3D Lighting Artist

Lighting Artists light up the scenes as per the requirements. They enhance the quality of the image or the video using an appropriate lighting level to bring a realistic tone, heaviness, structure, and depth. They use shadows and lights to depict differences in days, nights, weather, and climates.

Some roles played by a Lighting Artist in different capacities are given below:

• Junior Lighting Artist: Enhances the visual effects of a scene in terms of depth, serenity, tone, and mood using light.
• Lighting Supervisor: Collaborates with pipeline developers and supervises the lighting artists to ensure the look of every scene is as desired.
• Compositing Artist: Compiles the lighted scenes or shots in a sequence and oversees the rendering of the whole image or video.
• Storyboard Artist: Organizes the concepts or story for effective visualization on the storyboard; conveys the intended information through the visual medium.

Some of the responsibilities taken up by a Lighting Artist are as follows:

• Creating direct lighting, shadows, and adjustment of colors and structures for each shot assigned; finetuning and optimizing the lighting of shots based on the reviews by the supervisors, production designers, and directors; revaluating the lighting in scenes based on artistic requirements of the computer graphics team.
• Recording the technical guidelines concerning lighting implementation; preparing and maintaining up-to-date records about license agreements, client contracts, order records, project progress documentation, etc.
• Getting the latest upgrades into the work regarding lighting optimization, innovative lighting designs, and others.
• Coordinating with the Production and Computer Graphics teams to deliver projects before the deadlines; collaborating with Art Directors and Designers to ensure that the lightings fit into the shots in the desired order.

The educational qualifications required to become a Lighting Assistant are as follows:

• Bachelor’s Degree in Animation, Lighting Design, Visual Effects, or a related field.
• A Master’s Degree in a related subject.
• Certification courses in relevant subjects such as Image Processing, VFX, and Video Editing.

The career progression of a Lighting Artist takes around nine to thirteen years to make it to the top-most positions in the organizational pyramid, like the Vice-President (VP) and Director. The midway positions include Junior Lighting Artist, Lead Lighter, Lighting Supervisor, Head of the Department (HOD) of Lighting, Computer Graphics Supervisor, Computer Graphics Asset Lead, and others. The experience and the upgraded skills will help you to advance sooner in your career than your peers. Some of the alternative careers available to a Lighting Artist at the time of job transition are as follows:

• Data Capture Technician: Accurately records and processes data using specialized equipment.
• VFX Editor: Integrates and refines visual effects sequences for seamless final results.
• VFX Producer: Oversees planning, budgeting, and execution of visual effects projects.
• Production Coordinator: Manages logistical aspects of media production for smooth workflows.
• Pre-Visualization Artist: Creates preliminary visual representations of scenes for planning.
• Concept Artist: Translates ideas into visual concepts for project design and development.
• Animator: Designs captivating animations to bring life to characters and elements.
• Layout Artist: Establishes visual direction by setting up scene composition and framing.
• Computer Graphics Supervisor: Guides implementation of computer-generated elements.
• Look Development Artist: Creates and refines appearance of characters, objects, and environments in 3D projects.

India has more than 15,000 employees working in the field of animation. Animation has garnered gaming, movies, business, education, sales, and advertising prospects. Thus, a career as a Lighting Artist has bright and promising opportunities in the coming days.
The Indian animation market is one of the fastest growing in the world and has seen the market grow by 21% in 2021. It will reach more than 30 billion INR within the next two years.
Indian movies are garnering a lot of global screen attention due to the high level of lighting technologies, visual effects, and animation. The pandemic has increased the demand for entertainment, creativity, and innovation. This has resulted in the growth of the animation sector in the country and increased employment of Lighting Artists in India.