Senior Lighting / Compositing Artist - Temp (SFD / Cinematics)

ACTIVISION BLIZZARD SHARED SERVICES, INC.; California (MO); Hybrid; USD 62,000 - 116,000; Full time

Job summary

Blizzard Entertainment is seeking a Senior Lighting / Compositing Artist for a hybrid, on-site/remote temporary role in Irvine, CA. The candidate will work on Blizzard’s cinematic and real-time content, contributing to iconic franchises like Diablo, WoW, and Overwatch.

The start date is mid-January 2027 for roughly four months. You should have 8+ years in relevant production environments, a strong reel, and proficiency in Katana, Nuke, Maya, Renderman-RIS, and Redshift, with a solid

Qualifications

• Minimum of 8 years in game, TV, feature film, or commercial production.
• Experience with Directors, Lighting Supervisors/Leads to define and maintain lighting and compositing setups.
• Demo reel showing refined lighting, composition, and mood.

Responsibilities

• Design and implement lighting for characters and environments to meet art direction.
• Maintain look, color balance, and quality across shots to ensure consistency.
• Collaborate with FX to integrate and develop effects.

Skills

Lighting

Compositing

Cinematic lighting

Mood development

Tools

Katana

Nuke

Maya

Linux

Renderman-RIS

Redshift

Job description

Team Name: Cinematics

Job Title: Senior Lighting / Compositing Artist - Temp (SFD / Cinematics)

Job Description

We pride ourselves in forging amazing worlds and experiences for our players to dive into here at Blizzard. To accomplish these epic goals, we need committed, passionate, and creative people with amazing talent. We value a tight-knit team that celebrates artistic passion and pushing the creative bounds. If you dream of pushing your talents to help us build the next exciting Blizzard experience, then this could be the position for you.

The Blizzard Entertainment Animation team is seeking an experienced Senior Lighting / Compositing Artist to jump into working on Blizzard’s imaginative worlds. We are looking for someone with the experience and passion to make our shots epic (Both pre-rendered and real time contents). If you are passionate about diving into the creative collaboration that makes up the worlds of Diablo, World of Warcraft (WoW), Hearthstone, Heroes of the Storm, Overwatch, StarCraft, and other interesting projects, come join us.

This role is anticipated to be a hybrid work position, with some work on-site and some work-from-home. The potential home studio for this role is Irvine, CA. However, we understand each person’s circumstances may be unique and will work with you to explore other possible options, including remote work arrangements. This temporary role is roughly a 4-month term. The start date will be mid-January 2027.

Responsibilities

• Design and implement lighting characters and environments for shots that meet and enhance the given art direction.
• Maintain the overall look, color balance, and quality for assigned shots and sequences to create uniformity in all finished work.
• Work with the FX department to integrate and develop FX.
• Work closely with VFX supervisors, Art Directors, Producers, Lighting/Compositing Supervisor and Leads to achieve the final look.
• Accountable for achieving productivity and quota targets.
• Responsible for completing and quality control of all lighting and compositing of shots.

Minimum Requirements

A minimum of 8 years of experience in the game, TV, feature film, or commercial production environment.

Experience working with Directors, Lighting Supervisors and/or Leads to develop, define and maintain lighting and compositing setups.

A demo reel showcasing a refined artistic understanding of light, composition, and mood.

Knowledge & Skills

Well versed in Katana, Nuke, Maya, Linux, Renderman-RIS, Redshift and a decent understanding of modern game engines.

Can easily adapt to new pipelines and proprietary lighting tools.

Ability to independently design, implement, and troubleshoot complex multi-shot lighting and compositing setups.

Strong eye for cinematic lighting, color grading, and shot continuity—able to establish and maintain a look across sequences.

Ability to determine the best approach to tackle lighting and compositing challenges and develop the final overall look.

Ability to perform tasks associated with the compositing and lighting process, including 2D tracking, layering of elements, color grading, roto work, projection of elements, and extensive 3D compositing.

