The fate of any production lies in the hands of its lighting and compositing artists. It’s here, in the final stages of the post-production pipeline, where all the pieces of the puzzle are finally brought together: from concept design, modelling, and shader work, through to animation, look development, and FX. In the right hands, lighting and compositing enhance everything that has come before, with carefully managed lighting bringing out the best in each frame and the compositing ensuring a seamless marriage of scene elements. Badly judged lighting or botched comp work, on the other hand, is something nobody forgets in a hurry. Developed and taught by mentors with extensive industry experience, our Lighting/Compositing Track features a set of intensive classes that teach students the ins and outs of lighting and shading using physically-based raytrace renderer Arnold, how to harness industry standard node-based compositing tool Nuke, and also provide an introduction to the science, technology, and art of lighting for video games. Upon completion of courses in this track, students will be ready to pursue a career in lighting for fx, animation or games development, or in compositing for fx and animation work.
As you complete each course, you will receive a certificate of completion for that course. In order to qualify for a course certificate of completion, students must complete at least 80% of the class assignment during the duration of the course.
The Compositing Artist, meanwhile, works at the very end of the fx/animation pipeline, combining every disparate digital and (if appropriate) practically filmed element into one virtual space, and - crucially - striving to make the entire process invisible to the viewer.
As you complete each course you will receive a certificate of completion for that course. In order to qualify for an in course certificate of completion, students must complete at least 80% of the class assignment during the duration of the course.
Starts
3rd week of January
Ends
2nd week of April
Registration available on
Oct 14, 2024 - Jan 17, 2025
Starts
2nd week of April
Ends
1st week of July
Registration available on
Jan 31, 2024 - Apr 22, 2024
Starts
1st week of July
Ends
4th week of September
Registration available on
Apr 24, 2024 - Jul 15, 2024
Starts
4th week of September
Ends
3rd week of December
Registration available on
Jul 17, 2024 - Oct 07, 2024
Adriano Grasso
Senior Lighting Artist
Adriano Grasso is a Senior Lighting Artist with over 6 years of professional experience in the game industry. He has worked at several studios, including Behaviour Interactive, MoGi Group, and Intergalactic Agency. Adriano is currently working at Microsoft, where he is responsible for creating and implementing high-quality lighting solutions for AAA games. Throughout his career, Adriano has gained expertise in a range of lighting software, including Unreal Engine, Dunia & Snowdrop, and has contributed to the development of numerous successful titles.
Behnam Shafiebeik
Lead Senior Compositor
Behnam got his start in the first ever Compositing Apprentice Program at Rhythm & Hues Studios; he was offered his first contract on Garfield: A Tail of Two Kitties. After having worked on almost a dozen films at R&H — including The Golden Compass; Behnam has also worked at Rising Sun Pictures in Australia where he worked on Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows. He then found himself in New Zealand working on Rise of the Planet of the Apes at Weta Digital. Behnam moved back to his hometown of San Francisco to work at Industrial Light & Magic, where he is currently working on several films; including some based in a galaxy far, far away. Some of his favorite projects he has worked on at ILM are Captain America: Civil War, Ant-Man, Star Wars: The Last Jedi, Kong: Skull Island, and most recently completed work on Solo: A Star Wars Story.
Giorgio Luciano
Scientist & 3D Artist
Giorgio works as a researcher at the Italian National Council of Research (CNR) on topics devoted to the characterization and development of new materials. The main topics of his research are superhydrophobic surfaces and data analysis applied to analytical techniques. Giorgio graduated in chemistry and then earned a PhD in chemical sciences. During his PhD he spent some time studying at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna, which influenced his passion for art. Giorgio's interests focus on lighting, rendering, and visualization of scientific concepts.
Frederic Durand
Lighting Artist
Frederic is a lead lighting artist and look developer of photo-real effects for movies and commercials. Working in films and commercials for the past 20 years in Los Angeles, London, and Paris, he has had the opportunity to work at Sony ImageWorks, Disney Features Studios, DreamWorks, Jim Henson’s Workshop, the Mill, and Moving Picture Company (MPC), among others. His approach is not only technical but also artistic, as he heavily emphasizes and integrates cinematography aspects into his work.
In addition, he has strong a drawing, painting, and photography background, and continues to hone these crafts on a regular basis. He earned his Master of Arts from the Ecole Nationale des Arts Decoratifs (ENSAD) and studied at the Cooper Union in NYC. He is very experienced with RenderMan, Arnold, V-Ray, and Nuke, and has over two decades of teaching experience, most notably at the University of Southern California's School of Cinematic Arts.
