ViridianFX - Junior Visual Effects Apprentice

ViridianFX is a creative house in York making VFX and post-production for film and TV. We are looking for 4 creative, rebellious, problem-solving individuals. We're not interested in your showreel. We're not interested in your degree, or if you quit education altogether. We're interested in what you have made when nobody asked you to make it.

Wage

£24,784.50 a year

Training course

Junior visual effects - VFX artist or assistant technical director - ATD (level 4)

Hours

Monday - Friday (Times to be confirmed). 37 hours 30 minutes a week

Start date

Tuesday 27 October 2026

Duration

1 year 6 months

Positions available

4

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Most of your apprenticeship is spent working. You’ll learn on the job by getting hands-on experience.

What you'll do at work

We are looking for four creative, rebellious, problem-solving individuals.

Eighteen months. Paid. Based in York.

We are not interested in your showreel. We are not interested in your degree, or if you quit education altogether.

We are interested in what you have made when nobody asked you to make it.

The video you cut on a borrowed laptop. The TikTok series nobody watched. The VR music video for your friend's band. The thing you built in Unreal at 3am because you wanted to see if it would work. The short film you finished, and the one you didn't. The experience of having tried.

If you have done something like this, and you suspect that moving images are still the most exciting medium on Earth, we would like to hear from you.

You will work alongside professional artists and creatives on real projects, with real deadlines and real audiences.

You will develop practical skills across areas including:

• Visual effects and compositing
• CG, 3D and digital workflows
• Production and post-production
• Directing and storytelling
• Emerging technologies and creative experimentation

You will not be a runner. You will not be making tea (Unless you want tea!). You will not be invisible.

From the first week, you will be treated as someone whose ideas and perspective have a place in the work.

Where you'll work

24 SWINEGATE
YORK
YO1 8AZ

Apprenticeships include time away from working for specialist training. You’ll study to gain professional knowledge and skills.

Training provider

THE WEST MIDLANDS CREATIVE ALLIANCE LIMITED

Training course

Junior visual effects - VFX artist or assistant technical director - ATD (level 4)

What you'll learn

Course contents

• Identify the information required, and gather the appropriate research or reference materials to carry out your work to expected creative, narrative and technical standards on each production
• Select the appropriate software and technique to meet the required standards and tasks, taking into account the needs of other departments in the production pipeline
• Use appropriate techniques to reduce degradation of the source material
• Identify render errors and fix/escalate them as appropriate
• Work in line with agreed workflows, adapting to operational and creative changes as they occur
• Operate within and adhere to agreed organisational policies, standards and procedures such as health & safety, confidentiality, security, asset storage and legal and regulatory requirements
• Manage own workload and operate both individually and as part of a wider VFX team, keeping colleagues, clients and/or other departments updated on progress and report any issues arising
• Use reliable information to keep-up-to date with the new tools, software, data and other related technology, and how they affect your work
• Interpret and correct lens distortion, parallax and overscan
• Multitask on simultaneous projects, often for different clients, deciding how to prioritise the work to ensure that all tasks are completed on schedule
• Respond positively to feedback on work, making refinements as needed
• Apply the naming conventions, file formats and version control for the work
• Deliver content in the correct format as required by the employer and clients
• Use maths to describe problems, recreate physical systems or manipulate computer generated geometry
• Move, store and organise assets created, ensuring data integrity, in order to enable their use throughout the rest of the pipeline
• Analyse and determine the most appropriate approach to carry out the work
• Trouble shoot VFX problems, taking responsibility for the course of action followed, including identifying opportunities to deliver viable solutions and sharing these outcomes.
• Convert between common colour spaces, selecting the appropriate colour space for the given task and combining images from multiple colour spaces
• Apply colour adjustments at the correct stage of the composite, using non-destructive adjustments where possible
• Use patching techniques to remove unwanted objects within the live action footage
• Use frame-by-frame painting to remove unwanted objects within the live action footage
• Generate mattes by roto-scoping and luminance, difference and colour keying
• Produce accurate roto-scope by correctly placing shapes, control points and keyframes
• Accurately replicate motion blur within the roto-scope generated matte
• Complete basic composites demonstrating keying, colour grading, re- timing and screen insertion
• Complete basic live action and CGI composites demonstrating set extensions and simple CGI objects integrated into live action elements
• Create accurate point tracks and planar tracks in line with production requirements
• VFX3D: Apply render settings across multiple assets
• Analyse, interpret and use on-set data and information
• Model and manipulate geometry for scene reconstruction
• Select and use software to create: a model, a texture map, puppet rig or blocked animation to meet the requirements of the brief
• Review assets created with the relevant people, offering suggestions to assist others with the production
• Capture and work with photogrammetry and convert it to useable 3D geometry and cameras
• Optimise and rebuild assets/scenes for real time rendering
• Assemble, layout and maintain assets into project, sequence, or shot based environments
• Identify, collect and migrate data to/from a range of systems
• Manipulate and link different data sets as required
• Perform database queries across multiple tables to extract data for analysis
• Monitor, manipulate and report on render queues
• Monitor, track and report render resource usage
• Investigate existing solutions or frameworks
• Design and present proposed solutions and respond to feedback
• Plan and document development roadmap
• Troubleshoot individual artist input, output or archival problems
• Develop small-scale tools, using existing pipeline frameworks and libraries
• Support or troubleshoot pipeline and workflow tools
• Identify the information required, and gather the appropriate research or reference materials to carry out your work to expected creative, narrative and technical standards on each production
• Select the appropriate software and technique to meet the required standards and tasks, taking into account the needs of other departments in the production pipeline
• Use appropriate techniques to reduce degradation of the source material
• Identify render errors and fix/escalate them as appropriate
• Work in line with agreed workflows, adapting to operational and creative changes as they occur
• Operate within and adhere to agreed organisational policies, standards and procedures such as health & safety, confidentiality, security, asset storage and legal and regulatory requirements
• Manage own workload and operate both individually and as part of a wider VFX team, keeping colleagues, clients and/or other departments updated on progress and report any issues arising
• Use reliable information to keep-up-to date with the new tools, software, data and other related technology, and how they affect your work
• Interpret and correct lens distortion, parallax and overscan
• Multitask on simultaneous projects, often for different clients, deciding how to prioritise the work to ensure that all tasks are completed on schedule
• Respond positively to feedback on work, making refinements as needed
• Apply the naming conventions, file formats and version control for the work
• Deliver content in the correct format as required by the employer and clients
• Use maths to describe problems, recreate physical systems or manipulate computer generated geometry
• Move, store and organise assets created, ensuring data integrity, in order to enable their use throughout the rest of the pipeline
• Analyse and determine the most appropriate approach to carry out the work
• Trouble shoot VFX problems, taking responsibility for the course of action followed, including identifying opportunities to deliver viable solutions and sharing these outcomes.