Visual Effects Supervisors
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- Visual Effects
Stuart Robertson is known for What Dreams May Come (1998), Mortal Kombat (1995) and Predator (1987).- Visual Effects
- Additional Crew
- Director
Dennis Muren is the Senior Visual Effects Supervisor and Creative Director of Industrial Light & Magic. A recipient of nine Oscars for Best Achievement in Visual Effects and a Technical Achievement Academy Award®, Muren is actively involved in the evolution of the company, as well as the design and development of new techniques and equipment. In June 1999, Muren became the first visual effects artist to be honored with a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. In February 2007, he was honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Visual Effects Society. Muren is currently working on a book focusing on "observation" for digital artists.
As Creative Director of Industrial Light & Magic, Muren is a key member of the company's leadership team and collaborates with all of ILM's supervisors on each of the films that the company contributes to.- Visual Effects
- Producer
- Special Effects
Richard Edlund was born on 6 December 1940 in Fargo, North Dakota, USA. He is a producer, known for Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi (1983), Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (1977) and Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980).- Visual Effects
- Producer
- Director
Phil Tippett is the founder and namesake of Tippett Studio. His varied career in visual effects has spanned more than 30 years and includes two Academy Awards; and six nominations, one BAFTA award and four nominations, two Emmys and the advent of modern digital effects in motion pictures.
As a child of seven, Phil was profoundly inspired by Ray Harryhausen's stop-motion classic, The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad and Willis O'Brien's classic character King Kong. His subsequent devotion to the creation of the fantastic creatures in film has become his raison d'etre. As a kid, and then as a student always drawing, sculpting and making animations, he developed his skills in a broader context first with a Fine Arts degree from University of California at Irvine, then as an animator at the commercial house, Cascade Pictures in Los Angeles. As a young adult Phil sought out teachers and mentors establishing connections and friendships with Ray Harryhausen and Ray Bradbury.
A huge turning point came in 1975 when George Lucas hired Phil and Jon Berg to create a stop motion miniature chess scene for Star Wars: A New Hope. Phil also had a hand in many other aspects of the Star Wars films, including modeling and casting alien heads and limbs for the busy Cantina scene in the first film. By 1978 Phil lead the animation team at Industrial Light and Magic that would launch his career bringing life to the sinister Imperial Walkers and the alien hybrid Tauntaun for The Empire Strikes Back.
In 1982, building upon insights from 'Empire', the same ILM team developed a stop-motion process that they comically christened as 'Go Motion' that produced a startlingly realistic beast for Dragonslayer and won Phil an Academy Award; nomination. And in 1983, as head of the ILM creature shop, he began work on Return of the Jedi, designing Jabba The Hut and the Rancor Pit Monster as well as animating the two legged Walker and later winning the Oscar; for Best Visual Effects.
In 1984 Phil left ILM to create a 10-minute short film, Prehistoric Beast. The newly formed Tippett Studio, then operating out of Phil's garage, drew upon Phil's wealth of experience with stop motion and his expertise in anatomical modeling and rigging. He and Tippett Studio went on to create top-notch stop motion animations for various television and film projects including Dinosaur!, Willow, Honey, I Shrunk the Kids, and the Robocop trilogy.
In 1991, Steven Spielberg, learning of Phil's expertise in dinosaur movement and behavior, selected him to supervise the dinosaur animation for Jurassic Park. When Phil learned of the choice to go with the computer generated dinosaurs, instead of stop motion, his initial reaction was, "I think I'm extinct!" It was this project that was responsible for Tippett Studio's transition from stop-motion to computer generated animation and for which Phil was awarded his second Oscar®.
Phil's next major challenge came in 1995 when Paul Verhoeven, again with producer Jon Davison, asked Tippett Studio to create the swarms of deadly arachnids for the sci-fi extravaganza, Starship Troopers. Leading a team of 150 computer artists and technicians, earned Phil a sixth Academy Award; nomination in 1997. Starship Troopers firmly planted Tippett Studio (and Phil) into the digital age of filmmaking.
In the following years Phil has been a guide and mentor for the Tippett Studio VFX supervisors and crew as they create monsters, aliens and appealing creatures for the numerous films that wind their way through the Tippett pipeline.
Partnering with associate, writer Ed Neumeier (Starship Troopers and Robocop scribe), the two created the story for Starship Troopers 2: Hero of the Federation, which Phil went on to direct in 2004 for Screengems.
Recently, Phil oversaw the design and creation of the wolf pack in Summit Entertainment's New Moon and Eclipse, the second and third film installments based on the Twilight series of novels by Stephanie Meyer.
Phil's roots in stop motion, modeling and practical effects and his ability to use this foundation in conjunction with developing technologies has made him one of a handful of artists whose careers have spanned the transition of visual effects from largely practical to digital. In this way he is a great teacher and mentor to the crew passing on the tradition of mentorship given to him in the early part of his career.- Visual Effects
- Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
- Director
Robert Legato was born on 6 May 1956 in Ocean Township, New Jersey, USA. He is an assistant director and director, known for Titanic (1997), Apollo 13 (1995) and Hugo (2011).- Visual Effects
- Producer
- Additional Crew
As one of the most notable pioneers in digital media and entertainment, Scott Ross' career has been stellar.
