At Stellar Creative Lab, our foundational mission is to cultivate an exceptional studio environment where professionals genuinely thrive, collaborate, and feel valued. Production environments naturally experience cyclical shifts, breakthroughs, and demanding milestones; we navigate these inevitable dynamics as a highly synchronized, supportive, and interconnected team.
Stellar Creative Lab deliberately reject production models that isolate artists. Instead, our studio culture is anchored in transparency, open communication, creative integrity, and mutual professional respect. We believe that technical mastery combined with an ego-free, collaborative spirit provides the ultimate framework for creative magic.
Job Overview : Previs/Layout Lead
| Operational Details | Position Information |
| Company | Stellar Creative Lab |
| Location | Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada (Flexible Hybrid Workspace) |
| Employment Type | Full-Time |
| Experience Level | Experienced / Senior Lead (5+ years experience, 1–2 years in leadership) |
| Project Assignment | Premium Streaming Series for Marvel Animation |
| Compensation Range | $95,000 CAD – $110,000 CAD per annum (Commensurate with experience) |
| Core Software Toolsets | Autodesk Maya & Flow Production Tracking (formerly ShotGrid) |
| Hiring Priority | British Columbia Residents, Canadian Citizens, & Permanent Residents |
The Opportunity Previs/Layout Lead
Stellar Creative Lab is strategically expanding its production leadership pipeline. We are seeking a supportive, highly creative, and vision-driven Previs/Layout Lead to guide our camera and staging team on an upcoming, high-profile premium streaming series for Marvel Animation.
In this role, you will effectively serve as the practical, hands-on head of cinematography within our 3D digital world. Your primary responsibility is to lead your team in translating traditional 2D storyboards into a dynamic 3D digital space, ensuring that every sequence fundamentally supports the overarching narrative, thematic tone, and character arcs.
This leadership discipline extends far beyond simple camera review; it requires coaching your artists to make sophisticated, deliberate creative choices regarding framing, focal lengths, camera movement, and character blocking to establish an impeccable cinematic flow that sets downstream departments up for absolute success.
If you are an empathetic mentor who loves guiding artists, finding practical solutions to staging roadblocks, and keeping your crew organized under tight deadlines, we want you at the helm.
Scope of Work & Key Responsibilities
As a Previs/Layout Lead at Stellar, your contributions will directly shape the visual rhythm and narrative clarity of the series while fostering a healthy team dynamic. Your day-to-day operations will center around three core functional areas:
1. Cinematography & Staging Leadership
- Process Oversight: Oversee the entire layout and previs production pipeline, ensuring all camera work, lensing, and staging perfectly achieve the creative vision established by the Director and Previs/Layout Supervisor.
- High-Profile Asset Execution: Take a direct, hands-on approach to lensing, framing, and blocking the most highly complex, action-heavy, or deeply emotional cinematic sequences on the project.
- Compositional Standards: Establish and maintain departmental standards for character posing, ensuring composition considerations are refined enough to allow for highly accurate sequence timing across the board.
2. Team Leadership & Mentorship
- Training & Development: Organize, manage, and provide ongoing technical training and artistic guidance to the camera and staging team.
- Empathetic Management: Act as a supportive, approachable leader. Keep communication clear, direct, and focused on solutions, ensuring your artists feel heard, valued, and respected even when production deadlines are compressed.
- Balanced Advocacy: Serve as a motivational force who can realistically balance the rigid demands of the production schedule with the mental well-being and daily needs of your crew.
3. Collaboration, Review & Pipeline Integration
- Editorial Alignment: Work in close partnership with the editorial department to ensure that all 3D layouts, shot durations, and cuts flow exactly as intended, helping your team gracefully adapt to pacing or structural changes.
- Animation Synchronization: Partner proactively with the character animation team to address and resolve complex spatial, staging, or blocking challenges as they surface within the active pipeline.
- Production Tracking Mastery: Continually review, critique, and approve artistic assets within Flow Production Tracking (formerly ShotGrid), ensuring studio deadlines are met and creative notes are communicated clearly and constructively.
Position Requirements
Candidates will be thoroughly evaluated based on their portfolio quality, leadership philosophy, and industry experience relative to high-end character animation workflows.
Must-Have Qualifications
- Production Experience: A minimum of 5+ years of distinguished production experience specializing in Previs, Layout, or Camera workflows, with a proven track record of at least 1–2 years in a formal Lead or supervisory role.
- Artistic Eye: A demonstrated, expert-level understanding of the principles of cinematography (including framing techniques, lens characteristics, depth of field, and camera movement) and expressive character animation/posing.
- Core Software Mastery: Extensive, hands-on production experience operating fluidly within an established Autodesk Maya pipeline.
- Leadership Style: A leadership approach grounded in empathy, patience, and practical problem-solving, with an ability to balance creative excellence with team support.
- Tracking Proficiency: Direct production experience utilizing Flow Production Tracking (ShotGrid) for tracking progress, task management, and running interactive reviews.
- Legal Eligibility: Applicants must be legally eligible to work in British Columbia, Canada, at the time of application.
Nice-to-Have Assets
- Familiarity or direct working experience with professional editing, post-production, and digital graphics software suites, specifically Adobe Premiere, DaVinci Resolve, and/or Adobe Photoshop.
Why Choose Stellar Creative Lab?
Stellar Creative Lab is dedicated to building a workplace that supports both professional development and personal well-being.
- Flexible Hybrid Schedule: We support a modern, flexible hybrid work model designed to balance in-studio collaboration with remote autonomy, adapting fluidly to changing project requirements and team dynamics.
- Comprehensive Benefits Package: Access to a competitive, extended health benefits plan designed to safeguard your well-being.
- Professional Evolution: Ongoing professional development support, providing you with the resources needed to stay ahead of evolving industry technologies and creative trends.
- Incentivized Culture: A highly collaborative environment that strips away corporate ego, ensuring your technical expertise directly fuels global creative properties.
Diversity, Inclusion, and Accessibility
At Stellar Creative Lab, we firmly believe that diversity and inclusion are the primary catalysts for meaningful creativity and authentic collaboration. We are unconditionally committed to building and maintaining a supportive, open, and diverse community where artists from all backgrounds can thrive.
Stellar Creative Lab continuously analyze and iterate on our studio infrastructure to improve accessibility. We welcome and encourage any feedback or accessibility suggestions from applicants throughout our recruitment process.
Note: While all qualified candidates from around the globe are encouraged to express their interest, explicit hiring priority will be given to British Columbia residents, Canadian citizens, and Canadian Permanent Residents.
