Junior Lighting & Render Artist / Render Wrangler

Details

Positions – Junior Lighting & Render Artist / Render Wrangler
Hours – 37.5 hours, Mon-Fri, 9.30am- 6pm. (Flexible working patterns available.)
Contract – Fixed Term, PAYE.
Pay – £33,800 p/a
Holiday – 29 days holiday (pro rata) and half day Fridays every month.
Start date – January 2027
End date – October 2027
Location – Bristol / in house
End date for applications – Friday 20^th November 2026
Eligibility – You must be eligible to work in the UK
Benefits – See our website for details

A Productions are looking for a Junior Lighting & Render Artist / Render Wrangler to join our team on a children’s animated television series.

Working as part of the lighting and render team, you will help manage the rendering process for a series being produced using Maya and Unreal Engine. Your main responsibilities will involve managing the render farm, organising and monitoring render queues, checking completed renders and helping to ensure that shots progress efficiently through the final stages of production.

You will work closely with the CG Supervisor, Lighting & Render Artists and production team to identify and resolve rendering issues, maintain an efficient workflow and ensure that completed renders are delivered correctly and on schedule.

This is an excellent opportunity for a junior artist with an interest in CG lighting, rendering and production pipelines to gain practical experience on a broadcast animated series.

Responsibilities

Render Farm Management

• Set up, organise and manage render queues, ensuring that jobs are submitted correctly and prioritised according to production requirements.
• Monitor the studio’s render machines and render farm, checking that jobs are processing correctly and resources are being used efficiently.
• Identify failed, stalled or incomplete render jobs and take appropriate action to resolve issues or escalate them to senior team members.
• Monitor render progress and help ensure that shots are completed in line with production schedules.
• Maintain a general overview of render times and resource usage, flagging potential bottlenecks, unusually long render times or issues that may affect future deliveries.
• Liaise with the Lighting & Render Artists and production team regarding render priorities, scheduling and technical issues.

Render Checking & Quality Control

• Check completed renders to ensure that all expected frames have been produced and saved to the correct locations.
• Identify missing, blank, corrupt or otherwise incorrect frames and arrange for re-renders where necessary.
• Carry out basic visual and technical quality checks on completed renders, identifying obvious issues such as missing elements, unexpected black frames, render errors or inconsistencies.
• Ensure that render outputs follow the production’s established naming conventions, folder structures and technical requirements.
• Flag potential problems to the appropriate artists or supervisors for further investigation.
• Help ensure that completed renders are ready for the compositing team.

Lighting & Production Support

• Assist the Lighting & Render Artists with basic shot preparation and lighting tasks in Unreal Engine where appropriate.
• Help troubleshoot straightforward issues with scenes, render settings and output files.
• Support the team with render submissions, amendments and re-renders.
• Collaborate with other departments to ensure that content meets the technical and quality requirements of the production.
• Maintain accurate and up-to-date production tracking information, including render status and outstanding issues.
• Follow established production procedures for file management, naming, versioning and delivery.

Skills & Experience

• A basic understanding of CG animation, lighting and rendering workflows.
• Some familiarity with Unreal Engine and/or Maya.
• Good general technical and computer skills, with an interest in CG production pipelines.
• Strong organisational skills and the ability to manage and prioritise multiple tasks.
• Excellent attention to detail and the ability to identify technical and visual errors.
• A methodical and proactive approach to problem-solving.
• Ability to monitor ongoing processes, recognise potential issues and communicate them clearly.
• Good communication skills and the ability to work collaboratively with artists, supervisors and production staff.
• Willingness to learn new software, tools and production workflows.
• Ability to work effectively to deadlines in a busy production environment.

Desirable but not Essential

• Previous experience in a CG animation, VFX or post-production environment.
• Familiarity with Unreal Engine’s Movie Render Queue or other offline rendering workflows.
• Experience with render farm management software such as Deadline.
• Basic knowledge of lighting and scene assembly in Unreal Engine.
• An understanding of render passes, image sequences and common image file formats such as EXR.
• Familiarity with production tracking systems such as ftrack.
• Basic scripting or automation skills, particularly Python.
• An interest in developing further skills in CG lighting, rendering or pipeline support.