Lead Layout Artist

About ILM

Founded by George Lucas, ILM is the leading effects facility in the world, with studios located in San Francisco, Vancouver, London, Sydney and Mumbai. ILM has created visual effects for over 325 feature films and has played a key role in seven of the top 10 worldwide box-office hits of all time and has contributed to 25 of the top 50. ILM has set the standard for visual effects, creating some of the most stunning images in the history of film. At the forefront of the digital revolution, the company continues to break new ground in visual effects, VR, AR, and Immersive Cinema. You can see some of our current projects here.
 

Your role?

The Lead Layout Artist plays a crucial role in pre-visualizing shots and providing a clear sense of action for the Animation, FX, and Lighting departments. This role demands expertise in matchmove, matchanimation (roto animation), and camera operation, combined with leadership in guiding and mentoring artists. The Lead Layout Artist will also contribute to various layout-related tasks, including facial capture, set asset creation, and sculpting, demonstrating flexibility and adaptability to project needs. This role emphasizes creative problem-solving, technical proficiency, and a collaborative spirit.

What will you be doing?

• Provide technical and creative guidance, mentoring, and training to Layout Artists, ensuring high-quality performance and adherence to the Layout Supervisor's direction.

• Lead the Layout team in executing shots, ensuring quality, continuity, and flow within and between sequences.

• Guide Layout Artists in creating rough models and environments for pre-visualization.

• Collaborate with the Layout Supervisor to trial and test new software and workflows.

• Effectively communicate and collaborate with other department leadership members, including liaising with the CG Supervisor.

• Assist with technical setup and troubleshooting, ensuring continuity within sequences.

• Coordinate with 3rd party vendors for supply and ingestion of shots.

• Execute high-quality matchmove, object tracking, matchanimation, lens calibration, and lidar asset ingestion, including:

  • Simple, moderate, and complex single or multi-plate tracks.

  • Simple + Anamorphic + Non-ILM lens grid solves.

  • Complex motion match animation, including multiple actors and quadrupeds.

  • Advanced techniques for solving various objects, including constraint solving.

  • Clean use of multiple animated shapes to refine match animation.

• Create compelling camera compositions, character blocking, and environment set dressing, demonstrating strong cinematic sensibility:

  • Compose and animate complex moving shots, ensuring continuity within sequences.

  • Generate realistic camera moves from scratch.

  • Create consistent and detailed set dressings.

  • Maintain continuity across shots and guide the overall look and detail.

• Manage and maintain single or multi-plate tracks across projects.

• Build and film physical lens grids (Simple + Anamorphic + Non-ILM grids + Zoom).

• Troubleshoot technical issues and repository problems.

• Understand and manage the retime process and its impact on downstream departments.

• Run quality control caches to check sequences

• Add/remove assets.

• Create alembics.

• Utilize sequence management tools.

• Ability to calculate a custom dynamic retime curve, stacking retimes and creating inverse retimes.

• Able to write, address, and assess the validity of tickets for Layout and other departments, recommending reassignment as needed.

• Perform lidar to mesh construction and photo-modeling 

To be a contributing member of this team, you will have a mix of these skills:

• 7+ years of VFX experience, including 4+ years as a senior matchmove/layout artist in VFX, Feature Animation,  commercials, or video games.

• Matchmove, matchanimation (roto animation), and camera operation techniques.

• Single and multi-plate tracking, including complex scenarios.

• Lens grid solves, including anamorphic and non-ILM lenses.

• Motion match animation, including complex character and quadruped movement.

• Constraint solving and advanced OID techniques.

• Camera composition and animation, with strong cinematic sensibility.

• Environment set dressing and maintaining continuity.

• Pipeline knowledge, including caching, make-takes, and alembic creation.

• Excellent written and oral communication skills, including strong interpersonal skills.

• Willingness to learn new tools and workflows, with a demonstrated ability to be detail-oriented and work efficiently within a production environment.

• Strong problem-solving skills.

• Understanding of photography and lens effects on perspectives.

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science or Computer Graphics, or equivalent experience.

• On-set experience.

• Background in previz or rough layout.

• Advanced knowledge of Nuke, Linux, 3DE, Maya, front-end pipeline knowledge (asset development, capture), and proprietary tracking software.

• Familiarity with tools like RealityCapture, Helios, and Meshroom is a plus.

JoinILM
 

This position is with Lucasfilm Entertainment Company Ltd. LLC, which is part of a business segment we call Industrial Light & Magic.

Lucasfilm Entertainment Company Ltd. LLC is an equal opportunity employer. Applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to age, race, colour, religion or belief, sex, nationality, ethnic or national origin, sexual orientation, gender reassignment, marital or civil partner status, disability or pregnancy or maternity. Disney fosters a business culture where ideas and decisions from all people help us grow, innovate, create the best stories and be relevant in a rapidly changing world.