Jason Gilholme is Luma's Pipeline Supervisor based out of the Melbourne studio, where he oversees all of the studio’s DevOps initiatives. Prior to that, he worked at Iloura (now Framestore) for 12 years where he worked across various VFX roles before moving into Dev and Pipeline roles. At Luma, Jason works closely with the Head of Technology, Chad Dombrova, to conduct Sprint planning for the Pipeline Team, develop DevOps solutions for Luma’s multi-region cloud presence, and mentor members of the dev team through things like code reviews. 

We chatted with Jason to learn more about his background in VFX, his passion for online sim racing, and how he's helped build the DevOps team in Melbourne.

What got you into VFX & how did you get to where you are now as a Pipeline Supervisor?

I found my way into the VFX world because my dad knew someone in the industry who was willing to take a chance on a young bloke. I started doing previs on a TV show called Animalia and worked hard to learn as much as I could and get as many shots off my desk as possible!

I then worked at Iloura in Melbourne where I did anything I could to make myself useful - everything from tracking through to lighting and comp. At one point, I was doing a lot of repetitive work and figured that I could probably do this faster with code. One thing led to another and I ended up with the first version of the scene building code at Iloura! 

The next 12 years were a blur of one's and zero's before I decided that it was time to leave the nest and look for a new challenge - hello Luma! That was 3 years ago and I was lucky enough to land amongst a group of extremely talented and welcoming people who have been a great influence on me as a manager, engineer and a person.

What project are you most proud of at Luma?

It's a tie between two things: growing the Development team in Melbourne and building our 'Infrastructure as Code' foundations. The team in Melbourne is now six people and it's been great to watch them grow, take on new challenges and generally kick ass!  The WFH aspect of this has been interesting as we find ways to work well and also have a good team culture.

Infrastructure as Code allows us to spin up new services, workstations etc in the cloud by simply editing a few files.  We're approaching the point where we could spin up a presence in a new part of the world in a matter of minutes! That’s pretty wild. It required me to essentially turn myself into a DevOps engineer and learn everything from scratch to make it happen.

What excites you most about your job?

The never ending challenges and opportunities to grow. Whether it's learning new technology that we can use to do things better or faster, responding to the ever changing needs of production or simply finding ways to be more efficient and effective.

What are you most passionate about these days?

Online sim racing in iRacing.  I used to play with cars at the race track so this is the next best thing. I like it because it requires accuracy and concentration over an extended period of time to do well.

What are three things you can’t live without?

My wife, our cavoodle, and my Kayo & Stan Sport Subscriptions

Best piece of advice you’ve ever received?

I've got a quote that I believe has helped me get to where I am so far:

"We have two ears and one mouth so that we can listen twice as much as we speak" -Epictetus