Technical Lighter (All Levels) - ILM London

The Walt Disney Company (France); Greater London; Hybrid; GBP 40,000 - 60,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading entertainment company seeks a Technical Lighter to work within the lighting department. This hybrid role requires collaboration with various teams to optimise and debug renders effectively. Ideal candidates should have experience with Katana and RIS, be proficient in Python/OpScript, and possess strong debugging skills. The role involves proactive problem-solving and clear communication within a dynamic team environment.

Qualifications

• Good experience with Katana & RIS.
• Familiarity with Python/OpScript.
• Experience with lighting.
• Experience with debugging and profiling/optimisation.
• Basic knowledge of Houdini would be beneficial.
• Knowledge of USD is a bonus.

Responsibilities

• Work with lighting leads/supervisors to optimise renders.
• Assist in debugging technical issues with lighting setups.
• Monitor the render farm for high-resource renders.
• Provide documentation on profiling and optimisation processes.
• Investigate and resolve problematic renders.

Skills

Experience with Katana

Familiarity with Python/OpScript

Experience with lighting

Debugging and profiling skills

Good organisation and communication skills

Tools

Houdini

USD

Job description

Position Summary

We are looking for a Technical Lighter who reflects the innovative spirit, creative talent, production excellence, collaborative mindset, and passion for great filmmaking that define ILM.

The successful candidate would be responsible for working within the lighting department to ensure the department's renders are as efficient and optimised as possible, and to assist lighting TDs with debugging problematic scenes.

The Tech Lighter works closely with the local HoD of lighting, lighting leads/supervisors and lighting ATL, and will also interface with local DRM/TAs, PipeTDs and lighting engineering. Tech Lighters will work across shows and will be both reactive to specific requests for assistance from shows, and proactive in identifying and profiling problematic renders as early in the show life cycle as possible.

What You’ll Do:

• Work with lighting leads/supervisors to profile and optimise inefficient renders on all local projects, including memory usage and render time across both Katana and RIS. Where optimisation requires involvement of other departments, communicate this to the Lead/Supervisor.

• Assist in debugging technical issues with lighting setups. Help triage flagged issues, make repros, submit and monitor JIRA tickets, elevate to Pipe/Engineering when necessary.

• Monitor the render farm to identify problematic high-resource renders and provide feedback and suggestions to the artist and lead/supervisor.

• Report back to the Local HoD of lighting on any performance-related trends.

• Work with the local DRM/TAs to proactively investigate and resolve problematic renders.

Work with the lighting team on:

• Asset and environment render setup sanitisation and optimisation
• Sequence setup optimisations
• Provide documentation and training on profiling, optimising and debugging processes for lighting.
• Identify and potentially prototype tools that have the potential to improve the efficiency or reliability of lighting department renders.

What We’re Looking For:

• Good experience with Katana & RIS.
• Familiarity with Python/OpScript.
• Experience with lighting.
• Understanding the importance of proactive problem solving.
• Good organisation and communication skills.
• Experience with debugging and profiling/optimisation.
• Understanding of the fundamentals of path tracing renderers
• Basic knowledge of Houdini would be beneficial
• Knowledge of USD is a bonus

This role is Hybrid, which means the employee will be required to work a minimum of 1 day on-site per week at a Company designated location, and occasionally from home.