Crowd Artist - Senior

Company Description

Repeatedly voted one of Montreal’s Top Employers and Employer of the Year for the 2022 Mercuriades Awards, Rodeo FX is a high-end creative company offering services in visual effects, advertising, animation, and experiential.

Nominated for multiple Emmy® Awards for its work on the series Stranger Things season 4, The Witcher season 2, and The Lord of The Rings: The Rings of Power season 1, the independent, Oscar®-winning company boasts close to 900 artists crafting from studios in Montreal, Québec City, Toronto, Los Angeles and Paris.

Rodeo FX is a creative partner to the world’s best storytellers including Netflix, HBO, Disney, Marvel, Amazon Studios, Warner Bros., and Sony, and has collaborated on ads for YouTube, NBC, and Apple. Current projects include Blue Beetle, Monarch: Legacy of Monsters, and Zack Snyder's Rebel Moon. Recently released projects include John Wick: Chapter 4, Black Adam, Disney's The Little Mermaid, and Love, Death and Robots Volume 3, for which the company won a 2023 VES award.

The Crowd Simulation Artist designs and executes dynamic simulation systems to generate credible, varied, and visually consistent crowds for project requirements. They are involved in various production stages, from asset creation to their integration into shots, working closely with supervision, layout, animation, lighting, and compositing teams. Their rigorous and inventive work directly contributes to the scale and realism of scenes, while respecting technical constraints and delivery deadlines.

Key Responsibilities:

Master your craft

• Convert assets into crowd agents with all inherent pipeline, project, and software constraints.
• Create and configure simulation systems to generate credible, varied, and dynamic crowds.
• Execute simulations in shots according to received briefs, adjusting parameters based on scene context.
• Adapt working methods to the complexity of the shot, project style, and technical constraints.
• Maintain complete autonomy in organizing and executing assigned tasks.

Creative Quality

• Propose inventive approaches to enrich crowd behaviors, cycles, and diversity.
• Collaborate with animation, layout, and lighting artists to ensure artistic consistency of the scene.
• Integrate feedback from supervision with openness and precision.
• Maintain a constant attention to detail, realism, and visual rhythm.

Technical Quality

• Optimize rigs, agents, simulation systems, and caches to ensure performance and stability.
• Quickly detect errors in behavior, collisions, or inconsistent interactions.
• Collaborate with other departments to help resolve issues around crowd cache inputs and outputs.
• Perform rigorous quality controls before shot delivery.
• Contribute to the improvement of internal department tools and workflows.

Communication

• Provide realistic estimates, communicate quickly in case of difficulty or risk of delay, and collaborate with production to adjust priorities if necessary.
• Ensure fluid communication with supervision, production, and other departments.
• Share critical information on progress, technical challenges, or anticipated deadlines.
• Participate in turnovers, briefings, and reviews with clarity and a collaborative spirit.

Teach, learn and grow

• Update knowledge on crowd simulation tools and new procedural approaches.
• Share learnings, useful scripts, or techniques with colleagues.
• Contribute to method documentation or internal tool development if required.
• Participate in the continuous improvement of the department by remaining curious, rigorous, and engaged.

Qualifications

• Experience in crowd simulation in a VFX environment (8 years minimum recommended).
• Proficiency in crowd simulation software (Houdini Crowd, Golaem).
• Excellent knowledge of Maya, basic rigging, and cycle animation.
• Good understanding of CG pipelines and inter-departmental challenges.
• Rigorous, autonomous, detail-oriented, team player.
• Assets: knowledge of Flow Production Tracking, Python, MEL, VEX scripting, custom behavior development.

Additional Information

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion

At Rodeo FX, diversity is a core value. We’re committed to creating an inclusive, equitable workplace where different perspectives are embraced. Every team member brings unique insight that strengthens our creativity, challenges our thinking, and helps us deliver better work.

Use of Artificial Intelligence in Recruitment

Rodeo FX may use AI-based tools to support certain steps of the recruitment process, such as interview transcription or preliminary application analysis. These tools may be operated by third-party providers, and data may be processed outside Quebec. These tools never replace human decision-making: all final hiring decisions are made by our recruitment team and hiring managers. To learn more about how we protect your personal information and your rights, please consult our Privacy Policy.

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