Matte Painting Supervisor

This is a Full Time Job

DESCRIPTION:

What you'll be doing

Production
• Collaborate with Show leadership to achieve the creative vision of the client and the technical requirements of the Show.
• Supervise a team of matte painters to create complete, 2.5D matte painted environments for downstream consumption by compositing teams.
• Participate directly in the creation of matte paintings, establishing and modeling best practices as you do so.
• Run team creative reviews, and represent your team in internal and client creative reviews. Ensure feedback from reviews is appropriately addressed.
• Work with show leadership to assess crew needs for your team, and collaborate with department leadership, Artist Management and Recruiting to help find staffing solutions.
• Bid out asset creation and shot costs, assess the cost implications of client requests, and work out solutions in collaboration with Show leadership.
• Collaborate closely with Show leadership and your peer supervisors in other departments to ensure that DMP deliverables are efficient, technically sound for consumption downstream, and delivered on time.

Studio
• Collaborate closely with the Head of Environments, the departmental Workflow TD, and the Dev group in the ongoing development of DMP tools, pipelines and workflows for both your show and the studio as a whole.
• Participate in post-show reviews, develop & integrate solutions to the problems identified in them, and communicate their findings to all show, department and studio stakeholders.

Leadership
• Set the creative and technical expectations for the DMP team, and see them through via consistent constructive feedback, recognition, and accountability.
• Model and foster a culture of professional excellence based on trust, candor and respect.
• In partnership with show creative leadership and management, department leadership and artist management, inspire and motivate the team and take responsibility for its tone and morale.
• Proactively engage in ongoing mentoring, training and other initiatives to support the professional growth of all members of the Environments department.

Collaboration & Communication
• Collaborating with your 3D Generalist counterparts in the Environments team to establish best practices on where to use matte paintings vs. 3D environments.
• Develop collegial partnerships with peer supervisors in other departments to find solutions and compromises for technical and creative challenges.
• Provide regular updates to Show, Department and Studio leadership on the progress, health, and direction of the team.
• Model transparency to your team by keeping them well-informed of all news and updates from the Show, Department and Studio.

What we need to see
• Bachelor’s degree in fine art, or a diploma or certificate from a recognized school of art, design, animation or visual effects, AND minimum 7 years of relevant experience in vfx or animated feature films.
• Prior experience as a Matte Painting Supervisor or similar role.
• An impeccable understanding of fundamental visual principles, including perspective, composition, form, value, and color.
• Excellent matte painting techniques in Photoshop, including digital painting and photo collage.
• In-depth understanding of color management.
• Excellent working knowledge of advanced 2.5D projection techniques in Nuke.
• Proficiency in modeling detailed custom geometry to a projection in.