FX Technical Director – Mid/Senior (Contract)

About the role

As an FX Technical Director at Framestore you will create CG renditions of naturalistic physical or magical phenomena for high‑end films, bringing visual effects wonder to the screen.

Key responsibilities

• Create particle, rigid‑body, fluid, cloth, fur and/or hair simulations or animations.
• Apply lighting and shaders to produce final rendered images or pass simulations to a Lighting TD.
• Use commercial and proprietary FX tools including Maya and Houdini.
• Collaborate with other departments to ensure shots meet the highest standards.
• Design and implement pipelines, tools, and procedural solutions for effects creation.
• Produce reviewable composites of all FX elements and, when required, final renders.

Required profile

• Degree qualification or at least 5 years of relevant work experience.
• Minimum 2 years in a similar FX TD role on a VFX pipeline.
• Solid knowledge of Maya and Houdini (or comparable simulation software).
• Understanding of FX simulation techniques and procedural animation.
• Experience creating effects such as magic, smoke, fire, clouds, water, steam, explosions, rigid‑bodies, cloth and hair.
• Good sense of animation and motion.
• Comprehensive knowledge of the full visual effects process and pipeline interactions.
• Working knowledge of a compositing application (e.g., Nuke) and the compositing workflow.

Required skills

• Maya
• Houdini
• Nuke
• Python
• VEX
• MEL scripting
• Naiad
• Realflow
• Arnold
• C/C++
• Houdini HDK
• Maya API
• Unix shell scripting