Senior Crowds Technical Artist

Skydance Media is hiring a Senior Crowds Technical Artist based in Madrid. This role sits within the crowds department and is responsible for building and deploying crowd rigs, setting up agents and behaviors, and supporting production shots through the full Houdini VFX pipeline. It is a strong fit for a technically grounded artist with feature film production credits and hands-on experience solving complex crowd simulation challenges at scale.

About the Role

Working under the Crowds Supervisor and Lead, this person operates inside an established Houdini-based animation pipeline, taking ownership of crowd asset setup and shot execution across assigned sequences. Day-to-day work involves building master rigs, configuring HDAs, running simulations for bipeds, quadrupeds, and vehicles, and providing technical support to crowd animators pushing shots to final quality. The position carries a mentorship component, contributing to the professional development of junior artists across the department.

Key Responsibilities

• Set up crowd assets and HDAs within the production Houdini pipeline, testing new procedures and workflows as directed by the Crowds Lead and Supervisor.
• Create a range of crowd agents covering bipeds, quadrupeds, and vehicles, built for efficient simulation performance in a feature film production environment.
• Execute crowd behaviors on assigned shots, maintaining the highest technical and artistic standards through to final delivery.
• Troubleshoot pipeline issues and resolve shot-specific technical problems independently, without escalating every fix up the supervision chain.
• Provide hands-on guidance and instruction to crowd animators, supporting their growth in both craft and production workflow.
• Feed notes and findings back to department TDs to drive continued development of crowd tools and animation pipeline processes.

What You Bring

• 5 or more years of experience in VFX or animation industries, with at least 3 years spent in animation production specifically.
• Expert-level knowledge of the Houdini Crowd system, with solid working knowledge of Maya in a production context.
• Experience with procedural rendering in RenderMan.
• Credits on crowd work for animated feature films, with a deep understanding of the full CG pipeline from assets through to lighting.
• High English proficiency required, with Spanish considered a strong asset for day-to-day studio communication in Madrid.

Why This Role

Skydance Media has built a production slate that spans animated features and live-action VFX-heavy projects, giving artists genuine breadth of experience across production types. The Madrid studio operates as a serious animation production hub, not a satellite office, with real pipeline ownership and creative investment at the local level. For a Senior Crowds Technical Artist looking to work on ambitious feature film production with a team that takes the craft seriously, this is a substantive next step.

Apply now for the Senior Crowds Technical Artist position at Skydance Media and bring your crowd simulation work to feature film scale.