Crowd Td

**POSITION PURPOSE**

The MID Crowd TD is responsible for the creation and support of high quality crowd performances for film and high-end television.

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 during busy periods and deliveries maintaining 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..), using SideFX Houdini / Maya Atoms Crowd. Experience using any other commercial or proprietary crowd solution is also beneficial
- Taking ownership of the complete crowd lifecycle (from layout/previz to rendering/comp) including integration into specific department workflows (FX, CFX etc...).
- 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 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.
- Work with Lead to set up crowd effects using the most appropriate techniques as per show requirements, running key shots and 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**
- 2+ 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**
- Excellent working knowledge of Houdini.
- Working knowledge of Maya is a big plus.
- Experience using Atoms Crowd is a big plus.
- Experience in scripting with Python, Vex is a plus.
- 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 teach new techniques and promote new approaches to push performance to the next level.
- Excellent time management and communication skills.