Senior Look Development Technical Director – ILM London

Job Position(s): Senior Look Development Technical Director - ILM London

ILM London, part of Disney, is hiring a Senior Look Development Technical Director to join their VFX team in London, UK. This role sits at the intersection of shading, rendering, and asset creation, responsible for defining the final visual surface quality of CG characters, props, and environments across major feature film productions. It suits an experienced lookdev artist who is comfortable owning hero assets independently and navigating a large-scale VFX pipeline from brief through to final render.

About the Role

The Senior Look Development Technical Director works within ILM’s lookdev department, collaborating closely with Lighting Supervisors and CG Supervisors to establish and maintain the visual language of CG assets across high-profile feature film and episodic projects. Day to day, this means building and refining complex shading networks, managing material libraries, and ensuring assets are optimised for render farm efficiency without compromising look quality. The role operates on a hybrid basis, with a minimum of two days per week on-site at ILM’s London facility.

Key Responsibilities

• Design and build lookdev shading for both hero assets and secondary props, delivering work to production deadlines with minimal supervisory input.
• Create efficient shader setups that are optimised for render farm usage across a large-scale VFX pipeline.
• Develop and maintain complex, custom shading networks for high-priority assets where bespoke solutions are required, with artist usability built into the interface design.
• Manage and maintain standard material libraries using established shading templates to support pipeline consistency across the production.
• Work directly with texture and groom artists to align surface shading with upstream asset decisions, and triage technical lookdev issues as they arise in shot context.
• Apply a thorough understanding of geometry formatting, including Primvars, and physically based rendering principles to resolve complex shading challenges across varied asset types.

What You Bring

• Proven experience in look development within a professional VFX environment, with credits spanning hero assets, props, and large-scale environments.
• Proficiency in Katana is essential, with working knowledge of Houdini and Maya considered a strong advantage.
• Excellent knowledge of RenderMan or comparable unbiased rendering systems, alongside a solid grasp of physically based rendering and shader models.
• Demonstrated understanding of neighbouring VFX departments including FX, Texture, Groom, and Lighting, and how lookdev fits within the broader post-production workflow.
• Strong ability to manage multiple assets simultaneously, provide accurate time estimates, and prioritise tasks within a production schedule.

Why This Role

ILM has a track record on some of the most technically demanding feature film and streaming productions in the industry, and the London studio has grown significantly as a centre for that work. For a Senior Look Development Technical Director, this is a role with genuine scope, working on assets that carry visual weight in globally released productions. Disney’s investment in ILM London means the pipeline, tools, and scale of work here are rarely matched elsewhere in the UK VFX market.

Apply now for the Senior Look Development Technical Director role at ILM London and submit a demo reel or shot breakdown that reflects the scope of your lookdev experience.