Lead Modeler – Feature Animation – ILM London

Job Position(s): Lead Modeler - Feature Animation - ILM London

Industrial Light and Magic is hiring a Lead Modeler for its Feature Animation team in London, UK. This role sits within ILM’s modeling department, where the focus is on building photoreal and stylized character, hard surface, and large-scale environment assets for feature animation productions. It’s a position for a senior artist who is as comfortable managing a team of modelers as they are solving complex topology problems at the hero asset level.

About the Role

The Lead Modeler works inside ILM’s feature animation pipeline, collaborating daily with Texture Artists, Lookdev TDs, and Creature Artists to deliver assets that meet both creative and technical production requirements. You’ll be expected to help bid and delegate work across the team, manage asset handoffs between departments, and work directly with supervisors to set the approach for the most technically demanding models on a show. The role is hybrid, requiring a minimum of two days per week on-site at ILM’s London facility.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead and support a team of modelers across character, hard surface, and large-scale environment assets, maintaining delivery standards across multiple concurrent feature animation productions.
• Drive asset handoffs and communicate modeling goals and creative notes between artists, production coordinators, and supervision.
• Develop and explore workflow strategies for complex assets, working with the Head of Department to resolve technical challenges within the VFX pipeline.
• Build and refine advanced subdivision surface models in Maya, with concept sculpting in ZBrush for hero and extreme close-up use.
• Support environment and set dressing departments by delivering efficient, production-ready large-scale model kits and modular assets.
• Interpret and distill the creative direction from clients and supervisors into actionable notes that artists across the team can execute against.

What You Bring

• Significant lead-level experience on feature animation projects, with credits that demonstrate delivery of complex hero assets to a high standard of quality.
• Deep working knowledge of Maya within a full feature animation production pipeline.
• Strong subdivision surface modeling skills, with hands-on ZBrush experience for concept and hero sculpts.
• Familiarity with Houdini node networks and ShotGrid are a plus.
• A demo reel, shot breakdown, or equivalent portfolio is required as part of your application.

Why This Role

ILM has a long production history in feature film work spanning decades of technically and artistically demanding projects, and this London team is actively expanding its feature animation slate. For a Lead Modeler looking to work at the intersection of character craft and large-scale production, the scope of work here is genuinely substantial. Disney and ILM offer a studio environment where modeling decisions carry real weight across the full production workflow.

Apply now for the Lead Modeler position at Industrial Light and Magic in London and take the next step in your feature animation career.