COURSE OVERVIEW
Designing shots. Sculpting light. Bringing digital worlds to life.
The MA VFX: Lighting and Compositing is an Industry-focused MA designed to train you to design, light and composite cinematic shots, combining live action and CG.
Working in professional, USD-based pipelines with emerging AI tools, you will collaborate on live productions and graduate with the specialist skills needed for high-end VFX workflows.
What Our Students Create
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At the National Film and Television School – one of the world’s leading film schools – we offer two complementary Master’s degrees in VFX - Environments and Assets and Lighting and Compositing. Each provides a focused pathway into the screen industries: one dedicated to creating the digital worlds and environments that stories inhabit, and the other to designing, lighting and compositing the shots through which those worlds are experienced. Together, they reflect the collaborative structure of the contemporary VFX pipeline and allow you to specialise from day one.
On this course, you’ll learn to design, light, and composite moving images which combine live action and CG lighting with cinematic precision. You’ll learn to think and work like a ‘virtual cinematographer’, mastering the visual language of contemporary screen production. Using Houdini, Nuke and emerging AI-based systems, you’ll develop fluency in shot design, previsualisation, camera layout, lighting and compositing, turning creative ideas into high-impact visual sequences.
You will:
- Develop expertise in shot design, camera layout, and previz
- Integrate AI-powered tools into production workflows
- Work within a USD-based pipeline, reflecting the cutting-edge VFX and animation systems used in industry
- Gain a professional understanding of lighting and compositing workflows
- Discover creative control over cinematic lighting design and digital storytelling
- Experience of collaborative production within a professional pipeline
As an NFTS student, you’ll learn within a working production environment, collaborating regularly with filmmakers, animators, and sound designers on live projects. You’ll work closely with students from Model Making, Composing and Sound Design on major integrative modules, creating hybrid live-action and CG sequences that replicate the pace and precision of professional studio workflows. This hands-on experience prepares you for the teamwork, problem-solving and adaptability required in high-end VFX production.
Taught by working artists, supervisors and innovators from across the film, TV, games and advertising industries, this intensive course combines creative exploration with real-world professionalism.
You’ll also benefit from the research and development work of the NFTS CoSTAR team, part of a UK-wide initiative driving innovation in virtual production and AI-enhanced workflows. You’ll be exposed to new methods and tools as they emerge, learning how to integrate them into your creative and technical practice.
You’ll graduate with a strong, industry-ready portfolio that demonstrates your ability to design, light and integrate cinematic imagery - ready to undertake Lighting Artist and Compositor specialist roles within the VFX industry.
NFTS graduates are in demand at leading VFX studios including Framestore and Industrial Light & Magic, as well as in the fast-growing short-form and advertising sectors, where cinematic VFX is increasingly central to storytelling and brand identity. You might find yourself crafting shots for large-scale fantasy series, creating set extensions for period dramas, or delivering high-concept visual effects for commercials and music videos for studios like Electric Theatre Collective, Selected Works or Time Based Arts.
By the end of the course, you will have developed:
- Expertise in shot design, camera layout and previsualisation
- A professional understanding of lighting and compositing workflows
- Creative control over cinematic lighting and digital storytelling
- Experience working within a professional, collaborative VFX pipeline
- Critical awareness of your own creative and professional development
- An industry-ready portfolio focused on lighting and compositing
You’ll also explore how AI-assisted tools can support lighting reference generation, look development and iteration, while maintaining artistic control and professional judgement.
Course Modules covered include:
Module 1: Foundations of Shot Conceptualisation
This foundation module introduces you to shot-based thinking for visual effects, placing lighting and compositing at the heart of cinematic storytelling. You’ll explore how light, colour, lensing and composition shape realism, mood and meaning, working directly within the VFX shot pipeline rather than asset creation. Through practical exercises using photographic plates and CG elements, you develop visual literacy, technical grounding and critical awareness that underpin all subsequent modules.
Module 2: Lighting for Integration
This module focuses on the technical and observational skills required to integrate CG seamlessly into live-action imagery. You’ll learn image-based lighting workflows, including HDR capture and analysis, and apply them to digitally recreate real-world illumination. Working across Houdini and Unreal Engine, you’ll explore light behaviour, shadow interaction and environmental consistency, culminating in a polished static composite supported by a clear breakdown of lighting methodology.
Module 3: On-Set VFX and Compositing
In this collaborative, production-focused module, you design, shoot and composite a short live-action performance into a fully digital environment. Working with actors on a green-screen stage and collaborating with Digital Worldbuilding students, you plan, light and integrate performances into CG or matte-painted worlds. The module mirrors professional on-set and post-production workflows, developing your ability to bridge physical production and digital image creation.
Module 4: Cinematic Lighting
This module explores lighting as an expressive and narrative tool. You’ll design and deliver a short multi-shot sequence that demonstrates contrast, colour, motivation and silhouette. Working across Houdini and Unreal Engine, you experiment with physically based and stylised lighting approaches, using AI-assisted tools for reference generation and look development. The project showcases your ability to communicate emotion, atmosphere and intent through light.
Module 5: Cinematic Shotcraft – From Miniature to Screen
In this major collaborative module, you lead the visual design and execution of a hybrid production combining physical miniatures and digital environments. Working with students from Model Making, Digital Worldbuilding, Composing and Sound Design, you direct lighting, shot composition and camera movement across on-set capture and digital realisation. The finished sequence reflects professional hybrid workflows and demonstrates advanced collaborative leadership.
Module 6: Master’s Portfolio
Running across all three terms, the Master’s Portfolio supports reflection, research and critical engagement with your creative practice. You’ll document and evaluate your projects through written reflections, annotated breakdowns and contextual research, exploring themes such as authorship, collaboration, AI-assisted workflows and the relationship between real and virtual cinematography. The portfolio ensures you graduate as both a skilled practitioner and a critically aware professional.
This course is right for you if you’re interested in:
- How cinematic images are designed, lit and constructed
- The relationship between real-world cinematography and digital image creation
- Lighting as both a technical and expressive storytelling tool
- Integrating live-action performance into CG and virtual environments
- Working collaboratively within professional VFX pipelines
- Specialising early as a lighting artist or compositor
You may be a recent graduate, a self-taught artist, or someone with existing industry experience looking to specialise and refine your craft. Applicants come from a wide range of backgrounds and countries, and the course is enriched by the diversity of experience within each cohort.
If you're unsure which VFX pathway is right for you, (Environments and Assets or Lighting and Compositing), we encourage you to apply for either one and we will help to guide you to the option that best suits your interests and career goals.
While many applicants will have a degree from a British or overseas university, we will consider applicants who do not have a degree if they have an impressive portfolio, a creative track record or an alternative qualification.
International students Visa and English language requirements
If you have any questions, please email info@nfts.co.uk
The following item(s) should accompany your online application:
- Please submit a showreel or a selection of still images/renders demonstrating your existing VFX skills. Select work that best represents your strengths and clearly communicates your artistry and understanding of visual effects workflows.
Applications will close at 23:59 on the day of the deadline, shown at the top of this page.
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FUNDING AVAILABLE
The NFTS awards more scholarships and bursaries to British students, relative to the size of our student body, than almost any other educational institution in the UK. If you’re successful at gaining a place on the course, you will be given further information on how to apply for one of these scholarships.
Tutors
