Senior CGI Generalist – Automotive & Product

TheLab•New York, NY

15h•$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 on advertising campaigns across automotive, beverage, and other consumer product categories, combining traditional CGI with generative AI. The Senior CGI Generalist will join the New York team to create photorealistic imagery and animation for automotive and product advertising, with particular experience in beverage visualization. The role covers projects from the initial brief through modeling, look development, lighting, rendering, compositing, and final delivery. The artist will create polished commercial imagery, including accurate product packaging and convincing glass, aluminum, liquid, ice, condensation, and dynamic effects, while exploring ways traditional CGI and generative AI can work together. This is a hybrid role based in Manhattan, NYC, with three days per week in the office and two days working remotely. The salary is $120,000–$135,000 per year, commensurate with experience.

Requirements

At least 5 years of professional experience in commercial CGI, 3D animation, advertising, or post-production.
A portfolio demonstrating both automotive CGI 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 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, with the ability to take ownership of projects from brief through final delivery.
Excellent communication and collaboration skills.
Applications must include a portfolio or demo reel to be considered.

Nice To Haves

Experience with fluid simulation tools such as Houdini or Phoenix FD.
Experience with procedural condensation, liquid effects, and reusable product setups.
Familiarity with EXR, multi-pass rendering, and advanced compositing.
Knowledge of USD, procedural workflows, and production pipeline automation.
Experience with AI-assisted image generation, image-to-image workflows, and generative video.

Responsibilities

Create photorealistic vehicle imagery and animation, including materials, reflections, lighting, environments, and integration into photographic backgrounds.
Produce high-end commercial imagery for beverage brands, including bottles, cans, packaging, glassware, and other product assets.
Develop shaders and materials for automotive finishes, glass, aluminum, plastics, liquids, ice, and other surfaces.
Develop studio and environmental lighting setups that produce convincing materials, reflections, refractions, and photorealistic detail.
Create or integrate liquid pours, splashes, condensation, droplets, foam, carbonation, and other effects as required by the creative 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 to improve creative flexibility and production efficiency.
Collaborate with art directors, producers, retouchers, and other artists to translate briefs into finished work.