Eduardo Vazquez
Senior Compositor
Edy graduated in 2014 with a degree in Digital Animation from Mexico City. He immediately began his career as a Compositor, working on advertising and film productions. In 2017, seeking new opportunities, he ventured to Montreal and collaborated with renowned studios such as MPC, Atomic Fiction, and Method Studios. During this time, he had the privilege of contributing to incredible projects including Alien Covenant, Stranger Things, Loki, and (personal favorite) Top Gun Maverick, among others.
After gaining valuable experience, Edy decided to take his career to Vancouver, and joined Method Studios/Framestore and Digital Domain, where he contributed his skills and creativity to the successful completion of anticipated projects such as Thor: Love and Thunder, Black Panther Wakanda Forever, and The Last of Us. Eager for a fresh adventure, he recently joined the team at Industrial Light & Magic Vancouver, where he continues to contribute his expertise to exciting new projects.
Andrew Prince
Senior Lighting Artist
Andrew Prince is a Lead Lighting Artist at Infinity Ward with over 16 years of experience. His experience includes specializations in Art Direction, lighting and environment art within numerous game engines such as Unreal, Unity & Radiant. Andrew's passion lands within lighting and he has had the privilege of lighting various game modes such as single player campaign missions, multiplayer maps and cinematics, all of which have very different approaches and challenges. Within his 16 year career he has worked at AAA and Indie studios in a Lead or Sr. role on game titles large and small including Call of Duty, Bioshock Infinite & Starblood Arena (PSVR).
Martin Teichmann
Lead Environment Artist
Martin Teichmann started his environment art career in Germany 2007. He has worked at AAA Games since 2010 for Crytek on Crysis 2 and 3, Rocksteady on Batman Arkham Knight, Naughty Dog on Uncharted 4, Uncharted Lost Legacy and Last of Us Part 2 and is currently working for Blizzard on Diablo 4.
Chris Flynn
Senior 3D Lead Artist
After working across all aspects in the 3D Industry for many years, Chris now happily resides with Dekogon Studios as a Senior 3D Lead Artist. Chris has been in the 3D industry for 12 years working on films, games, vr and mobile. Initially Chris was a business major ... however, during his schooling Chris had the very fortunate opportunity to work at SquareUSA where he was introduced to the incredibly captivating 3D film and animation industry. Chris quickly pivoted his education goals and switched to studying 3D Digital Animation and Gaming. After graduating from the University of Hawaii, Chris worked as a 3D Modeler/compositor on the hit tv series "Lost". Chris then pursued mobile gaming and VR simulations in Canada. Shortly after Chris decided to join Dekogon, one of the gaming industries top outsource company. Most recently Chris won the Platinum MarCom 2020 Awards with a real-time marketing VR Tour for Eavor Solutions (Business on Camera). Some of Chris's work includes working and leading on large scale AAA titles such as Scavengers, Crayta, Werewolf the Apocalypse, Enemy on Board, Remnant 2, Sierra 7, Empire of Sin and many more!
Ryan Jewell
Lead Environment Artist
With over 10 years of experience in the game industry, Ryan Jewell brings a wealth of knowledge and expertise to the classroom. After graduating with a Bachelor's in Game Art and Design from the Art Institute of California, San Diego, he honed his skills at Sony Online Entertainment as an intern and went on to work at PlayStation Studios on iconic titles such as Uncharted 4, God of War, Marvel's Spider-Man, Death Stranding, The Last of Us Part 1, and most recently, Helldivers 2. Currently, as a Lead Environment Artist, he leads projects, trains both artists and project leads, and collaborates with vendor studios from all over the world to improve their skills. His passion for game art stems from the joy of witnessing worlds come to life, from initial concepts to immersive realities players can interact with. He is excited to share his experience and knowledge with students, helping them develop their skills and contribute to the magic of game creation.
AJ
Aadil
Aaron
Abigail
Abram
Adam
Adam
Agnes
Liza is great. She's very accommodating and friendly and her critiques were very constructive.
Aidan
Aimee
Aishath
Alan
Alasgar
Was a great guy overall that explained stuff clearly
Aldin
Aleksandra
Aleksandra
Aleksandra
Alessandra
Liza was fantastic! She was incredibly attentive and helpful, always going above and beyond for us. I would absolutely take another course taught by her again.
Alex
Alex Wink
Alexander
Alexandra
Alexandra
Alexandre
Alice
Alida
Alina
Allan
Allan
Allan
Allan
Allan
Allen
Alora
[Louis is] awesome. He really wanted to share all of the tips and good technices to deal with real cases of simulation tasks for production.
