Studio: Laika Studios
Job Opening: Render Technical Director (TD)
Location: Hillsboro, Oregon, US
Type: Full-Time
Responsibilities:
- Work with fellow Pipeline Technical Directors (TDs) to design, develop, and maintain digital pipeline tools that pertain to lighting, including shots and CG assets as well as procedural systems for complex, photorealistic lighting setups.
- Extend the capabilities of Katana through custom scripts and plugins, addressing the needs of Lighting and Look Development Artists.
- Diagnose and resolve technical and creative lighting issues encountered by artists.
- Collaborate with the Technology Team to integrate Lighting and Look Dev products into our Asset Management system for the core Lighting and Look Dev DCCs, including Katana, Mari, and Substance Painter.
- Collaborate with Technical and Creative leadership to refine, support, and extend USD-based pipeline tools and techniques in accordance with evolving industry standards.
- Identify areas of industry innovation and help develop and maintain custom tools, templates, scripts, workflows, and documentation for the lighting team; identify productivity improvements in collaboration with artists across disciplines.
- Provide technical guidance for quality control of other artists’ work, as needed.
- Support relevant supervisors and leads, working with Show and Facility Technology to design, develop, and deliver visually creative and technically sound solutions that address the needs of shots and sequences.
- Assist with the support of existing tools via bug fixes and version updates.
Qualifications & Skills:
- 5+ years’ experience lighting high-end photo-real VFX for feature films or television.
- Strong knowledge of lighting principles, tools, and workflows.
- Experience working with Katana, its various APIs, and the Plug-in System.
- Expertise in coding with Python and Lua, including familiarity with best practices, as well as the Python core library and common external libraries.
- Experience with Mari and/or Substance Painter is a plus.
- Working knowledge of Nuke and compositing principles.
- Understanding of applicable software and platforms including Maya, Houdini, and Renderman.
- Experience with advanced techniques such as Global Illumination, HDRI, subsurface scattering, and real-world lighting setups.
- Experience with Universal Scene Description (USD) APIs and usage, a plus.
