Christophe Leyder

Self-taught since the age of 12, I've been immersed in 3D for over two decades. At 33, with 15+ years of professional experience, I've grown from generalist artist to on-set VFX supervisor, still hands-on with look development and lighting while solving problems in the field and in the studio alike. Whether it's advising a director on camera setups for VFX-heavy scenes or debugging a render pipeline at 2am before a deadline, I find the path forward.

At Luma Animation, the largest and most awarded animation and VFX studio on the African continent, I've supervised teams of 30+ artists on award-winning feature films, Netflix series, and international commercial campaigns. I've been on set guiding camera placement, tracking marker layout, HDRI capture, and lighting references, then carried that knowledge straight into post to deliver the final shots. From realtime Unity projects to full-length feature animation, every production has brought unique problems that needed solving. I don't just give notes. I personally drive look development, lighting, and compositing for the majority of the work, while simultaneously developing custom tools, HDAs, and automation that multiply our team's output. South African productions run on a fraction of international budgets, so I've learned to deliver world-class results through smart planning, lean workflows, and knowing exactly where to invest effort for maximum impact.

My philosophy is simple: technology should serve the story. I sit at the intersection of creative direction and deep technical capability. I architect USD pipelines, build Houdini procedural tools, develop render farm automation, integrate generative AI workflows into production, and design the systems that let artists focus on art while the pipeline handles complexity. The difference is that I'm also the person making the final creative calls on how things look. That combination lets me spot problems early and solve them before they cost time or money.