The Head of Environments is a leadership role in the Integrated Advertising division working across Television, Immersive and Advertising. The role has a strong focus on supporting the nurturing of the Environments team. Reporting directly into the Heads of CG & 2D and working closely with the Talent Team to plan for future crewing across projects; identifying and hiring new talent and ensure standards are as high as possible while keeping the team energised and engaged. The Head of Environments in our Integrated Advertising team will be responsible for the Environments department at Framestore London, including pipeline developments as well as workflow tools.
The Head of Environments will still be actively working on projects and these will be scheduled to allow for the additional time required to conduct Head of Environments duties.
This is an opportunity for someone who has a passion for environments, and importantly who has ideas about how to achieve the best results with input across global locations and varied project demands. If you are interested in really shaping and influencing the environments workflow and impacting the way all our projects are approached this role is for you.
Responsibilities:
- Standardise the environments approach and workflow across all projects in house, ensuring the highest quality output with an emphasis on efficiencies.
- Involvement in render optimization discussions, focusing on show deployment of any new technology.
- Work closely with other departments to ensure inter-departmental cooperation and lead collaboration between Integrated Advertising and Film teams
- Work to create a workflow which includes publishing assets, workflow in Houdini, Maya and Nuke.
- Work with the Heads of CG and Head of 2D to ensure a standardized look development and shader approach across all shows.
- Research new techniques and different approaches for the environment team. Including exploration of various softwares/tool sets ie, Clarisse, Mega Scans, Quixel, Solaris, LOPs, PDG.
- Maintain and develop documentation for the department eg wiki page.
- Work alongside Senior R&D TD to manage and test help new tool development.
- Work alongside the pipeline team to help manage the needs of the department.
- Support CG Supervisors to explore and create the look of a project to a client’s requirements and specifications.
- Work closely with other Heads of departments, setting clear objectives, monitoring process, progress and results.
- Determine, modify and maintain the most effective and efficient technical approach and workflow possible.
- May support in conducting reviews and appraisals for the current environment team members.
- Work closely with crewing to maintain that all projects have a fair level of crew for the work they have to produce.
- Assist in the recruitment of 3D artists to ensure the right fit, skills and experience required for the project and team.
Key Skills and Experience:
Leadership and Teamwork
- Excellent organisational, communication and project management skills.
- Able to confidently manage and direct a team of artists, offering guidance, critique, experience and solutions to excellent effect.
- Can work at ease with Supervisors, Production, department Leads and Clients.
- Be able to guide and mentor artists at all levels and hit expected production task targets.
Skills and Knowledge
- Expert knowledge of Houdini
- Proven creative ability and artistic flair.
- Working knowledge of Arnold and Mantra.
- Ability to write code and assist in tool/pipeline R&D development.
- Excellent communication skills and ability to confidently engage with external clients and directors.
- Extensive production experience in a similar or relevant position with the ability to ensure artists’ work is of a high standard both artistically and technically.
- Thorough understanding of the visual effects process and the ability to interpret the artistic brief from the VFX supervisor.
- Good technical understanding of CG pipelines and the ability to specify efficient workflows and identify additional tools required.
- Understanding of 2D pipeline.
- Able to provide on-set supervision and location photo reference gathering, when needed.
- Can confidently assist with production bidding and scheduling of tasks, for the team or future projects.
- Working knowledge / good understanding of the latest CG procedures and techniques.