Comfortable working in an iteration intensive shot pipeline.

Extra Points

Experience working in a full 3D Animated Pipeline. Experience working in a real-time Game Engine Pipeline.

Your Platform Best known for iconic video game universes

We are best known for iconic video game universes including Warcraft, Overwatch, Diablo, and StarCraft. Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. (www.blizzard.com), a division of Activision Blizzard, which was acquired by Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT), is a premier developer and publisher of entertainment experiences. Blizzard Entertainment has created some of the industry’s most critically acclaimed and genre-defining games over the last 30 years, with a track record that includes multiple Game of the Year awards. Blizzard Entertainment engages tens of millions of players around the world with titles available on PC via Battle.net, Xbox, PlayStation, Nintendo Switch, iOS, and Android. Our World Activision Blizzard, Inc., is one of the world's largest and most successful interactive entertainment companies and is at the intersection of media, technology and entertainment. We are home to some of the most beloved entertainment franchises including Call of Duty, World of Warcraft, Overwatch, Diablo, Candy Crush and Bubble Witch. Our combined entertainment network delights hundreds of millions of monthly active users in 196 countries, making us the largest gaming network on the planet! Our ability to build immersive and innovate worlds is only enhanced by diverse teams working in an inclusive environment. We aspire to have a culture where everyone can thrive in order to connect and engage the world through epic entertainment. We provide a suite of benefits that promote physical, emotional and financial well-being for ‘Every World’ - we’ve got our employees covered! The videogame industry and therefore our business is fast-paced and will continue to evolve. As such, the duties and responsibilities of this role may be changed as directed by the Company at any time to promote and support our business and relationships with industry partners. We love hearing from anyone who is enthusiastic about changing the games industry. Research shows that women and members of other under-represented groups tend to not apply to jobs when they think they may not meet every qualification, when, in fact, they often do! We are committed to creating a diverse and inclusive environment and strongly encourage you to apply. We are committed to working with and providing reasonable assistance to individuals with physical and mental disabilities. If you are a disabled individual requiring an accommodation to apply for an open position, please email your request to [e-mail]. General employment questions cannot be accepted or processed here. Thank you for your interest. We are an equal opportunity employer and value diversity at our company. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status, among other characteristics.

Rewards

• Medical, dental, vision, health savings account or health reimbursement account, healthcare spending accounts, dependent care spending accounts, life and AD&D insurance, disability insurance
• 401(k) with Company match, tuition reimbursement, charitable donation matching
• Paid holidays and vacation, paid sick time, floating holidays, compassion and bereavement leaves, parental leave
• Mental health & wellbeing programs, fitness programs, free and discounted games, and a variety of other voluntary benefit programs like supplemental life & disability, legal service, ID protection, rental insurance, and others
• If the Company requires that you move geographic locations for the job, then you may also be eligible for relocation assistance.
• Eligibility to participate in these benefits may vary for part time and temporary full-time employees and interns with the Company. You can learn more by visiting https://www.benefitsforeveryworld.com/.

In the U.S., the standard base pay range for this role is $45.48 - $84.13 Hourly. These values reflect the expected base pay range of new hires across all U.S. locations. Ultimately, your specific range and offer will be based on several factors, including relevant experience, performance, and work location. Your Talent Professional can share this role’s range details for your local geography during the hiring process. In addition to a competitive base pay, employees in this role may be eligible for incentive compensation. Incentive compensation is not guaranteed. While we strive to provide competitive offers to successful candidates, new hire compensation is negotiable. Blizzard Entertainment is a premier developer and publisher of entertainment software. After establishing the Blizzard Entertainment label in 1994, the company quickly became one of the most popular and well-respected makers of computer games. By focusing on creating well-designed, highly enjoyable entertainment experiences, Blizzard Entertainment has maintained an unparalleled reputation for quality since its inception.