FX Technical Director - Mid (Short-Term)

About the role

Image Engine, a VFX studio in Vancouver founded in 1995, is hiring a mid-level FX Technical Director for a 3-month contract starting in November. The FX TD delivers high-quality work for the studio's shows within the assigned timeframe, applying notes from the FX Supervisors and FX Leads and seeking solutions with them and other departments. Candidates must be based in British Columbia and eligible to work in Canada.

Key responsibilities

• Create realistic effects such as rigid body and particle dynamics, procedural geometry, fluid and cloth simulations under supervision, using the studio pipeline and tools
• Create render passes, beauty renders and slap comps with the FX Lead
• Estimate task times and report issues that could delay completion
• Attend rounds, dailies, reviews and meetings, and communicate simulation and art direction changes to the FX Lead and VFX Supervisor
• Address notes on work and provide solutions to aesthetic issues, keeping the quality level set by the VFX Supervisor / FX Lead
• Support other departments (lighting, compositing) and keep information flowing between them
• Read FX documentation on the wiki and stay current with studio techniques

Required profile

• Minimum 2 years of feature film/TV production experience as an FX artist in Houdini
• Ability to troubleshoot, manage competing priorities and work well with other departments
• Desirable: higher education in a related field

Required skills

• Strong Houdini knowledge, including building HDAs and running large setups
• Working knowledge of VEX and Hscript
• Working knowledge of a renderer such as Arnold or another 3D renderer, and of data formats like VDB and Alembic
• Working knowledge of compositing and Nuke
• Working knowledge of asset management in a complex VFX pipeline
• Desirable: Python and Linux/Unix scripting, Maya, Gaffer, and other simulators such as Naiad, RealFlow, Bullet or Blastcode

What we offer

• Salary of $80,000 to $105,000 per year for a 40-hour week
• Extended healthcare from day 1, premiums 100% covered by Image Engine
• Up to 8 paid health and wellness days per year