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Boris Andreev

Production Designer & Senior Art Director — Animation

Creative Work

Design Leadership

Unicorn Academy building and landscape concept.

UNICORN ACADEMY

TV Series (Spin Master Entertainment/Netflix) — PRODUCTION DESIGN
Spin Master’s biggest production to date.

Production Designer on Season 1, building the show's world from scratch. Then joined Spin Master, the IP owner, as Senior Art Director for Seasons 2–3, covering production design and supervising the vendor studio to keep the look consistent as the series expanded.
 

"The magical world is exquisitely imagined." — Common Sense Media

Unicorn Academy Atrium
Scarlett Narrows location concept

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Hero of the Rails DVD cover
Tale of the Brave DVD cover
The Adventure Begins poster
Start Your Engines poster
Dinos & Discoveries poster
The Great Race poster
The Legend of the Lost Treasures DVD cover
Sodor Steamworks concept
Thomas and broken tracks
Sodor Steamworks concept
Thomas and Experimental Yard concept

THOMAS AND FRIENDS

TV Series (Mattel) - ART DIRECTION
First Art Director on the show's move from its original model-based production to a full-CG pipeline. Kept the brand's established look while using CG to add the detail and visual range the storytelling needed, then refined the assets and raised the visual quality across the following seasons of episodes and specials.

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Mia - character design
Mia & Codie environment concept
Codie - character design
Velvet - character design
Evu - character design

MIA AND CODIE

Preschool TV Series (TVO Kids, Knowledge Network, TFO) – PRODUCTION DESIGN / ART DIRECTION
Starting from the project's earliest development, I was responsible for the show's entire look. Designed and developed the final look of the main characters and created the series' central world, Mia's city-block neighborhood, exterior and interior. Set the visual style in Season 1 and carried it through production into Season 2.

As much as I've been enjoying working on this project since its early development stage back in 2015, I also consider the opportunity to contribute to this project personally very valuable  because this cute preschool series is not only about entertainment, but it passionately focuses on kids' fundamental thinking skills development. I am a big fan!


And it makes me happy that this project, under the leadership of its creator Don Moody, has been recognized
as the winner of  EDTECH Week Shark Tank in October, 2026.

WATERSHIP DOWN

High Profile mini-series (BBC / Netflix) – CONCEPT DESIGN & EARLY ART DIRECTION
Daytime Emmy®-winning adaptation of Richard Adams' classic (2019).

Created the pitch concepts that helped win the production in a competitive bid. Then helped art direct early development, coordinating an international art team across the UK, Ireland and India.

Watership Down - concept
Watership Down concept
Watership Down concept


Daytime Emmy®-winning adaptation

of Richard Adams' classic (2019)

Billy Thames concept

BILLY THAMES

Feature Animation – PRODUCTION DESIGN / CHARACTER DESIGN
Billy Thames was a feature animation for After Studios (UK, India), canceled in 2019 during development stage. As Production Designer I defined the look of its world and personally designed all of its main characters. The art below shows some of the work produced.

Billy & Bandit character design
Billy Thames story beat concept
Billy Thames - Macbeth character design
Billy Thames location concept
Billy Thames - Morag character design

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Concept & Visual Development

THE DRAGON PRINCE

Netflix Series – ENVIRONMENT CONCEPT DESIGN
Contributed to the production design of Season 1 by developing several key locations: defining each one's role in the story, its scale and its layout, so the places worked for staging as well as looking right. Also painted story-beat illustrations for pivotal moments.

The Dragon Prince - location concept
The Dragon Prince - story beat
The Dragon Prince - location concept
The Dragon Prince - location concept

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Daytime Emmy®-winning fantasy

series (2020)

HE-MAN & THE MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE

Netflix’s CG reboot of He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, produced by Mattel Television, brought Eternia to a new generation of viewers. For Season 1, I created the concept for the entire Eternia City, a massive location where each neighborhood has its own architecture and cultural flavor. They range from the palace and a hi-tech highland quarter to valley farms, a trade village and cliff-top esoteric alien spheres.

He Man & the Masters of the Universe - concept
He Man & the Masters of the Universe - concept
He Man & the Masters of the Universe - concept
He Man & the Masters of the Universe - concept

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RIVERDANCE

Animated feature, Netflix – SR. VISUAL DEVELOPMENT ARTIST

Riverdance: The Animated Adventure, a collaboration of Cinesite Studios and the famous Riverdance Show (Dublin).

As Senior Visual Development Artist I created environment concepts and story-moment illustrations, designed foliage and props, and researched character designs for the deer characters, including the Megaloceros giganteus.

Riverdance - Lighthouse concept
Riverdance - Deer character design concept
Riverdance - Bridge Crossin story beat concept
Riverdance: village square 360 concept sketch
Riverdance - Tractor concept
Riverdance - Lighthouse interior concept

Click Play above to see 360 panorama concept sketch

The Legend of Tembo - Waterhole location concept

THE LEGEND OF TEMBO

Animated feature, Tradition Studios — VISUAL DEVELOPMENT ARTIST
The Legend of Tembo was an amazing story I had the pleasure of working on in 2011-2012. The story was created by Disney veterans Aaron Blaise and Chuck Williams as their first project at the brand new feature animation facility launched together with Digital Domain in Florida — Tradition Studios.

The Legend of Tembo - Location concept
The Legend of Tembo - Tembo character concept
Tembo - Environment and Animation test
00:00/00:00
The Legend of Tembo - Tembo Chained story beat concept
The Legend of Tembo - Escape concept

This is an example of a prefinal location development sheet painted for Layout, Modeling, Foliage and Surfacing departments as a guideline.

The Legend of Tembo - Tag of War concept
The Legend of Tembo - Lion character concept
The Legend of Tembo - Army Marching to War concept

Location development

Environment and Animation test - I did VisDev and Matte-painting for it

Case Studies

FANTASTICAL WORLD

Unicorn Academy

An animated fantasy series set at a magical school on Unicorn Island, where students bond with their unicorns. When a dark force threatens the island, a new student and her schoolmates step up to protect it.

Adventurous comedy

Billy Thames

A story about a little dog Billy braving his way through his everyday life full of dramatic adventures without losing enthusiasm and sense of humor.

HERITAGE MULTIBILLION BRAND

Thomas & Friends

From its original model-based production to a full-CG pipeline. Brand's established look transition to full CG to add the detail and visual range the storytelling needed.

MAGICAL FANTASY

The Dragon Prince

An animated fantasy series set in Xadia, where humans are at war with elves and dragons. Two princes and an elf assassin try to return a stolen baby dragon to his mother.

These selected case studies offer a glimpse into my routine and methodology for building worlds and conceptualizing visual storytelling.

Each one only scratches the surface of what is usually a large body of work: thorough research, lots of sketching, Blender proxies, concept paintings, design sheets, color scripts, style guides and more.

Boris Andreev

Three decades in art.
20+ years building worlds for animation.

About boris

Boris Andreev is a Production Designer and Senior Art Director working across feature and episodic animation. His practice connects story, architecture, color, and atmosphere into visual systems that creative teams can build from. Alongside studio production, he develops original animated properties and advises studios and artists on world-building and modern production workflows.

 

Selected Credits: The Legend of Tembo, Riverdance: The Animated Adventure, He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, Unicorn Academy, The Dragon Prince, Watership Down, Thomas & Friends, and more.

 

Clients:  BBC · Netflix · Hasbro · Spin Master · Mattel · Marvel

 

Production Leadership:  Canada · USA · UK · Ireland · India

Let's build a world.

AVAILABLE  FOR  NEW  PROJECTS

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