This job has expired, please see additional jobs below
Training and Render TD (Technical Director)
Zoic Studios
Culver City, CA, United States
Job Details - this job has expired, please see similar jobs below
Zoic Description
Zoic Studios is an Award winning VFX company made up of accomplished artists and producers who understand story, process and relationships. Partnership, integrity and enthusiasm are our key founding principles. "Visual Evolution" is our mission. We invest in constantly improving our technological and studio processes so that our artists can focus on being creative even in the lightning fast paced world of Episodic Television. We apply these principles to our work on some of the most VFX intensive film and television projects out there.
Summary of Position
We are currently seeking a Training and Rendering TD (Technical Director) in our Culver City studio who will be responsible for debugging, fixing, and optimizing artist scenes as well as training artists on current and new proprietary pipeline tools to facilitate delivering high-quality visual effects in tight deadlines. The ideal candidate has a passion for thoroughly investigating and solving complex puzzles, a love of learning new technology, and a high aptitude for communicating information between technical and non-technical personnel. This position reports to the Pipeline Managers. In addition, this position frequently interacts with the 3D and 2D Supervisors and Leads to facilitate the sharing of new tools and techniques between all office locations. This is a full-time freelance position that could evolve into a full-time staff position in the future.
Responsibilities
• Optimize artists’ scenes from V-Ray, Mantra, and other ray tracers to render successfully within allotted time frame to maximize efficiency on the farm.
• Debug and repair problematic scenes from Maya, Houdini, Nuke, and other packages related to asset creation, shot assembly, lighting, rendering, and other disciplines.
• Provide troubleshooting and technical solutions for day to day production problems.
• Utilize currently available proprietary tools to solve pipeline issues and on occasion develop new small-scale tools to address project or facility issues.
• Diagnose technical issues from tickets and address them directly or escalate to the Pipeline Managers.
• Train new artist hires on how to use proprietary pipeline tools and workflows during on-boarding.
• Stay up-to-date on latest proprietary pipeline tools and workflows from all office locations and regularly train artists on these new developments.
• Write artist-friendly documentation for pipeline tools and workflows and create tutorial videos for artists and production.
• Generate reports regarding render hours and other pipeline statistics.
• Take on other tasks in the Pipeline department as required.
• Travel between all Zoic office locations, as necessary.
Qualifications
• 2+ years of experience working on VFX or feature animation productions using Maya and V-Ray required
• Bachelor’s degree required, preferably in VFX, Animation, Computer Graphics, Computer Science, Technical Communication, Technical Writing, or related field
• Experience debugging other users’ scene files and renders
• Strong problem-solving skills and attention to detail
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills
• Ability to troubleshoot and work independently on projects without supervision
• Proactive team member with positive 'can do!' attitude even in high pressure situations
• Some experience using Houdini, Nuke, Yeti, Lightwave, or Terragen a plus
• Some experience using render queuing software a plus
• Basic Python scripting a plus
• Ability to work extended evening and weekend hours to meet production needs when required
*Must be able to work onsite at Culver City location. Candidates currently residing in Los Angeles a plus as we do not cover relocation/housing.
**All applicants are required to submit a resume, cover letter, and reel to apply for this position.