Crowd Simulation Supervisor

Location: Montreal

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 You Tube, 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.

Job Description
The Crowd Simulation Supervisor is responsible for the artistic and technical quality of crowds generated on a project. They supervise Crowd artists, define work methods, ensure the visual consistency of simulations, and ensure their proper integration into the production pipeline. In collaboration with the CG, animation, layout, compositing, and production teams, they develop effective solutions to meet creative requirements while respecting time, budget, and performance constraints.

Key Responsibilities:

Creative Quality

Translate narrative and visual intentions into credible and legible on-screen behaviors.

Collaborate with CG, animation, and layout supervision to ensure fluid artistic continuity.

Validate delivered simulations while maintaining a high standard of visual quality.

Propose creative approaches to enrich the diversity, dynamics, and impact of crowds.

Technical Quality

Define appropriate simulation methods (Houdini Crowd, Golaem, Maya) based on project needs.

Quickly identify and resolve technical issues related to rigs, agents, cycles, or caches.

Ensure the optimization and stability of crowd systems, while respecting pipeline constraints.

Participate in the development, validation, and documentation of the tools used.

Leadership & Communication

Supervise the Crowd artist team with clarity, kindness, and high standards.

Lead Crowd dailies, briefings, and follow-ups with production.

Act as a point of contact between artists, supervision, and other departments.

Intervene quickly and calmly to resolve creative or human issues.

Project Management

Evaluate Crowd resource needs at the start of the project.

Contribute to planning, task estimation, and artist casting.

Closely monitor progress, obstacles, and required adjustments.

Ensure deadlines are met and Crowd deliverables are delivered smoothly.

Workflow Strategies

Implement effective and replicable work methods at the project level.

Optimize internal processes to reduce simulation times and back-and-forth.

Propose technical or methodological innovations as per project needs.

Contribute to the consistency of Crowd department practices across different shows.

Qualifications

Minimum of 10years of experience in a VFX environment, including significant experience in crowd simulation.

Advanced proficiency in crowd simulation software (Houdini Crowd, Golaem) and Maya.

Good understanding of rigging, procedural animation, and movement cycles.

Knowledge of Flow Production Tracking and key steps of the CG/VFX pipeline.

Ability to supervise, plan, and deliver in demanding contexts.

Structured leadership, developed artistic sense, fluid communication.

Assets:
Python or MEL scripting, internal tool development, participation in industry conferences or…