Studio: Animal Logic
Job Opening: Crowd Lead Artist
Location: Sydney, Australia
Type: Full-Time
Responsibilities:
- Understand the overall brief and goals of a project and communicate this clearly to each member of the team
- Lead and foster a collaborative team under guidance from the FX/Crowd Department Supervisor and production team; mentor less experienced artists
- Provide solutions to creative briefs through existing tools & processes
- Setup crowd assets and HDAs within the existing Houdini pipeline, and help pioneer new workflows
- Work with Animation teams to make sure the department has the desired performance cycles to produce believable results.
- Work closely with FX/Crowd Department Supervisor to implement efficient and effective ways to bring life to cities and sets
- Work with R&D and Department TDs to enhance tools and Pipeline
Prioritize and break down a project into organized parts; delegate work responsibly to ensure successful completion of shots across team members of all skill levels - Support and nurture open communication between the crowd and all other AL departments.
- Ensure conflict is identified early and work with Artist Management to put constructive solutions in place to resolve/diffuse
- Communicate production information to both the artists group and Production Management
- Participate in brainstorming and problem-solving to create and maintain production pipeline(s) and support AL’s overall technical goals as required
- Work with the FX Supervisor and the production team to prepare bids, pitches and reviews
- Build templates that have an emphasis on efficiency and automation
Qualifications & Skills:
- 5+ years of Houdini experience on feature films, TV and/or animated feature, with a focus in Houdini Crowds
- 2+ years’ experience leading teams on feature film projects
- Past experience, demonstrated via reel, of feature animation crowd and effects simulation
- Strong understanding of Houdini crowd agent design & setup
- Production experience using Houdini: SOPs/DOPs essential
- Production experience using Houdini: Vex and Python knowledge desirable
- Experience building Houdini digital assets
- Solid understanding of motion and principles of rigging and animation
- Good understanding of crowd shading and rendering procedurals
- Attention to design and artistic detail
- Excellence in problem solving and balancing quick turnaround with long term quality and ability to meet deadlines with high quality output
- Strong written and verbal English language skills
- Strong communication and interpersonal skills, and the ability to efficiently organise and prioritise work across multiple areas, and work under pressure
- Ability to take direction and feedback and apply this to assets or shots moving forward; anticipating the supervisors and leads preference
