Skip to main content

Tell us whether you accept cookies

We use cookies to collect information about how you use this service. We use this information to make the service work as well as possible and improve this service.

Set cookie preferences

You've accepted all cookies. You can change your cookie settings at any time.

Find apprenticeship training for your apprentice
  1. Search
  2. Course search results
Apprenticeship training course

Assistant technical director (visual effects) (level 4)

There are 10 training providers who offer this course. Check if a training provider can deliver this training in the apprentice's work location.

Apprentice's work location

View providers for this course

Information about Assistant technical director (visual effects) (level 4)

Supporting visual effects (VFX) projects by providing technical assistance to creative departments, troubleshooting workflow issues, and managing data and resources.

Knowledge, skills and behaviours
View knowledge, skills and behaviours

Knowledge

  • The importance and methods of retaining the quality of the source material.
  • The general VFX shot pipeline, including general knowledge of all artists’ roles within the shot’s lifetime and their needs and deliverables.
  • The film and/or TV shot pipeline, from pre-production, through shoot, editorial, VFX to grading.
  • The VFX production pipeline, including shot bidding, turn-over, briefing, reviews, client reviews, deliveries and final delivery
  • Approach to loading data from internal and external sources
  • Delivery and output formats
  • Visual effects terminology
  • And has a familiarity with industry-standard software packages e.g. Maya, Houdini, 3D Studio Max etc.
  • The importance of and techniques for managing large scale on- line and near-line data storage
  • Digital images and manipulation techniques.
  • Grid computing and its use within VFX render queues - at a basic level
  • How to balance resource needs within the company’s physical capacity
  • Render optimisation techniques
  • The differences between structured and unstructured data
  • The quality issues that can arise with data and how to avoid and/or resolve these
  • The fundamentals of data structures, database system design, implementation and maintenance
  • The organisation's data architecture
  • The importance of naming conventions and version control
  • How to ensure shots/assets can move from artist to artist (readability)
  • Trigonometry
  • Matrices
  • Vectors
  • Applied mechanics
  • Basic algebra
  • Software design
  • The software design process and the importance of design before development
  • How workflow diagrams, prototyping and presenting to intended users can aid in designing better solutions
  • Python scripting language
  • Shell scripting
  • Application specific scripting languages e.g. Mel, Vex, Hscript etc. as appropriate
  • The principles of software development
  • How pipeline management tools are used within the industry and how to create efficiencies to the benefit of the business
  • The components of a computer – the CPU, GPU, graphics card and their properties and the local drive and its relationship to the server or network
  • The processes and art of a particular department, such as animation, lighting, FX or rigging
  • The particular standards of a department and the challenges they face

Skills

  • Select and use appropriate software tools and techniques
  • Use appropriate techniques to reduce degradation of the source material (for example colour correction concatenation and single step filtering on transformations)
  • Use appropriate VFX terminology
  • Show technical competence in at least one industry standard VFX software
  • Use FTP clients (tools to transfer computer files) and external hard drives
  • Create Quicktimes
  • Package assets for client delivery
  • Use disk management and general processes for the movement of data around the internal system
  • Convert, resize and rename various file types
  • Monitor, track and report data usage
  • Identify data for archival and removal
  • Undertake final archiving and subsequent data restoration from archives
  • Monitor, manipulate and report on render queues
  • Monitor, track and report render resource usage
  • Identify render errors and fix/escalate them as appropriate
  • Identify, collect and migrate data to/from a range of systems
  • Manipulate and link different data sets as required
  • Interpret and apply the organisation’s data and information security standards, policies and procedures to data management activities
  • Perform database queries across multiple tables to extract data for analysis
  • Demonstrate how to build efficient tools and identify how to improve efficiency in existing tools
  • Build tools with flexibility in mind, to be able to quickly respond to changes to the brief
  • Accurately bid/estimate how long tasks will take
  • Complete tasks within the time allocated
  • Use maths to manipulate computer generated geometry
  • Use maths to recreate physical systems
  • Use maths to describe problems and solutions
  • Accurately gather requirements from intended users
  • Design elegant solutions that satisfy the brief with extensibility in mind
  • Present proposed solution and respond to feedback
  • Investigate existing solutions or frameworks
  • Plan and document development roadmap
  • Write good quality code (logic) with sound syntax in at least one language
  • Troubleshoot individual artist/TD input, output or archival problems
  • Support or troubleshoot pipeline and workflow tools

Behaviours

  • Initiative and a keen ability to problem-solve
  • Ability to communicate with colleagues and work as part of a team
  • Ability to take direction and willingness to address feedback, and to be self-critical of the quality of work produced
  • Ability to manage priorities and bring multiple tasks to completion within deadline
  • Adaptability
  • Attention to detail and a high level of accuracy
  • Enthusiasm to learn and develop professionally
  • Respect for the procedures or requirements of a particular studio, production or pipeline
  • Proactive attitude to research and access available resources
  • A high level of professionalism, good time keeping with a focus on the work
Apprenticeship category (sector)
Creative and design
Qualification level
4
Equal to higher national certificate (HNC)
Course duration
18 months
Maximum funding
£9,000
Maximum government funding for
apprenticeship training and assessment costs.
Job titles include
  • Pipeline technical directors
  • software developers
  • riggers
  • technical directors
  • FX artists
  • supervisors

View more information about Assistant technical director (visual effects) (level 4) from the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education.