Alvaro
Chris was great. I'm glad he's not only close with the Clinton, but shares the same overall passion for the industry.
Alvin
Alysia
Alyssa
Alyssa
Amanda
Amber
Amber
Amy
Ana
Anders
Andre
Andrea
Andreas
Andreas
Andreas
Andreia
Andrew
Andrew
Andrew
Andrew
Andrew
Andrey
Andy
Andy Fraser
She did it perfectly. I dare to say that she very experienced with speaking in public. I'm not just glad to go through the course under her guidance, I am proud of it.
Angell
Angie
Angie
Angie
Ania
Anik
Anna
Anna
Anna
Anna
Anne
Annie
Anouk
Antonio
Antonio
Antonio
Anupama
Arash
Archer
Ariel
Armando
Armando
Aromie
Arthur
Arthur
Arthur
Ashley
Asia
Azalil
Bakari
Barbara
Barbara
Barbara
Barbbara
Adam was fantastic! He always took the time to answer my questions and help me improve my project. I truly appreciate his advice, expertise, and instruction.
Barbra
Bavanya
Ben
Ben
Ben
Ben
Benaiah
Bethnay
Beti
Beti
Bhairavi
Billy
Blair
Brad
Brandon
Brandon
Brendan
Brett
Brianna
Britny
Brittney
Britton
Britton
Bruno
Bryan
Bryan
Bryce
Bukela
Caitlin
Caitlyn
Caleb
Calvin
Camille
Camilo
Carlos
Oh, Im so happy that someone so experienced like him gave me feedback. Plus he is a great person with passion about sharing 3D modelling/ texturing tips.
Carlos
Carsen
Cassidy
Cassidy
Cat
Catarina
Catherine
Cathia
Chadwick
Chang
Charlotte
1000/10 went well beyond what was required and always showed me clearly where i made errors
Charlotte
Chris
Chris
Chris
Chris
Christen
Christian
Christian
Christian
Christine
Christoph
Christopher
Christopher
Christopher
Christopher
Claire
Cléa
Cody
Cody
Cody
Cody
Cody
Cody Hernandez
Collin
Crystal
Daina
Daniel
Daniel
Daniel
Daniel
Daniel
Daniel
Daniel
Danielle
Danny
Danny
Daria
Daria
Dave
David
David
Davin
Debbie
Dennis
Dennis
Diana
Didan
Didan
Diego
Diego
Diego
Jared is a great teacher!
Diego
Divya
Sophie was great and really helpful through the whole course. Any questions were always answered with clarity, and showing us different approaches helps develop the way of thinking required for Houdini
Dominic
Dominique
Duard
Eddie
Eduardo
Ekaterina
Elena
Elina
Elisabeth
Ellie
Elvira
I learned a lot about the Houdini FLIP (fluids) workflow, of which I knew very little about before.
Emanuele
Emiko
Emilia
Emma
Emma
Emmanuel
Eric
Eric
Eric Hug
Erik
Erin
Erol
Ethan
The instructor was great and delivered what was promised of the class. Besides this, it was great to received feedback from someone with so much experience in the industry.
Ethan
Eva
Evelyn
Fabian
Farah
Just awesome. So many tips and even if a question couldn't be answered in the live QnA -they were for sure answered in the class questions afterwards. Provided great and useful feedback. Great
explanations, nice, helpful, etc.
Felix
Feras
Florian
Flynn
Frank
Frank Heffner
Freddy
Gaia
Gary
Genevieve
Geneviève
George
George
George
Giuseppe
Giuseppe
Gosia
Gregory
Grzergorz
Guido
Gunel
Gunel
Hannah
Hasnain
Hayden
Heather
Heaven
Heiko
Henri
This course has challenged me and many different ways that I otherwise would not have been able to. Nate was excellent at explaining things in ways I've never thought before and had done so in very clear, concise manner.
Henry
Hilary
Hollie
Hugo
Ian
Ian
Ian
Ian
Ian
Ibrahim
It develops your eye and attention to detail. This is an excellent course. Walking my instructor through my grooming scene in Houdini and getting real time feedback on things was perfect, I loved that. Having your work reviewed by such a talent really made me want to push the hard work for me. I'm grateful for that because you feel always motivated.
