Simulating Crowds with Golaem & Maya

Production-Ready Workflow using Golaem, Maya & Unreal Engine with Wilfried Lhomme

This 5-hour workshop presents a complete, production-ready crowd simulation workflow using Golaem, Maya, and Unreal Engine, designed for high-end cinematic and film projects. Taught by Wilfried Lhomme, a Senior Crowd TD at DNEG, the techniques demonstrated are based on pre-production practices used in feature films and AAA cinematics.

Wilfried begins in Maya with Golaem, building a strong foundation for crowds, including agent creation, animation assignment, motion paths, triggers, transitions, and optimization strategies tailored for complex shots. The focus remains on creating clean, reliable setups that are easy to iterate on in production. The workflow then continues in Unreal Engine 5, covering cache export, scale and timing validation, and best practices for integrating crowds into a cinematic scene. Artists will also explore how to use Sequencer, camera blocking, lighting, and post-processing to achieve movie-quality results while maintaining strong performance. 

This workshop is designed for both artists who have never worked with crowds before and those with prior crowd experience who want to strengthen, refine, or professionalize their workflow for production.

Assets from the Lost City by Big Medium Small Studio are used in this workshop; however, they are not required to follow along. Artists can work with any other assets or simple proxies to follow along with the techniques showcased.