Rodeo FX is seeking a highly motivated and technically curious Junior Crowd Artist to join our world-class 3D division in Montreal, QC. This Full-Time, Temporary Contract position is specifically designed for emerging talent looking to build a definitive career footprint in high-end visual effects (VFX), global advertising, and feature animation.
In this role, you will work at the intersection of technical infrastructure and creative artistry, designing and executing dynamic simulation systems to generate believable, varied, and spatially aware crowds. Collaborating closely with Layout, Animation, Rigging, Lighting, and Compositing teams, your work will directly contribute to the epic scale and realism of major projects for clients like Netflix, HBO, Disney, and Marvel.
As a Junior Crowd Artist, you will not work in isolation. You will be actively integrated into a multidisciplinary pipeline, receiving mentorship from senior technical directors while collaborating directly with Layout, Animation, Rigging, Lighting, and Compositing departments. Your day-to-day contributions will directly govern the epic scale, spatial depth, and baseline realism of high-profile projects for major studios like Netflix, Disney, Marvel, and HBO.
Rodeo FX Job Overview : Crowd Artist
| Component | Specification |
| Company | Rodeo FX |
| Location | Montreal, QC, Canada (On-site / Hybrid framework) |
| Job Type | Full-Time, Temporary Contract |
| Department | 3D Simulation & Pipeline Integration |
| Estimated Salary Range | $24.00 – $34.00 CAD / Hour ($50,000 – $70,720 CAD / Year pro-rated) |
| Work Authorization | Must be legally authorized to work in Canada (No sponsorship provided) |
Comprehensive Core Responsibilities
The responsibilities of a Junior Crowd Artist at Rodeo FX span across distinct functional pillars: technical execution, creative contribution, pipeline discipline, and collaborative communication.
Technical Execution & Asset Conversion
- Agent Preparation and Ingestion: Convert standard character rigs, meshes, and animation clips into optimized crowd agents. You will learn to navigate the constraints of our internal pipeline, ensuring that skeleton hierarchies, blendshapes, and texture variants transfer flawlessly without breaking downstream departments.
- Simulation System Configuration: Initialize and configure logic-driven simulation networks to generate varied, non-penetrating, and spatially aware crowds. This involves setting up state machines, behavioral rules, and terrain adaptation parameters.
- Shot-Specific Execution: Import crowd assets into active shots according to specific artistic briefs. You will run localized simulations, adjust spatial density, manage seeding nodes, and manually tweak parameters to align with the camera’s perspective, focal length, and movement patterns.
- Optimization and Cache Management: Audit and optimize crowd rigs, behavioral systems, and point caches. Junior artists must minimize file sizes and processing overhead to ensure scene stability, faster render times, and smooth data handoffs to the lighting and compositing teams.
Creative Quality & Artistic Alignment
- Behavioral Variety and Rhythm: Propose creative variations in crowd behavior, avoiding uniform or mechanical movements. You will ensure cycles (such as walking, running, idling, or reacting) are blended smoothly to eliminate repetitive visual artifacts.
- Compositional Synchronization: Collaborate closely with Layout and Animation leads to ensure that simulated crowds complement the primary hero animation, respecting established paths, spatial framing, and the overall pacing of the sequence.
- Feedback Integration: Receive guidance and constructive notes from Crowd Leads and VFX Supervisors. You must process this feedback quickly and adjust simulation runs with precision.
- Details and Continuity: Maintain a meticulous eye for detail, checking for common simulation bugs such as floating feet, missing collision volumes, interpenetrating geometry, and unnatural slide-stepping.
Pipeline Engineering & Quality Control
- Rigorous QC Testing: Execute comprehensive quality control (QC) checks on simulated data prior to committing caches to the pipeline. This ensures that downstream departments receive clean, error-free files.
- Collision and Behavioral Debugging: Identify and isolate errors in agent behavior, navigation paths, or physics interactions. You will collaborate with upstream departments like Rigging to fix skeletal anomalies affecting crowd logic.
- Workflow Optimization: Work alongside Technical Directors (TDs) to test and refine internal scripts, shelves, and tools. You will help update departmental documentation, making workflows easier for the entire team to navigate.
Professional Communication & Professional Development
- Production Transparency: Provide production coordinators with realistic time estimates for tasks. You are expected to flag technical risks or potential delays early, keeping communication clear and transparent.
- Cross-Department Collaboration: Participate actively in sequence turnovers, department briefs, and production dailies. You should present your work clearly and maintain an open, collaborative mindset.