Ignacio
Ilona
Isabella
Isabella
Itziar
Ivan
Ivy
Ivy
JD
JD
Jacek
Jacob
Jacob
Jacob
Ryan was great! always willing to entertain off the beat questions
Jacob
Jacob DeRemer
Jacqueline
Jacqueline
Jahrut
Jaikumar
Jaime Molina
Jake
Jake
James
James
James Pickard
James Pickard
James Pickard
James Rumfelt
James Tupper
James Wright
Jane S. Kim
Janneke van den Biggelaar
Jannes Lauwers
Jared
Jared Chavez
Jason
Jason
Javier
Javier
Javier
Ethan it's an awesome teacher, the way he answered all of our questions was super clear, and even if he came across a problem he doesn't know 100% he looks into it to teach us the way to solve it
Javier
Jay
Jayleen
Jaylynn
Jaylynn
Jean
Jean
Jeff
Jeff
Jeff
Jeff
Jeffery
Jenn
Jennifer
Jenny
Jenny
Jenny
Jeremy
Jerome
Jerome
Diego is awesome! He's very friendly and easy to talk to; he was always happy to answer our questions and extremely encouraging about continuing to learn and grow as artists. He provided a lot of great demos in the Q&As and always gave detailed and thoughtful answers to both specific technical questions and general career related questions. It was a truly great experience to have Diego as an instructor; his enthusiasm for his craft really comes through and his willingness to share his own career experiences and anecdotes is greatly appreciated.
Jerry
Jess
Chris is a great teacher who was always very positive and encouraging, and gave helpful feedback.
Jess
Jesse
Jessica
Josh is a very kind, patient and knowledgeable person. It’s clear that he enjoys sharing his knowledge with everyone, and he does it in a very natural way.
Jessica
Encouraged me to dive into an area that I was unfamiliar with at the start of the course.
Jesus
Joakim
Joaquin
John
John
John
John
John
John
John S.
Johnathan
Jon
Jonah
Jonah
Jonathan
Jonathan
Jonathan
Jordan
Jordi
Jose
Adam was an excellent instructor and offered very insightful critiques and alternative processes that spoke to our individual designs. Always in a thoughtful, patient, and professional manner. As an instructor for almost 20yrs, I'd say you have a winner in Adam Beardall.
Jose
Joseph
Joseph
Joseph
Josh
Joshua
Joshua
Joshua
Joshua
Joshua
Joshua
Joshua
Ashley was extremely thorough in her answers to questions and feedback advice, as well as in providing links to external resources related to the questions and feedback.
Joshua
Joshua Williams
Josiah
José
Joubert
Jozsef
Juan
Juan
Judith
Julia
Julian
Diego is awesome! super patient and encouraging.
Julie
Junard
Justin
Justin
Ka
It really helped me understand some of the intricacies about the pipeline for animated grooms. The reviews were also really helpful.
Kamran
Karim
Karina
Karolina
Karolina
Kat
Katarzyna
Kate
Kate
Kate
Katianna
Katsushi
Kayla
Kean
Keila
Kelly
Ed really showed me great techniques to make sure I got a realistic water simulation. Amazing course!
Kenneth
Kenny
Kevin
Khadeeja
Khadeeja
Khaldoun
Khaldoun
Khang
Kimberly
Kirsten
Knut
Kristen
Kuan
Kyle
Kyle
Lance
Laura
Laura
Laura
Josh really sets up a professional standard for us on how to approach real-time vfx and I am now more comfortable with going through the whole creative process of VFX in UE5.
Laura
Laurel
Lauren
Laurence
Laurent
Laurie
Lawrence
She is amazing! I'm really happy to have signed up with Ashley, her feedback was very constructive and supportive and I really appreciated that as a beginner.
Lei
Leigh
Lev
Lewis
Liberty
Lily
Lorraine
Seemed like she was very knowledgeable about the software.
Lou
Louise
Loup
Lovina
Luca
Lucas
Lucca
Lucia
Luis
Luis
Lukas
Luke
Luke Davenport
Mackenzie
Madeline
Majid
Makoto
Malin
Marcellino
Liza was an awesome instructor. She always provided good feedback.
Marco
Chris was an absolutely amazing instructor. You can tell he is a very nice guy who is passionate about what he does.
Marcus
Margareta
Maria
Marian
Marina
Mario
Mark
Mark
Mark
Martha
Martin
I love how close of a conversation you can have with him. How he seems to have a working example for nearly everything, it's really helpful to visualize if a specific question is more technical.
Martin
Martino
Mary
Massiel
Matt
Matthew
Maureen
Max
Andrew is a great instructor. I think I learned the most from his feedbacks and Q&As.
Max
Sophie made the fundamentals very clear and didn't hesitate to show/explain it again whenever it was needeed. She helped me work with a lot more attention to these fundamentals. The VEX/VOP parts were also super useful and want to dig deeper in. Thanks again to Sophie Noël !
