Senior Lighting Artist / Technical Director - Expression of Interest - ILM San Francisco

Position SummaryILM’s Interactive team advances the studio’s legacy of innovation by developing original immersive experiences across virtual reality, augmented reality and location-based platforms. Known for blending best-in-class visuals, sound and narrative, the team has delivered award-winning projects such as What If…? – An Immersive Story, Vader Immortal: A Star Wars VR Series and the Oscar-winning CARNE y ARENA. Our work continues to push the boundaries of immersive entertainment and redefine how audiences engage with story.We are seeking a Senior Lighting Artist who reflects the innovative spirit, creative talent, production excellence, and passion for great storytelling that defines ILM.The Senior Lighting Artist is responsible for bringing the best out of our environments and to combine artistic talent and technical ability. You would be working closely with our Department Supervisor, Lighting and production teams on the design and implementation of lighting setups and lighting pipelines.What You’ll DoWork with Art Directors, VFX Supervisors, Other Department Leads to define and direct Lighting tools and setups/rigs for environments, characters and interactive game assetsWork with Render Engineers to define and test the needed lighting toolset for the given projectSupport the development of the project pipeline to the delivery platform which may include lightbaking and pre-rendered elementsDeep knowledge of lightmap baking, dynamic lighting tools, image based specular lighting, indirect light probes, post-process volumes and real-time rendering and raytracingPartner with environment, character and VFX artists in the lighting design to achieve the desired targets for aesthetics and performance through material shader and geometry workWork with level designers to animate via level blueprint or sequencer dynamic lighting or transitionsActively participate in improving workflows, optimizations and best practicesIdentify, triage, and fix bugs as required working with engineering and relevant departmentsTake final project to a high degree of polish and optimizationWhat We’re Looking For5+ years experience as a lighting TD/artist - in 3D game development or animation/vfx film studioStrong aesthetic sense for lighting and color theoryStrong technical understanding of current real time lighting tool sets including atmospheric effects, post processing, color grading and HDR IBL workflowsTeam player who can take direction and know what looks good and whyExperience with Unreal/Unity or equivalent real time platform: dynamic and baked lighting workflows: physically-based rendering and basic level blueprint scripting Shaders: in-depth knowledge of real-time shader implementations,PBR pipelines, subsurface shaders, and limitations of shaders in VRMaterials: experienced in the development, authoring & organization of efficient materials via the UE4 material editorFluency in working in Windows, JIRA, Perforce or equivalent OS, workload and data management toolsExcellent communication, organization and problem-solving skills and self-motivatedBonus points for:Strong traditional art, photography or film studies backgroundPassion for playing and making games, experience or interest in VR and AR VFX production / pipeline experienceProficient with profiling tools in the examination & diagnosis of performance issues related to lightingExperience with one or more of the following: Maya, Unity, Substance Designer / Painter, Zbrush or Mudbox, Houdini, Mari, 3D StudioMax, Photoshop, NukeInterest and capacity to work with proprietary toolsetsA portfolio / reel submission - including a detailed breakdown of your work in each section - is required with all applicationsJoinILMThe hiring range for this position in San Francisco is $134,300 to $171,800 per year. The base pay actually offered will take into account internal equity and also may vary depending on the candidate’s geographic region, job-related knowledge, skills, and experience among other factors. A bonus and/or long-term incentive units may be provided as part of the compensation package, in addition to the full range of medical, financial, and/or other benefits, dependent on the level and position offered.