news/luo-yan-aura-productions-vidu-ai-anime-series-1236338232/

Skills & Requirements

Candidate Requirements

Previous experience illustrating for animation projects is a must.

Demonstrated ability to draw in Japanese anime style, including confident handling of camera angles, cinematic framing, and character emotion.

Strong understanding of perspective, color theory, and lighting, with the ability to apply these principles effectively under production timelines.

Must be comfortable working in a collaborative, fast-paced environment and receptive to visual feedback.

Portfolio submission is required—we will only consider portfolios that showcase work in Japanese anime style. Portfolios with exclusively Western cartoon styles will not be reviewed.

Important Note: We are intentionally avoiding a webtoon-style color palette or aesthetic. Artists with strong portfolios in anime-style rendering—particularly with experience in cel shading and traditional anime color schemes—will be prioritized.