Lead look development for photorealistic character assets in a high-end VFX pipeline. Create and refine materials, shaders, and surface details using Houdini, Maya, and Solaris; collaborate with texturing, lighting, and pipeline teams; troubleshoot shading challenges; improve workflows; and balance visual quality with render efficiency. The role requires end-to-end asset ownership, strong artistic judgment, technical leadership, and familiarity with USD, real-time workflows, and shading languages.
*This role is currently not open. Please apply knowing that it is to make us aware of your interest, should future roles open up - thank you!!!*
As a Lead Look Development Artist at DNEG, you’ll play a critical role in shaping high-quality, photorealistic character assets by contributing to the lookdev pipeline and collaborating closely with texturing, lighting, and pipeline teams across our global studios.
Drawing on your technical and artistic expertise, you’ll help refine workflows, troubleshoot complex shading challenges, and champion best practices across our new pipeline.
This is a hands-on creative and technical role ideal for artists who enjoy solving visual problems, developing materials and shaders, and helping build the future of look development at scale.
Must Haves
- Minimum 5 years of professional experience in look development within high-end VFX.
- Expert knowledge of Houdini and Maya for look development tasks.
- Strong technical understanding of shading and material development in Solaris, with experience in lighting/lookdev workflows.
- Strong experience working with character assets.
- Familiarity with texturing and painting software such as Mari and Substance Painter/Designer.
- Experience working within a Linux-based production environment.
- Strong grasp of real-world lighting, material response, and physical properties (depth, scale, proportion).
- Strong artistic eye for surface detail, colour, roughness variation, and material breakup grounded in real-world reference.
- Proven experience balancing visual quality with render efficiency and production constraints.
Nice to Have
- Familiarity with USD workflows and real-time platforms like Unity or Unreal.
- Hands-on experience with Photoshop, Nuke, and other compositing or painting tools.
- Shader authoring experience using VEX, OSL, Lua, or other shading languages.
- Experience working in real-time or virtual production environments.
- A strong eye for detail and storytelling through materials and surface definition.
About You
- You have a passion for crafting visually stunning materials that support storytelling and realism.
- You’re comfortable owning assets end-to-end, from first material pass to final approval.
- You’re a strong communicator who can translate complex ideas into clear, actionable steps.
- You’re curious and proactive, always looking for ways to improve workflows, solve problems, or learn something new.
- You’re calm under pressure and able to manage your time effectively, even when juggling multiple tasks or shows.
- You’re self-motivated, detail-oriented, and proud of delivering work that not only looks great but functions well within a pipeline.
- You’re excited by emerging technologies, real-time workflows, and the evolving role of lookdev in modern production environments.
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