In this session, Erik Östsjö and Björn Arvidsson take you through the development journey of Embark Studios character pipeline. They discuss leveraging Houdini and USD as the core of their workflows. How it allows them the flexibility of having technical and art focused team members to work in the same shared space. The presenters explore having a procedural mentality, showing concrete examples of working within a range from manual to automated. Using USD in combination with Houdini's PDG and Solaris contexts in order to maximize artistic freedom while minimizing repetitive work. Enabling Embark to support their games Arc Raiders and The Finals, each with varying needs, continuously exploring new solutions in live production.