Lighting Technical Director

This is a Full Time Job

Tippett Studio is a unique, Academy Award winning, full service visual effects company that specializes in CG character animation for movies and television commercials. Founded in 1984 by Phil Tippett, the Studio is located in Berkeley, California.

We are currently seeking to fill our Lighting Technical Director position.

Technical Director
The Technical Director adds the lighting that creates atmosphere, realism, tone and depth to a scene; visually balancing individual elements to enable the compositors to produce a convincing image.

Responsibilities:
The below list describes the essential functions of this role, but other duties may be assigned, as necessary.

• Design and implement lighting and shadows for assigned shots and ensure consistency in lighting, color balance, and mood between the various elements of a shot or scene.
• Ensure that assigned shots fit the continuity of the sequence.
• Create basic composites with NUKE for reviewing shots.
• Develop solutions and techniques that meet art/technical direction.
• Participate in team reviews of work under development.
• Troubleshoot and report any issues relating to published assets for shots.
• Work within the production schedule, anticipate workload problems and bottlenecks.
• Understand technically how assets are put together, how data flows through the pipeline, and who is responsible for each part.
• Participates in dailies and other meetings as required by production and management.
• Quickly and effectively troubleshoot render issues with regard to look and/or escalate, as necessary.
• Maintain an ongoing knowledge of the various attributes and options in PRMan and how each affects both quality and speed of our work.
• Maintain accurate disk space usage and render time estimates.

Requirements:

• Proficient with Katana and Renderman preferred.
• Production experience with 3D computer graphic techniques, with an emphasis on lighting and rendering.
• Strong visual sense and aptitude for lighting.
• Ability to work collaboratively with a team and take direction professionally.
• Ability to approach work with critical thought, analytical skills and solution-based focus.
• Effective verbal and written communication skills.
• Production experience with film post production techniques preferred.
• Understanding of the fundamentals of shader writing preferred.
• Background in Python, C or C++ preferred.