Crowd Lead - Houdini (TV Featurette)

Bardel Entertainment; Montreal (administrative region); Hybrid; CAD 86,450 - 95,550; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Flexible work environment

Extended health and wellness coverage

RRSP matching

Job summary

Bardel Entertainment in Montreal is seeking a Crowd Lead to oversee the creation and management of complex crowd simulations using Houdini. The role requires previous experience in feature animation or VFX, strong understanding of crowd behavior, and leadership skills. You will guide teams, collaborate across departments, and address simulation challenges, ensuring high-quality outcomes. The position offers a flexible work environment with competitive pay, alongside benefits including health coverage and RRSP matching.

Qualifications

• Previous experience as a Crowd Lead or Supervisor in relevant productions.
• Extensive experience with Houdini Crowd and related tools.
• Experience leading small teams with technical direction.

Responsibilities

• Lead crowd simulations and ensure visual continuity.
• Collaborate with multiple departments to meet artistic vision.
• Mentor and provide support to crowd artists.

Skills

Strong understanding of animation principles

Advanced proficiency in node-based procedural workflows

Solid understanding of simulation and caching

Excellent communication and leadership skills

Scripting abilities (Python, VEX)

Tools

Houdini

Maya

ShotGrid

Job description

What You'll Do

• Lead the creation, population, and management of complex crowd simulations using Houdini.
• Define the overall approach for crowd behaviour, agent systems, and shot execution across the show.
• Guide the development, optimisation, and maintenance of agent libraries, including animation clips, behaviour logic, and visual diversity.
• Oversee the design and implementation of believable background character performances that support story, staging, and composition.
• Ensure procedural animation techniques, motion cycles, and agent variation are utilised effectively for realism and efficiency.
• Review crowd setups at both individual shot and sequence levels to maintain visual continuity and technical consistency.
• Troubleshoot advanced simulation challenges — agent navigation, avoidance, pathing, behaviour trees, and blending issues.
• Work closely with Lighting and FX to ensure crowd elements render correctly, meet quality standards, and integrate seamlessly into final frames.
• Identify workflow bottlenecks and propose pipeline and tool improvements for better performance and scalability.

Collaboration & Workflow

• Partner with Animation, Layout, CFX, Lighting, and FX to ensure crowd elements support artistic vision and meet technical requirements.
• Attend and lead crowd‑specific reviews, dailies, and planning meetings to align with creative direction and production priorities.
• Collaborate with the CG Supervisor and Production to forecast complexity, schedule needs, and resource planning for crowd‑heavy sequences.
• Work closely with Pipeline/TD teams to build or refine crowd tools, behaviours, debug utilities, and agent libraries.
• Provide mentorship, guidance, and technical support to crowd artists of all levels.
• Document workflows, maintain department standards, and ensure consistent naming, organisation, and caching practices across the team.

Time Management & Communication

• Prioritise tasks for the crowd team and ensure timely delivery of high‑quality assets and simulations across multiple sequences.
• Communicate clearly with Production about progress, issues, dependencies, and any risks to delivery.
• Adapt to evolving creative notes and balance iteration speed with long‑term technical stability.
• Prepare organised scenes, readable networks, and clean handoffs for downstream departments.
• Facilitate efficient troubleshooting and maintain a calm, solution‑oriented approach during production peaks.

What You'll Bring

Experience

• Previous experience as a Crowd Lead or Supervisor in feature animation, TV, VFX, or real‑time productions.
• Extensive experience with Houdini Crowd and familiarity with tools such as Golaem, Massive, or proprietary systems.
• Experience leading small teams and providing feedback, task scoping, and technical direction.

Skills & Communication

• Strong understanding of animation principles, crowd behaviour, motion editing, and scene choreography.
• Advanced proficiency in node‑based procedural workflows.
• Solid understanding of simulation, caching, optimisation, and shot performance tuning.
• Experience with rendering workflows and troubleshooting render‑related crowd issues.
• Excellent communication and leadership skills; able to mentor, guide, and collaborate effectively across departments.
• Experience with Maya, ShotGrid, and pipeline collaboration tools is a plus.
• Scripting abilities (Python, VEX) are a strong asset for automating workflows and building tools.

Portfolio Requirements

• Demonstrate large‑scale or complex agent interactions.
• Show use of Houdini with shot breakdowns.
• Provide clear examples of behaviour logic, motion variation, clipping/cycle usage, and agent diversity.
• Include shots showing integration with environments, lighting, layout, and FX.
• Present problem‑solving examples, technical notes, or tool‑building contributions.
• Showcase any team‑lead responsibilities, such as direction and review notes or pipeline improvements.

Benefits

Pay Range: $1,900 - $2,100 CAD per week

Flexible work environment, extended health and wellness coverage from day 1, and RRSP matching are among the benefits. For more details, visit our website.