Senior CGI Generalist – Beverage & Product

TheLab•New York, NY

8d•$120,000 - $135,000•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 in a 3ds Max and Houdini production pipeline. The role creates photorealistic imagery and animation for beverage brands, taking projects from initial brief through modeling, look development, simulation, lighting, rendering, and compositing. The work includes premium beverage packaging, glass, aluminum, liquids, ice, condensation, and dynamic splashes. The artist will build, shade, and render product scenes in 3ds Max and create pours, splashes, and other liquid effects in Houdini, while delivering polished, commercially compelling imagery and exploring hybrid CGI and generative AI workflows. This is a hybrid role based in Manhattan, New York City, with three days per week in the office and two days working remotely. Applicants must submit a resume and a portfolio or demo reel featuring beverage and product visualization; examples of Houdini liquid or FX work and hybrid AI/CGI projects should also be included.

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.
Submit a resume and a portfolio or demo reel; applications must include a portfolio or demo reel to be considered.

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, including Alembic, VDB, and 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 required by the brief.
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 that 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.