Senior CGI Generalist – Beverage & Product

TheLab•New York, NY

7d•Hybrid

About The Position

Dippin’ Sauce is a creative production studio specializing in high-end visual storytelling across CGI, retouching, and emerging AI-driven workflows. The studio partners with leading brands and agencies to create visual content for advertising campaigns, combining traditional CGI with generative AI. The Senior CGI Generalist will join the New York team and work within a 3ds Max and Houdini pipeline to create photorealistic beverage and product imagery and animation. The role covers projects from the initial brief through modeling, look development, simulation, lighting, rendering, compositing, and final delivery. It requires strong beverage and product visualization experience, including packaging, glass, aluminum, liquid, ice, condensation, and dynamic splashes. The position combines building, shading, and rendering product scenes in 3ds Max with creating liquid and procedural effects in Houdini. The artist will also explore ways to combine traditional CGI with generative AI for creative possibilities and more efficient workflows. The work arrangement is hybrid, with three days per week in the Manhattan office and two days working remotely.

Requirements

At least 5 years of professional experience in commercial CGI, 3D animation, advertising, or post-production.
A strong portfolio demonstrating beverage and product visualization.
Professional experience working on beverage brand accounts or beverage advertising campaigns.
Strong working knowledge of 3ds Max and Houdini.
Experience with V-Ray and production rendering workflows.
Excellent understanding of lighting, shading, materials, reflections, and photorealism.
Experience creating high-end product imagery and understanding of the visual requirements of beverage packaging and liquid.
Hands-on experience with generative AI tools and genuine interest in developing hybrid AI/CGI workflows.
Strong artistic judgment and attention to detail.
Excellent communication and collaboration skills.
Applicants must submit a portfolio or demo reel showcasing beverage and product visualization; examples of Houdini liquid or FX work and hybrid AI/CGI projects are requested.

Nice To Haves

Advanced Houdini FX experience, including FLIP fluids, whitewater, and particle-based effects such as bubbles and carbonation; Phoenix FD is a plus.
Experience with procedural condensation, liquid effects, and reusable product setups.
Familiarity with EXR, multi-pass rendering, and advanced compositing.
Experience moving data between 3ds Max and Houdini using Alembic, VDB, or Houdini Engine.
Knowledge of USD, Houdini Digital Assets, and production pipeline automation.
Experience with AI-assisted image generation, image-to-image workflows, and generative video.

Responsibilities

Work across the 3ds Max and Houdini pipeline, building and rendering scenes in 3ds Max with V-Ray and using Houdini for liquid simulation and procedural effects; move caches and assets between the applications.
Produce high-end commercial imagery for beverage brands, including bottles, cans, packaging, glassware, and other product assets.
Build sophisticated shaders and materials for glass, aluminum, printed labels and foils, plastics, liquids, ice, and other surfaces.
Develop studio and tabletop lighting setups with convincing reflections, refractions, and photorealistic detail.
Create liquid pours, splashes, condensation, droplets, foam, carbonation, and ice in Houdini, and bring them into 3ds Max for lighting and rendering as needed.
Build and prepare production-ready 3D assets, attending to geometry, product details, label placement, and material accuracy.
Use multi-pass renders and compositing workflows to deliver seamless, color-accurate final imagery and animation.
Combine traditional 3D techniques with generative AI tools for image creation, editing, compositing, and video production.
Explore procedural techniques, reusable assets, and emerging tools to improve creative flexibility and production efficiency.
Collaborate with art directors, producers, retouchers, and fellow artists to translate briefs into finished work.
Take ownership of projects from brief through final delivery.