Lead Engine Operator (On-Set)

About Pixomondo

PXO creates industry-leading Virtual Production and Visual Effects for premium Film and Episodic content. With over 20 industry awards and nominations, PXO, a Sony Pictures Entertainment company, is a trusted partner for storytellers and showrunners worldwide. The company has been creating iconic work since 2001, from Martin Scorsese’s Academy Award winning Hugo and HBO’s Emmy winning Game of Thrones, House of the Dragon, through to Amazon’s The Boys, Marvel’s Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania and many more.

In Virtual Production, PXO helps clients to realize their creative vision, from production through to post-production. Using interactive technology and proprietary software and solutions, PXO brings ideas to life by virtually immersing filmmakers in the worlds they imagined, throughout every stage of the creative process. The company’s latest LED volume work includes House of the Dragon, Star Trek: Discovery and Star Trek: Strange New Worlds and Netflix’s upcoming Avatar: The Last Airbender.

PXO has seven studios and three LED volumes in the US, UK, Germany and Canada.

We are currently hiring an On-Set Engine Operator for our Virtual Production department.

You will be responsible for operating and maintaining our Virtual Production systems and applications within the film production environment. Working closely with our development team, Virtual Art Department and Production staff, you’ll be ensuring that our Engine tools and content run smoothly and efficiently, and that any technical issues are quickly resolved.

This is a key role in Virtual Production acting as the primary Unreal Engine operator during film production and production prep. The role requires leadership ensuring successful execution of initiatives, technical advancement, creative achievement, and client collaboration. This includes facilitating and liaising with all film production departments on set, collaborating with PXO Virtual Art Department, collaborating with PXO Virtual Production Technical Directors, PXO Virtual Production Technicians.

Key Duties Include

• Ensure global initiatives are rolled out efficiently and simultaneously establishing a collective global execution with quality control.
• Ensure Unreal Engine tools and content are performing as expected during on-set production. Perform ‘live’ adjustments during production.
• Work with counterparts in international studios on cross-site projects.
• Partner and collaborate with Unreal Engine Developers for required LED volume support, and efficient initiative rollout.
• Offer kickback notes in order to further optimize an asset.
• Provide stage reports from findings during principal photography and asset or tool performance.
• Monitor the performance and stability of assets while on-set and take corrective action as needed.
• Troubleshoot and resolve technical issues on our Virtual Production LED volumes and systems.
• Determine and maintain environment and operational controls, tools or variables available while on-set, and provide support to other operators.
• Provide technical guidance and support to other team members as needed.
• Optimize Unreal Engine assets to meet the project requirements without sacrificing visual fidelity for on-set operation.
• Work collaboratively with the VAD and VP Supervisors alongside Virtual Production Lighting Supervisors and Unreal Technical Artists.
• Support in ingestion and inheriting of assets from outside organizations and supervise their implementation into Pixomondo’s pipeline focusing on performance and creative quality retention.

Preferred experience & skills include:

• Excellent problem-solving and critical thinking skills.
• Experience within an UE CG Pipeline on feature films and/or games production.
• Strong attention to detail and ability to work independently.
• Ability to work well under pressure in a fast-paced environment.
• Experience with C++ and other programming languages commonly used with Unreal.
• Experience using version control (Git, Perforce).
• Basic understanding of motion capture techniques.
• Strong experience with the real time 3D graphics / Unreal Engine and nDisplay workflow.
• 2+ year’s experience using Unreal Engine 4.27 and higher.
• Understanding of VFX pipeline, VFX tools, modeling, texturing, and basic OCIO color config.
• 2+ year’s experience with real-time rendering and visualization techniques.
• Experience in on-set film production with a basic understanding of camera bodies and lens kits.
• Experience with project optimization, troubleshooting and resolving technical issues with Unreal-based applications.

More About our Virtual Production Team

Pixomondo Virtual Production is a place to further develop your skills while diving into interesting, complex problems, all while being a driver on the leading edge of film-making. If you are highly self-driven, you would be joining a dynamic and flexible team that will support your career goals through professional development and world-class learning opportunities. Join us to innovate the future of filmmaking

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