Lighting Technical Director - Expression of Interest

Expression of interest

We are taking expressions of interest for experienced Lighters across all levels to join our talented team for a number of exciting projects opening up in Q1, 2025.

This would be for onsite roles. To be eligible you must be based in / or able to relocate to be onsite in Wellington, New Zealand or Melbourne Australia.

The Lighting team is a diverse group of exceptionally talented and experienced Lighting Technical Directors. Collectively, we are responsible for creating lighting for all assets, environments and characters and work closely with the CG supervisor, CG Asset Lead, Art Directors and Texture artists to achieve the artistic style and level required.
Our ideal Lighting TD can solve demanding shot problems independently and has 3-5+ years production experience in feature films, episodic series or equivalent.

Lighting TDs will have the following attributes:

• Expert user in Katana, Maya, Houdini or equivalent DCC packages.
• Expert knowledge of rendering technologies such as Renderman, Arnold, V-Ray or similar.
• Possess and understanding of the techniques of digital cinematic lighting with regards to story, mood, character, framing, colour, light and shadow.
• Understand the principals of physically plausible lighting, shading and lensing in the production of high-fidelity photorealistic imagery for VFX production.
• Familiarity and understanding of complex VFX production workflows and pipeline environments including Linux.
• An aptitude for complex problem solving in a fast-paced production environment.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.

Additional Preferred skills:

• Experience with scripting and programming in Python, Lua and/or C/C++ preferred.
• Experience working in adjacent skill domains such as Shading, FX, Compositing and Environment Layout.
• Experience working with highly complex scenes which include natural effects simulations such as water, fire, destruction and crowd
• Experience constructing physically-based shading networks in particular materialX.

Being able to communicate effectively, work collaboratively and give and receive constructive feedback will be critical to your success in this role. You’ll have excellent time keeping skills and strive to maintain a resilient and constructive workspace within your team.

Please note - Our teams will be taking a well earned break from late December to mid-January. During this time, we won’t be actively monitoring our job adverts, so there might be a delay in getting back to you. Feel free to send through your application, and we’ll pick things up when we’re back in the new year. Thanks for your patience, and have an awesome holiday season!

At Wētā FX we celebrate our diversity and believe in creating an environment where all our crew feel welcomed, respected, supported and appreciated. We define ourselves by the quality of our work, and we’re striving to build a workplace experience that’s second to none. Here at Wētā FX we value open minds and encourage our crew to be themselves. We aim to provide a discrimination-free experience, beginning from the moment you apply for a role with us. If there is anything we can do to make the recruitment process easier, please let us know at recruitment@wetafx.co.nz.

Location: Wellington, New Zealand

Expressions of interest are invited through the usual job application process.