Film Career · Animation
Background Artist
Animation · The Animation Guild (IATSE Local 839) in Los Angeles
- Union
- The Animation Guild
- Day rate
- ~$50K–$250K+/yr
- Experience
- 3–7 yrs
What does a Background Artist do?
A background artist carries a hands-on craft within the animation department, delivering their specialty daily as part of the department's crew.
On union productions the position falls under The Animation Guild (IATSE Local 839) in Los Angeles, which sets the rates, hours, and conditions the role works within. The role is engaged show by show, and careers in animation are built on the department heads and crews who hire the same trusted people back.
What does a Background Artist make?
- Animation is largely salaried studio work rather than day-rate: roughly $50K-$250K+ a year, from production assistants and coordinators up to supervisors and directors (The Animation Guild, IATSE Local 839 in Los Angeles).
Film work is gig based, so crew are paid a day or weekly rate rather than a salary. These are realistic 2024-2025 ranges grounded in union rate cards and industry data; actual pay swings with budget tier, market, overtime, and reputation.
Sources & how we estimate pay
Union scale is the floor; the ranges above also reflect market day rates above scale. They are grounded in the following 2024–2025 sources:
Union rate cards & wage schedules
Official guild scale — the floor each craft is paid from.
- IATSE — 2024 Basic Agreement wage scales (PDF) ↗
- IATSE Local 600 (International Cinematographers Guild) — camera rate cards ↗
- DGA — minimum salary rate cards (director, unit production manager, assistant directors) ↗
- WGA — schedule of minimums (writers) ↗
- SAG-AFTRA — theatrical & background rate sheets (cast, stunts, background) ↗
- Teamsters Local 399 — basic feature wage rates, 2024–27 (transportation, locations, wranglers) (PDF) ↗
Government wage data
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, for the closest federal occupation.
You’ll like and be good at this job if:
Hard skills
- You have strong drawing or animation-software skills
Soft skills
- You are a dependable team player who makes the department run
- You take pride in doing your specific craft well, day in and day out
Career progression
The role advances the way most animation careers do: repeat hires from the same department heads, growing responsibility within the craft, and a reputation that travels between productions faster than any resume.
How do you become a Background Artist?
Careers reach this chair through the animation department ladder: entry work first, then increasing responsibility as the crew learns your name. Smaller productions hand out the title earlier, and the credits transfer.
On covered productions, rates, hours, and conditions for the role are set by The Animation Guild (IATSE Local 839) in Los Angeles contracts.
Covered by a union? The joining a film union guide explains how each one takes members.