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Digital Frontier FX, Inc. · 6 hours ago

Houdini Crowd Artist

Los Angeles, CA

Contract

Hybrid

Mid Level

3+ years exp

Digital Frontier FX (DFFX) is hiring a highly motivated Houdini Crowd Artist for a short-term project. The role involves designing and executing crowd simulations in Houdini, managing crowd agents, and collaborating with the team to deliver production-ready shots.

3D TechnologyAnimationMedia and Entertainment

Hiring Manager

Jaimie Lee Finnerty

Responsibilities

Design, build, and execute Houdini-based crowd simulations to support story-driven shots

Create and manage crowd agents, tools, pipelines, and workflows specifically within Houdini

Deliver production-ready crowd shots while meeting daily quotas and schedules

Collaborate closely with supervisors, production, and fellow artists to solve creative and technical challenges

Participate in dailies, reviews, and team discussions (remote and/or in person)

Take shot turnovers, notes, and feedback and carry them through to final delivery

Qualification

Houdini crowd simulationsCrowd workflowsParticle simulationsVEX / VOPs fundamentalsRender optimizationBasic Nuke usageProgramming experienceData flow understandingCreative problem solvingTeam collaboration

Required

A bachelor's degree in computer science, or a diploma/certificate from a recognized animation or VFX school, or 3–4 years of relevant feature film or VFX experience

Strong, hands-on experience building and delivering crowd simulations in Houdini

Proven ability to design interaction behaviors for multiple agent types

Solid understanding of animation principles and how individual motion contributes to believable group behavior

Experience creating varied, natural performances using procedural and clip-driven approaches

A creative problem solver who's comfortable tackling both artistic and technical challenges

Candidates must be comfortable working in Houdini for crowds on a daily basis, including: Houdini crowd workflows (agents, states, behaviors, and simulation)

Particle simulations

VEX / VOPs fundamentals and attribute-driven workflows

Introductory FLIP, Pyro, and RBD/destruction

OTL / HDA fundamentals

Render optimization

Basic Nuke usage

Preferred

Programming experience (VEX, Python, shell scripting)

Strong understanding of data flow through a modern VFX pipeline

Company

Digital Frontier FX, Inc.

Life partners Chad and Jaimie Finnerty, formed Digital Frontier FX in 2013 with the goal to find a solution to the ever shrinking visual effects job market in Los Angeles.

Founded in 2013

Marina Del Rey, California, USA

11-50 employees