Jobs Isle of Man

Junior Animator (Trainee)

Job Title	Junior Animator (Trainee)
Employer	Sunrail Transport
Adress: Country	Isle of Man
Address: City	Crosby
Work type	Full-time
Expected Salary	1242 GBP
Posting Date	Tue Jun 10 2025
End Date	Tue Jul 01 2025

Description:

We’re offering an Animator Trainee role for someone who’s excited to turn ideas into movement and still images into performance — no prior experience needed, just passion, discipline, and a love for animated storytelling. You’ll assist in creating gameplay animations such as attacks, idles, emotes, and environmental interactions for real-time use. We’ll teach you animation principles like timing, squash and stretch, anticipation, and how to apply them in different styles. You’ll help block out animation scenes, polish timing, and bring subtle gestures or bold actions to life. Expect to use tools like After Effects, Spine, Blender, or Maya — depending on the project and your learning goals. We’ll guide you in understanding staging, silhouette readability, and how to make action readable even at a glance. You’ll participate in team reviews and learn how to give and receive feedback that improves flow and clarity. Expect to contribute to animated assets that support UI transitions, in-game actions, cutscenes, or explainer videos. You’ll also learn how to animate in constraints, match existing styles, and keep things optimized for performance.

Basic Qualifications:

• Work efficiently within tight feedback loops and shifting creative directions.
• Optimize animations for performance on different platforms like web, mobile, or console.
• Collaborate with designers, storyboard artists, and developers to bring scenes and interactions to life.
• Contribute to storyboards, animatics, or previsualizations to define timing and flow early.
• Contribute to team brainstorming sessions with movement-driven storytelling ideas.

Preferred:

• Able to create storyboards, animatics, and keyframe sequences that convey emotion and motion clearly.
• Capable of rigging characters or using pre-built rigs to create expressive movement.
• Understands how to optimize animation for mobile, web, or real-time rendering engines.
• Enjoys making things come to life through gesture, rhythm, and visual impact.
• Proficient in animation software such as Adobe After Effects, Toon Boom Harmony, Blender, or Maya.

Benefits:

• Creative retreats, animation jams, and the occasional Mario Kart showdown.
• Access to premium tools — Toon Boom, Blender, Adobe Suite, or your weapon of choice.
• Animate from anywhere — your desk, your bed, or a train across Europe.
• You’ll never animate in a vacuum — storyboards, scripts, and support included.
• You’ll get support for building your own reel, artstation, or side project.

You’ll be involved in daily standups, team reviews, and collaborative projects that show how animation fits into the bigger picture. This role is perfect for someone who doodles in the margins, notices how characters blink in cartoons, and rewinds animation clips for fun. You’ll learn to think like a player and animate with both emotion and precision. We’ll support you with tutorials, mentor feedback, and real assignments that help develop both speed and accuracy. We’ll support your development with real tasks, experienced mentors, and room to find your style. By the end of your traineeship, you’ll have a stronger sense of what kind of animator you want to be — and the portfolio to prove it. You’ll leave with confidence, direction, and a solid foundation for character-driven animation work. If you’re ready to animate for *feel*, not just for looks — we’re ready to level you up.