Color Design is the last stop in the design department, where the final look and feel of the characters, props and effects are established through color. On any given episode of a show that can involve coloring hundreds of assets, many of them multiple times over when special lighting and palettes are called for, and tracking all the other assets that will appear in each scene to make sure everything works together to create a cohesive composition. Over time the position has grown in complexity due to changing technology and evolving art styles, both of which have placed additional responsibilities on these members.

Despite working side-by-side in the pipeline and utilizing comparable skill to their peers, Color Designers have been arbitrarily separated from their design colleagues. While Character/Prop Design, Background Layout and Background Paint are all classified together under the "Animation" section of the Animation Guild contract, and share the exact same pay scale minimums, Color Design is the sole exception, being relegated to the archaic "Ink And Paint" section with a 14.4% lower minimum rate, an unfortunate remnant of gender pay bias from the early days of animation. And the inequities don't end there. We stand in solidarity with our fellow crafts in their fight for fair compensation. To learn more about the unique inequities facing Color Designers, please visit: bit.ly/colorisdesign

In recent decades, Storyboard Artists have begun shouldering the responsibilities of multiple crafts and classifications. As a result, jobs are disappearing; Character Layout and Cleanup jobs, for example, have almost completely gone extinct. Storyboard Artists continue to absorb additional duties like writing, timing, model design, work in 3D software, and sound design. In turn, Storyboard Artists struggle to keep up with production schedules. Furthermore, Storyboard Artists who write on board-driven shows are not compensated in proportion to their labor, even though they are essentially, at best, performing two jobs, most of the time without additional time in the schedule. Despite all this, Storyboard Artist pay has not changed since the craft’s inception, and the time allotted for Storyboard Artists to complete this work has nearly halved. This job creep affects animation crafts across the board - Timers, Designers, Writers, and even Editors. We stand with our fellow artists and are grateful for the support we receive in return.

Animation timing directors play a crucial role in making strong, entertaining shows. We coax the best possible character performances from overseas animators, because we analyze and communicate as animators, and direct each character’s performance frame-by-frame. Our work makes everyone’s work look good—we make actions read as clear and believable, finesse every joke to hit on the best possible frame to be the funniest possible, and prevent countless animation errors before they become expensive retakes. But many timing directors currently paid by freelance unit (or “footage”) rates end up badly underpaid for how long today’s complex shows take to do.  We may work 60 hours to be paid for a normal week, and lose health coverage because of hours we actually work not being calculated according to freelance formulas. Timing directors stand in solidarity with all crafts in the Animation Guild.  Please stand in solidarity with us to eliminate unit-rate pay, so we can keep our medical insurance and be paid for the time we work.

Writers are the starting point of animation. We are the first people to sketch out the characters, world, plot, and tone of the cartoons we love. We balance the needs of the story with the limits of production. We build a strong foundation for every other craft to work from. Most importantly, we do the same work as our live-action kin in the WGA. Yet 839’s animation writers make half of what live-action writers make with significantly fewer benefits and protections. And this is all despite the fact that our creations are some of the biggest, most profitable entertainment in the business.

The idea that cartoons are not “serious business” is an excuse used to ignore the serious exploitation animation workers of every kind face. But nowhere is the needless disparity so obvious as it is in animation writing. It’s time Hollywood #PayAnimationWriters. For more information, please visit: https://animationguild.org/pay-animation-writers/ 

Thank you!
IATSE Local 839 Color Designer Committee
IATSE Local 839 Storyboard Committee
IATSE Local 839 Timing Committee
IATSE Local 839 Writers' Craft Committee

#NewDeal4Animation #EqualPay4EqualPaint #StoryCraftUnite #PayAnimationWriters #IAsolidarity #TAG839