Max
Maxime
Mayenna
Megan
Mei-li
Meihe
Meihe
Melis
Melissa
Mert
Michael
Michael
Michael
Michael
Really helped me get a better emphasis on material definition as well as gave me the confidence to do something like texture a face from scratch
Michael
Instructor was great, gave real world production examples and treated all students respectfully
Michael
Michelle
Michelle
Michka
Mickey
Mika
Mike
Mike
Minnie
Mio
Miranda
I now know how to use substance painter, texture a face, and render a scene in marmoset. Incredibly useful.
Miriam
Mitch
Mohammed
Mohsen
Molly
Molly
Molly Gilmore
Monica
Morgan
Murray
Myoungjun
Nancy
Nate is an exceptional teacher. It changed my way of taking on new projects and opened up new opportunities and horizons as a freelance artist. I cannot thank him enough for how valuable it was to take Nate's class.
Natalia
Natalie
Natalie
Nathan
Nebojsa
Neil
Neil
Nestor
Nicholas
Nick
Nick
Nicolas
Nicolas
Nicolas
Nicolas
Nicole
Nicole
Nicole
The course helped answer many questions I had coming in, both about the industry and about MAYA. I learned new ways to model things that I wouldn’t have been able to before.
Nidhi
Nienke
Nikhil
Nikolay
Nora
Odin
Okan Beyit
Okito
Olaf
Olesya
Olga
Olga
Oliver
Owen
Pablo
Pam
Parker
Parthena
Patricia
Paula
Paulina
Peter
Peter
Peter
Peter
Peter
Philip
Preston
Rachel
Radoslaw
It was great to have an instructor with such a wide background in animation as well as a concentration in one specific aspect.
Raymond
Rebecca
Rene
Rex
Ricardo
Ricardo
Ethan is a great artist and also a great instructor, he helped with every problem I had even when they were not related to groom so that was great.
Ricardo
Richard
Rick
Robert
Robin
Rodrigo
Roel
Roger
Rosana
Rosanna
Rosemary
Roxsy
Roy
Roy
Russel
Josh did an exceptionally through job of explaining each step, and explaining the purpose of each step. His feedback and willingness to see his students improve is truly inspiring.
Russel Aronchick
Ryan
Ryan
Saachi
Saem
Sahir
Sal
Sal
Salomey
Sam
Sam
Samuel
Sandra
Sandra
Sandra
Santosh
Sara
Sara
Sarah
Sarah
Sarah
Sarah
Sascha
Sawyer
Sawyer
Scott
Scott
Scott
Scott
Emiel was simply perfect. He is easy to listen to, he has a mountain of knowledge, he teaches really well, doesn't overwhelm with too much information. I would personally prefer the course to be 2 or 4 weeks longer and taught exclusively by Emiel.
Scott
Scott Gudahl
Sean
Sean
Sebastian
Serena
Sergio
Sergio
Seven
Shannon
Shaun
Shawn
Sheryl
Sheryl
Ashley is the most inspiring Zbrush mage! Her live QAs are super fun and get us hyped about trying something new in the software and in our designs! Found my love for Zbrush with her demos and feedback and hope to learn more :D
Shruti
Sian
Sian
Sian
Silvia
Simón
Sofia
Sonal
Sonja
Sonja
Stacey
Stephen
Stephen
Sterling
Stuart
Stuart
Student testimonial here
Student Name
Student testimonial here
Student Name
Sudhir
Susanna
Takahiro
Takahiro
Tam
Tami
Taylor
Taylor
Taylor
Tessera
I gained a much better understanding of the project flow for game asset creation and how UVs are handled for video games.
Thomas P
Tiffany
Tim
Tim
Timothy
Tobias
Tom
Tomer
Tommi
Travis
Travis
Travis
Tricia
Tristan
Trung
Tyler
Tyler
Tyler
Tyler
Ula
Ulina
Vaimiti
Valentina
Valerie
Vedant
Vincent Vaillancourt
Virendra
Vitaly
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Vlad Test
Magnificent transformation--strongly recommend Louis and his course to every person who wants to advance their skills.
Vu
Wesley
Westley
Wiebe
William
William
Xavier
Xaxier
Xuan
Yaara
Yann
Yue
Yusuf
Yusuf
I really enjoyed learning from Emmanuel. He was very humble and knowledgeable. I can tell he put a lot of thought and time in using our face to face time wisely by addressing as many overall issues the class was having with their projects via his demos and lectures. He also made himself available for industry based questions that are so important, yet outside of the realm of just learning how to create.
Zach
Zachary
Zachary
Zahra
Zamir
Zeth
Zeth
Zi
Zian
Zoltan
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