Rendering Supervisor

Job Description

The Rendering Supervisor is directly responsible for the management and efficient use of the render farm. This includes assessing the render resources required for a project, based on assumptions given by other departments as well as supervising a team of render wranglers. He or she is also responsible for ensuring that all jobs that run through the render farm are correctly handled, and will work with the TD, IT and Production teams to resolve issues and ensure that similar errors will not appear on the render farm.

Responsibilities

• Works closely with CG Supervisor and Pipeline Supervisor to asses rendering requirements for production.
• Creates weekly and per-episode reports of the farm usage.
• Will work with the CG Supervisor and Pipeline Supervisor to improve the rendering pipeline and ensure it’s proper documentation.
• Will be required to manage a team of render wranglers.
• Will manage the following aspects with his team
• Prioritization of the farm usage based on production needs on a cross-project basis.
• Watch the jobs on the render farm, keeping an eye on the frames rendered so as to detect errors that occur.
• With the help of the IT and Pipeline teams, he will ensure the following:
• Maximize farm usage, that no machine stay idle or offline due to technical issue or lack of jobs.
• Improve the design and structuration of the render farm.
• Design the rendering pipeline for the different technologies used.
• Detect jobs that have longer rendering times than necessary and offer support for job optimization
• Report to the Pipeline and CG Supervisor any render farm issues or recurring job errors.
• Design and setup the required tools to improve the render management on and off-site.

Required Skills & Experience

• Knowledge of Deadline, OpenCue is an added benefit.
• Ability to lead and train members of a team.
• Knowledgeable in 3D Content Creation Tools (Maya, Arnold, Nuke, Renderman)
• Experience with scripting in Python
• Capable to Prioritize and Time-manage personally and the team under pressure.
• Excellent problem-solving skills.
• Good communication skills and able to synthesize relevant reports and statistics.
• Understands the requirements in render job prioritization
• Highly technical, capable to help debug rendering artefacts or render-farm issues
• Experience in using Linux-based machines
• Familiarity with FX, Lighting and Comp in Animation Productions
• Understands the role of hardware in a render-farm and able to discuss with the IT department on needs, issues and bottlenecks.

Company Description

Dwarf Animation Studio is a place of convergence between cutting edge technology and traditional media where computer animation films are designed. We innovate in the art of storytelling by pushing the boundaries, inventing immersive and believable worlds.  We foster a philosophy that brings together artists and technologists in a creative yet collaborative environment.

Our Engineers are committed to developing state-of-the-art software solutions to advance the ever-growing challenges in computer animation, they are responsible for analyzing production procedures and problems, evaluating the effectiveness of existing solutions, making recommendations to improve quality, efficiency, and workflow. This is an opportunity to join a small and highly innovative crew working on the studio pipeline.