About the role
About the Role & Team
As a Walt Disney Animation Studios Technology Intern, you will have the unique opportunity to work directly with a Disney mentor while exploring all aspects of technology in relation to filmmaking. This immersive program offers hands-on experience focused on individual craft and multidisciplinary team collaboration.
The Rendering team, within Production Technology, works on Disney Animation’s in-house path tracing software, Hyperion, which computes final film frames by simulating camera, light, geometry, and material interactions described by artist-built scenes.
What You Will Do
As a graduate-level intern with a passion for rendering, you’ll be working on interesting, unsolved problems generally related to volume rendering. Potential topics include (but are not necessarily limited to) general efficiency improvements to existing volume rendering techniques, novel looks involving volumes, and finding ways to unify and improve consistency between surface, subsurface, and volume appearance models. This project will involve applying recent state-of-the-art research to a practical production rendering environment, conducting new research as needed, working with artists and users to understand and meet creative needs, and developing intuitive user-facing controls and workflows.
Projects Include:
- Learning about rendering requirements at Disney Animation and relevant artist workflows.
- Research/implement potential solutions to improving delta tracking performance for thin volumes. Potential approaches could include path guiding techniques, improved multiple importance sampling, etc.
- Research/implement potential solutions to unifying volume and surface rendering theory. Potential approaches range from improved surface interface handling to more novel research, such as gaussian process implicit surfaces.
- Collaborate with artists, TD, engineers, and researchers to evaluate potential solutions for production suitability and artist usability.
Required Qualifications & Skills
Don’t have all the below qualifications? We still want to hear from you! If you meet some of the requirements and are eager to learn, we encourage you to apply:
- Modern C++ expertise. The ability to write clear, maintainable and efficient code.
- Strong communication skills. The ability to collaborate with both developers and artists.
- Advanced rendering research/development experience.
- Proficiency in mathematics (calculus, linear algebra, and probability theory).
Preferred Qualifications
- Physically based volume rendering research/development experience.
- Path guiding research/development experience.
- Strong understanding of advanced research topics such as specular micro-surface theory, subsurface scattering theory, etc.
- Experience in using production rendering systems.
- Experience in working with large research rendering codebases (Mitsuba, PBRT, Tungsten, etc).
- Experience in using profiling/debugging tools.
Education
- Current enrollment in a Masters or PhD program in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, or a related field with a focus on Computer Graphics, Rendering, or relevant research areas.
- At the time of application, must be enrolled in an accredited college/university taking at least one class in the semester/quarter (spring/fall) prior to participation in the internship program AND returning to school the semester/quarter following the internship OR currently participating in a Disney College Program or Disney Internship.
Eligibility Requirements & Program Information
Candidates for this opportunity MUST meet all of the below requirements:
- Be at least 18 years of age
- Have not completed one year of continual employment on a Disney internship or program
- Possess unrestricted work authorization
- Location: Burbank, CA
- Program Length: June 7, 2027 - August 27, 2027 (12 weeks)
- Fully available from M-F, PST for the duration of the internship, 40 hours each week
- Able to provide own housing for the duration internship program in the Los Angeles, CA area
- Able to provide/have reliable transportation to/from work
Compensation & Benefits
- Pay Rate: $42.00 per hour in Burbank, CA.
- Select benefits may be provided as part of the compensation package, such as medical, financial, and/or other benefits, dependent on the level and position offered.