Artiste en éclairage / Lighting Artist – Feature Animation

Job Position(s): Artiste en éclairage / Lighting Artist - Feature Animation

Bardel Entertainment is hiring a Lighting Artist for feature animation production at their Montreal, Quebec studio. This role sits within the lighting department and is responsible for building and executing lighting setups, shading configurations, and render passes that carry the visual and narrative tone of a CG animated feature. It’s a strong fit for a mid-to-senior lighting artist who has moved through full production pipelines and knows what it takes to hold continuity across hundreds of shots.

About the Role

You’ll be working inside the lighting department on a feature animation project, collaborating daily with look development, compositing, and CG supervision to keep the visual language consistent from sequence to sequence. A typical day involves building and refining lighting rigs in Katana, troubleshooting render farm issues, reviewing shots against established lighting keys, and supporting the lighting supervisor in solving problems before they compound. Bardel Entertainment has a 35-year track record in the animation studio space, with credits including The Dragon Prince, Rick and Morty, and Diary of a Wimpy Kid.

Key Responsibilities

• Design, develop, and execute complex lighting setups and shading materials for characters, props, and environments in line with the project’s established creative vision.
• Optimize scenes for render efficiency without compromising the visual quality required for feature animation deliverables.
• Maintain lighting and shading continuity across the full production, resolving both creative and technical inconsistencies as they arise in the VFX pipeline.
• Manage render tasks including setting up render passes, allocating render farm resources, and keeping render times within production schedule.
• Identify and resolve technical lighting and rendering issues, applying practical solutions that keep shots moving through the pipeline.
• Contribute to the ongoing development of lighting pipeline tools and workflows to improve throughput and output quality across the department.

What You Bring

• At least 5 years of experience as a lighting artist in animation production or visual effects.
• Proficiency in Maya or Houdini, with solid working knowledge of Katana including asset integration within a production pipeline.
• Strong command of shading languages such as RenderMan or Arnold.
• Familiarity with compositing software, specifically Nuke, for understanding how lighting passes feed into the final composite.
• Grounded understanding of color theory, cinematic composition, and how lighting functions as a storytelling tool in animated features.

Why This Role

Bardel Entertainment is an Emmy Award-winning studio with an active slate across both feature animation and episodic television, which means the work here feeds into productions people actually watch. The Montreal studio offers access to a seasoned crew and a production environment where lighting artists are expected to contribute technically and creatively. For a mid-to-senior artist looking to work on a feature animation project with real creative stakes, this is a legitimate next step.

Apply now for the Lighting Artist position at Bardel Entertainment and bring your feature animation experience to a production that demands it.