Crowd TD - Senior

Position: Crowd TD - Senior

Hiring Range: $111,800 to $123,500/year for a 40 hour work week

Project Contract: TBC

Company Benefits: Extended healthcare from day 1, premiums 100% covered by Image Engine, up to 8 paid Health and Wellness days per year.

*Candidates are required to be based in British Columbia and eligible to work in Canada*

ABOUT IMAGE ENGINE

Image Engine is a world-class VFX studio based in Vancouver, BC, that has built a reputation for excellence in the visual effects industry since 1995. We specialize in crafting stunning visual effects for feature films and television with an award-winning portfolio that includes Skeleton Crew, The Book of Boba Fett, The Mandalorian, Game of Thrones, Lost in Space, Jurassic World, and District 9.

We offer a full range of visual effects services, from concept designs and pre-visualization to CG animation, compositing, and explosive volumetric digital effects. Our crew is passionate about storytelling and pushing the artistic and technical boundaries to deliver the highest quality work on every project. R&D is central to our philosophy of driving creativity through innovation and we're committed to continually evolving our robust production pipelines.

At Image Engine, we value diversity and teamwork, and we're proud to foster a workplace culture that is supportive, respectful, and empowering. We believe that our success is a reflection of our exceptionally talented team, and we're always looking for passionate and dedicated individuals to join us on our mission to create unforgettable visual experiences. Join our team and be part of something extraordinary.

POSITION PURPOSE

The Senior Crowd TD is responsible for the creation and support of high quality crowd performances for film and high-end television. They act as the liaison between asset and shot departments for crowd work and act as an ambassador for technical and creative requirements.

In addition, the Senior Crowd TD will take the initiative to identify gaps or critical issues before they arise and help us develop tools and technical solutions to increase creative ability. When not assigned to a particular show, they will actively improve crowd related workflows or support any other department at the periphery. They will maintain a positive attitude in times of high stress and will maintain the motivation levels.

DUTIES & RESPONSIBILITIES

● Creating small and large scale crowds for feature film / animation utilizing a variety of commercial and proprietary tools, utilizing a variety of techniques (crowd simulation, crowd layout, particle instancing etc), ideally using SideFx Houdini / Maya Atoms Crowd but experience using any other commercial or proprietary crowd solution is beneficial.
● Taking ownership of the complete crowd lifecycle (from layout/previz to rendering/comp) including integration into specific dept. workflows (fx, cfx etc), briefing and advising all source depts. on crowd requirements.
● Assist artists with any technical assistance they may require including, but not limited to, troubleshooting and debugging any day-to-day production shot issues that may arise around crowd work
● Collaborating with the Dev and Digital Workflow supervision for the purpose of the continued integration of crowds into the production pipeline.
● Proactively prototyping and testing shot pipelines and demonstrating crowd FX to build confidence with creative leadership.
● Coach/train Layout,Animation or FX team-members on existing and new crowd setup tools
● Bidding crowd shot- as well as associated setup and asset work.
● Setting up crowd effects using the most appropriate techniques as per show requirements, running key shots as well as leading artists in fulfilling shot direction. Qc-ing the technical and creative quality of incoming and outgoing assets.
● Working with all required parties to solve any technical and creative crowd related challenges to their best ability.

EDUCATION AND EXPERIENCE

● 4+ years’ of experience developing crowd setups in VFX feature films, highend-tv or animation
● A degree or equivalent in Computer Graphics, Computer Science or other related course

SKILLS AND ABILITIES

Technical skills

● Expert level Generalist knowledge of Maya
● Working knowledge of Houdini is a big plus
● Experience using Atoms Crowd is a big plus
● Expert level in scripting with Python, Vex…
● Strong understanding of crowd workflows
● Ability to animate character/non-character assets is a plus

Core skills
● Ability to troubleshoot and deal with competing priorities and projects
● Excellent problem solver who can focus on details while maintaining a view of the whole picture
● Ability to adapt quickly to new technologies and applications in the context of a custom feature film production pipeline
● Ability to teach new techniques and promote new approaches to push performance to the next level
● Excellent time management and communication skills