- Continuous Skill Acquisition: Actively research and adopt new industry-standard procedural workflows, crowd engines, and automation methodologies to help push the department’s capabilities forward.
Candidate Qualifications & Skill Matrices
We structure our candidate evaluations into “Required Core Competencies” (the essential foundations needed for a successful start) and “Desirable Technical Enhancements” (skills that accelerate your onboarding and project contributions).
Required Core Competencies (Minimum Qualifications)
- Academic Foundations or Equivalent Portfolio: A Bachelor’s degree, technical diploma, or equivalent professional certificate in Visual Effects, 3D Animation, Computer Graphics, or a closely related technical field. A compelling portfolio or student showreel demonstrating basic 3D fundamentals is highly valued.
- Core 3D Software Familiarity: Foundational proficiency within Autodesk Maya. Candidates must understand basic 3D transform logic, scene hierarchy structures, simple keyframe animation, and fundamental rigging structures.
- Baseline Simulation Concepts: A clear understanding of simulation principles, such as particle systems, rigid-body dynamics, or velocity vectors.
- Operational Discipline: Strong organization and time management skills. You should feel comfortable working with structured naming conventions, complex asset trees, and multi-layered step structures.
- Communication and Collaboration: Strong verbal and written communication skills. You should be proactive about asking questions, taking direction well, and collaborating productively within a large team environment.
Desirable Technical Enhancements (Nice-to-Have Skills)
[Crowd Software]
- Houdini Crowd Tech
- Golaem Simulation
[Pipeline Scripting]
- Python / VEX / MEL
- Automation Scripts
[Production Tracking]
- Flow Production Track
- ShotGrid Environments
- Specialized Crowd Toolkit Exposure: Prior exposure to specialized crowd engines, such as SideFX Houdini’s crowd context or Golaem Crowd within Maya, is a strong asset.
- Scripting and Automation Capabilities: Basic programming proficiency in Python, VEX (Houdini), or MEL (Maya) to write basic automation or batch processing scripts.
- Asset Tracking Ecosystems: Prior experience using Flow Production Tracking (formerly ShotGrid) or similar production tracking systems to manage tasks and publish files.
- Project History: Showcase any student, personal, or internship projects that highlight crowd simulation work, procedural setups, or complex animation loops.
Regulatory Compliance, Work Authorization, & Location Policies
Rodeo FX strictly complies with provincial and federal labor laws in Canada. Candidates must meet all legal requirements to work in Canada at the time of application.
Geographical Proximity Requirements
- Montreal Residency: This position is exclusively open to candidates who currently reside within the greater Montreal metropolitan area, or those who will be fully relocated by the contract’s start date.
- Legal Working Status: Candidates must hold valid authorization to work in Canada. This includes Canadian citizenship, Permanent Residency (PR), or a valid Open Work Permit. Rodeo FX cannot provide sponsorship or LMIA pathways for this temporary contract.
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Statement
Diversity is central to Rodeo FX’s creative culture. We are committed to building an inclusive, equitable work environment where different perspectives are welcomed and valued. We evaluate all qualified applicants without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, or other protected characteristics.
Recruitment Privacy Notice & AI Infrastructure Acknowledgement
Rodeo FX uses modern, AI-assisted tools during our recruitment process for tasks like automated interview transcription and preliminary resume screening. These tools are provided by trusted third-party partners and may store or process data securely outside the province of Quebec. These automated systems are strictly supportive; all final evaluation and hiring decisions are made entirely by our human recruitment team and hiring managers. For more information on how we handle your data, please review our public Privacy Policy.
About Rodeo FX: Studio Culture & Legacy
Founded in Montreal, Rodeo FX has grown into an independent, Oscar®-winning creative studio with nearly 900 artists working across locations in Montreal, Quebec City, Toronto, Los Angeles, and Paris. We act as a trusted creative partner to major global storytellers, collaborating with studios like Netflix, HBO, Disney, Marvel, Amazon Studios, Warner Bros., and Sony.
Our team has been recognized with multiple Emmy® and VES award nominations for our contributions to major projects, including Stranger Things Season 4, The Witcher Season 2, The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, and Love, Death and Robots. Named one of Montreal’s Top Employers and recognized at the Mercuriades Awards, Rodeo FX provides a collaborative, supportive environment designed to help junior artists learn, develop, and build long-term careers in the industry.
