Effects Technical Director (Houdini)

Description

Rising Sun Pictures is currently seeking experienced Houdini Effects TD’s to join our team.

Employment periods: Minimum 6 month contract, commencing September 2016.
Location: Adelaide, Australia. These positions are open to Australian and international applicants. Visa and relocation assistance provided where applicable. 

Position Overview

Reporting directly to RSP’s effects leads, you will be responsible for creating wide ranging natural phenomena for a variety of live action feature films. Applicants presenting highly realistic effects work in their portfolio, will be reviewed with priority. RSP is a Houdini based effects facility operating in a Linux system environment. All candidates must be have deep experience with Houdini and be comfortable with Linux.

You are a professional artist who works collaboratively with your team and those working in other departments. You are an excellent time manager and forward thinker who delivers to schedule and to brief. Using Houdini, you have previously been responsible for creating wide ranging naturalistic effects simulation including destruction, water, fire, procedural environments and character effects.

Your ability to own your delivery is highly regarded by your previous supervisors. As a professional effects artist and effects technical director, you provide confidence to the production team because you maintain absolute clarity in what is expected of you. You are the artist who seeks to understand and subsequently nail the brief.

Responsibilities

• Create and deliver effects; including rigid body dynamics, fluid simulations, cloth simulations and generic particle effects, that match the creative and technical brief.
• Tightly adhere to production schedule and deliver to key milestones, presenting your work-in-progress daily.
• Work with animation, lighting & compositing as necessary in order to meet FX animation objectives.
• Adapt your effects as the brief evolves.
• Diagnose and resolve issues with your own Houdini and Python scripts.
• Review and QA your work for internal and external delivery ensuring it hits creative and technical notes.
• Assemble and / or modify complex shaders.
• Create consistent lighting and effects render passes for compositing.
• Create effects composites in order to demonstrate the effect relative to the plate.
• Work in a manner that allows other effects team members to pick up your work if necessary.
• Contribute to creative and technical conversations, with a view to raising the quality level of the final image.
• Expect additional delegated tasks from effects supervisor and leads.
• Manage your workload. Advise your lead of any obstacles which may affect delivery quality, timeliness or budget.
• Promote a collaborative and enjoyable workplace influencing morale, fostering purposeful discussions and a positive work ethic.

Required Skills and Experience

• Minimum 5 years professional experience creating high-end effects for live-action feature films.
• Expert user of Houdini.
• Complex shading and render experience using Houdini’s Mantra.
• Utilitarian knowledge of other discipline software such as Maya, Nuke and industry standard tracking software.
• Strong coding experience using Python and hscript.
• Maintain a calm and professional demeanour in a delivery focused work environment.
• Real world understanding of physics, math, proportion, depth and colour.
• Understanding of naturalistic light and motion with a focus on dynamics and natural phenomenon.
• Superior level of attention to detail and strong eye for aesthetic composition.
• Expert organisational skills.
• Technical and creative problem solving with a can-do mindset.

Application
To apply, please click the Apply button below.

You can communicate with us regarding this position by sending an email with your resume, reel and breakdown. Please state your availability and country of passport so we can assess your right to work in Australia and visa options.