3D Lighting & Compositing

About The Role

Our Lighting and Compositing Artists (“L&C”) are wonderful visual storytellers. They define the mood and atmosphere of our narratives, and highlight the charming details of our characters, props and environments. They are the savants of light, colour and creative problem solving.

Your day-to-day will focus on creating the lighting of our episodes, finessing the colours in compositing, whilst always maintaining the right balance between the highest quality and meeting deadlines.

We are very happy to discuss flexible, hybrid and remote working options for all our vacancies.

This opportunity requires talent to be based regionally - in the UK, outside of the M25 as per client requirements.

Please note that this vacancy can close early if we receive a high number of applications

Day to Day:

• Creating lighting scenes in Maya with assets from the animation and effects departments and then compositing these rendered shots in Nuke to create the final shot
• Tweaking provided light rigs, render set-ups and compositing templates to achieve the required look of your shot
• Tweaking render settings to optimise the efficiency of your renders
• Monitoring your renders to ensure they are within a given render time budget
• Working as part of a team of lighting and compositing artists, and regularly communicating with your Team Lead and the Post Production Supervisor
• Managing your time efficiently to meet the deadlines of your assigned shots
• Problem solving to fix errors and glitches and addressing notes efficiently
• Covering for the Team Lead if they are off
• Expected to take on the more challenging and technical shots
• Helping the Team Lead by providing support and mentorship to the more junior members of the team, whilst developing your management skills

About You

Must Have:

• Previous experience as a L&C Artist on an animation production, using both Maya & Nuke
• Knowledge of lighting principles and how light is used to meet a creative brief, especially in stylised animation
• Technical understanding of how lighting works in 3D rendering - different types of lights, render setups, physically based rendering, ray tracing and global illumination - using Maya and a render engine comparable to Redshift
• Technical understanding of biased rendering to optimise sampling, making your renders efficient and avoiding noise and artefacts
• An understanding of colour theory, aesthetics and composition
• Technical understanding of utility passes (Z, Position and Normals) and how they are used in compositing using Nuke
• Understanding of camera depth of field
• Problem solving skills to find the best approach to meeting the brief as well as troubleshooting issues and asking questions if unsure
• Having an eye for detail for scrutinising final shots for any errors or inconsistencies
• Good communication and being a team player, sharing your knowledge and skills with other team members
• Able to respond positively to feedback
• Working independently. Being diligent, taking initiative and being reliable
• Being organised and managing your time efficiently

Bonus Points:

• Knowledge of Python scripting
• Knowledge of After Effects & Shading
• Experience using FTrack
• Understanding of a 3D production pipeline