Today, Dr. Ross sits on several boards, consults with international companies and lectures on Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality and was one of the early adopters of Mixed Reality technologies. Dr. Ross was an early advisor to Magic Leap (an AR hardware and software startup that eventually raised over $2B), is a board member to Eyellusion (one of the world's leading hologram company which brings back deceased rock stars) and was a founding partner, along with Brett Leonard, the director of LAWNMOWER MAN in VR production company, Virtuosity. Dr. Ross has presented keynote speeches addressing new technologies such as AR/VR to SIGGRAPH in Shenzhen, BOAO in Hong Kong as well as to the Beijing Film Academy.
In 1992 he founded, along with Hollywood luminaries James Cameron and Stan Winston, Digital Domain, one of the largest digital production studios in the motion picture and advertising industries. Under Ross' direction, Digital Domain garnered multiple Academy Award nominations, receiving its first Oscar for the groundbreaking visual effects in TITANIC. That success was followed by a second Oscar for WHAT DREAMS MAY COME and a third for THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON. Digital Domain received additional nominations for TRUE LIES, APOLLO 13 and I, ROBOT and has won four Scientific and Technical Achievement Academy Awards for its proprietary software. For well over a decade Ross oversaw the company that created imagery for movies such as TITANIC, THE FIFTH ELEMENT, APOLLO13, FIGHT CLUB, TRUE LIES, INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE, O BROTHER WHERE ART THOU, X-MEN, THE LORD OF THE RINGS, THE DAY AFTER TOMORROW, I ROBOT and many, many others. Ross has worked with the who's who of film directors such as Cameron, Bay, Fincher, Howard, Scorsese, Coppola, The Coen Brothers, Spielberg, Kurosawa, Jackson, Salles and generally, has nice things to say about them.
In 2006 as Digital Domain's CEO and Chairman, he successfully sold Digital Domain to director Michael Bay and a group of private equity investors.
Prior to forming Digital Domain he led George Lucas' vast entertainment empire, running ILM, Skywalker Sound, LucasFilm Commercial Productions and DroidWorks. Ross first joined LucasFilm as General Manager of Industrial Light and Magic and under his leadership, ILM won five Academy Awards for Best Visual Effects (WHO FRAMED ROGER RABBIT; INNERSPACE; TERMINATOR 2; THE ABYSS; DEATH BECOMES HER). The company re-organized in the 90's and Ross was named Sr. VP of the LucasArts Entertainment Group, which was comprised of Skywalker Sound, LucasArts Commercial Productions, LucasArts Attractions, Editdroid/Soundroid and ILM.
Ross has played a significant role in the worldwide advertising industry as well. Having started commercial production companies whilst at LucasFilm (ILM and LCP) as well as Digital Domain's Commercials Division, he has led two of the largest VFX commercial production companies on the planet. Digital Domain has continually established itself as the premiere visual effects studio in the advertising industry. With Fortune 500 clients such as Nike, American Express, Gatorade, Anheuser-Busch, Coca-Cola and Mercedes Benz, the DD Commercials Division has garnered dozens of Clio Awards and numerous Cannes Golden Lions.
In addition to the visual effects divisions, Dr. Ross launched Digital Domain Films, a feature film production division. The first feature film produced by Dr. Ross was the New Line Cinema release SECONDHAND LIONS which achieved both critical and box office success.
A native of New York City, Dr. Ross began his career in Media Studies at Hofstra University where he graduated with a BS in Communication Arts ('74). He returned to Hofstra to receive a doctorate degree from his alma mater ('98). Dr. Ross is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (OSCARS); The Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (EMMYS). He has worked on over 100 of the world's largest special effects films and has lectured extensively about the creative process, content and technology in over 30 countries around the world.- Special Effects
- Visual Effects
- Animation Department
Hal Miles is an international award winning animation, visual effects, animatronic, and live action director, producer, writer, and artist with an impressive 40 plus year career in the entertainment industry. Throughout his career he has helped to pioneer, invent, and create numerous now classic and groundbreaking moments on many Academy Award, Emmy Award, and Cleo Award winning productions. Additionally, he helped to develop and then taught numerous animation and visual effects courses at the Savannah College of Art and Design over a period of 11 years. In 2011 Hal, along with his wife and animation historian Nancy, co-founded the no-profit organization Animation Hall Of Fame, which they continue to oversee today. Hal continues to direct, produce, write, create, and now advises on many productions.- Visual Effects
- Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
- Special Effects
Ken Ralston was born in 1954 in the USA. He is an assistant director, known for Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi (1983), Contact (1997) and Forrest Gump (1994).- Visual Effects
- Producer
- Executive
Dennis Berardi is known for The Shape of Water (2017), Nightmare Alley (2021) and Resident Evil: Retribution (2012).