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Creating New Worlds and Breaking Barriers for the Next Generation January 18,2022

Growing up outside of Washington, DC, Chris White was fascinated with film and TV that transported him to fantasy worlds, alternative realities or worlds of the future. A VES Award-winning and Academy Award-nominated visual effects supervisor, Chris has created compelling digital environments, characters and effects for some of the most significant VFX films of recent times, including the complex Goblin Caverns environment for The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey and the photorealistic chimpanzees, orangutans and gorillas that were the stars of Rise of the Planet of the Apes. He is committed to student outreach and building the pipeline for future practitioners as an active member of InclusionFX, which supports and amplifies underrepresented voices in features, television and games.

Chris White, Visual Effects Supervisor/Weta Digital

As mentors once opened educational doors for me, I feel responsible as a senior artist to give back to the next generation. Working through programs with InclusionFX and Weta Digital, we have opportunities to provide guidance through mentorship, review portfolios and give career advice, hearkening back to what I wish I knew early on. It’s a win-win as we get the rich benefit of students’ enthusiasm and fresh ideas. The visual effects and animation industry needs greater representation, and I’ve seen first-hand how exposure and encouragement have a real impact. We need many voices, talents, history and perspectives to create the worlds of film and television, representing us all.

Keep pushing forward towards your goals. My gateway to visual effects was a testament to persistence and a kind of accidental pathway. I applied for an internship at ILM multiple times while I was in graduate school and was finally accepted on my fourth try. That pursuit gave me my jumpstart creating vortexes and particle systems on Twister. Writing code for digital tornadoes was a perfect blend of my computer science and arts background. And I was on my way.

Priorities make diversity, equity and inclusion happen. We need to go back to the university level to build our talent pool and break the barriers that limit advancement and demystify our field, including giving students exposure to the full spectrum of technical and creative jobs that are available. Some believe this is a dream job – it is not a dream job. It is completely accessible and can be a profitable, stable, long-term career. And it’s on us to forge solutions that encourage young visionaries to pursue this career path and get the word out.

As a senior artist, I feel responsible to give back to the next generation.

-Chris White, Visual Effects Supervisor, Weta Digital

When a person sees themselves reflected in future or fantasy space, those worlds become possible. Anything becomes possible. The TV and film worlds I experienced in my youth rarely featured Black characters. I didn’t see myself or my culture reflected in those frames. I am optimistic about the directors and creatives galvanizing the industry today, and I am confident that my son will see himself in the worlds to come on the screen.

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WEAVING THE INTRICATE WEB OF VFX SPUN BY HIGH-FLYING SPIDER-MAN: NO WAY HOME January 11,2022

By TREVOR HOGG

Images courtesy of Marvel Studios.

A new black and gold Spider-Man suit channels Eldritch magic.

On June 5, 1962, teenage angst accidentally combined with a radioactive arachnoid in a story published in Amazing Fantasy #15 by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko. Since then, there have been various incarnations of Spider-Man living in different dimensions, but the original one resides in New York City on Earth-616. Swinging from the comic-book page into the live-action domain, the Web Slinger first appeared on the children television show The Electric Company, with the mask and tights being donned by puppeteer and dancer Danny Seagren. Hollywood came knocking when Marvel sold the film rights to Cannon Films in 1985, and six years later James Cameron (The Terminator) submitted a 57-page scriptment. However, the ambition was undermined not by the Sinister Six but the financial collapse of the studio.

Multiverse chaos ensues when Peter Parker (Tom Holland) asks Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) to turn back time and interrupts the spell.

Subsequently, Marvel licensed the film rights to Columbia Pictures in 1999, paving the way for Sam Raimi (Army of Darkness) and Tobey Maguire to create a trilogy, with Spider-Man 2 (2004) often being listed as one of the greatest comic book adaptations. In 2012, the franchise was relaunched as The Amazing Spider-Man with Marc Webb (500 Days of Summer) and Andrew Garfield collaborating on a pair of installments. A dramatic shift occurred as the Marvel Cinematic Universe became a box-office juggernaut worthy of Thanos, and a deal was brokered between Marvel Studios and Sony Pictures Entertainment for Tom Holland to make his MCU debut as Peter Parker in Captain America: Civil War (2016) as well as a solo venture under the direction of Jon Watts (Cop Car).

Jamie Foxx returns as Electro to cause some multiverse havoc.

“The concept art, previs and postvis has been essential when tackling a project like Spider-Man: No Way Home. We rely on such items as the initial stage to begin the digital builds, which can be quite time consuming. … [S]ince the assets from previous movies had been created years ago, most of these previous assets were used as a reference guide. Also, various visual effects elements associated with specific characters had to be re-developed, and some took on a different look per creative direction.”

—Chris Waegner, Visual Effects Supervisor, Sony Pictures Imageworks

Spider-Man: No Way Home concludes the MCU trilogy that features Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017) and Spider-Man: Far From Home (2019). The entire Hollywood cinematic history of the Wall Crawler becomes part of the storyline thanks to some ill-advised timeline tampering that unleashes the multiverse, thereby allowing the three big screen iterations of the franchise to merge into one blockbuster event. Unlike his reckless egocentric mentor, Tony Stark, the considerate and self-esteem-hampered Peter Parker had no intentions of revealing his secret to the world, but the right to do so was taken away from him when special effects artist turned villain Quentin Beck aka Mysterio frames the high schooler for his murder and reveals the true identity of Spider-Man.

One of the best performances in Spider-Man: No Way Home is Willem Dafoe reviving his role as the Green Goblin.

Adding to the quota of villains are Electro (Jamie Foxx), Sandman (Thomas Haden Church) and Lizard (Rhys Ifans).

Unlike Spider-Man 2, which relied on mechanical arms being puppeteered for Dr. Otto Octavius (Alfred Molina), Spider-Man: No Way Home made use of CG.

A tabloid maelstrom worthy of the British Royal Family is unleashed, leading to Parker’s every move being the subject of public scrutiny and, in the process, making his friends and family targets of retribution from his growing list of enemies. Wishing his secret had never been revealed, Parker seeks out someone with the same curiosity and willingness to put aside caution as Stark, master of the mystic arts Doctor Strange. The challenge and perilous risk of turning back time is irresistible to Strange, and has second thoughts about his request and disrupts the spell. As a result, separate dimensions collide together bringing forth a multiverse where the multiple variations of the same person can co-exist within the same space.

Someone with a unique perspective on the project is Sony Pictures Imageworks Visual Effects Supervisor Chris Waegner (Men in Black: International) who partnered with Marvel Studios Visual Effects Supervisor Kelly Port (Beauty and the Beast), as well as with Digital Domain, Framestore, Luma Pictures, Crafty Apes, MR. X, Cinesite, Gradient FX, Folks VFX, SSVFX, MARZ and Perception to produce 2,400 shots. Waegner was an uncredited technical adviser on Spider-Man, a lead character setup artist on Spider-Man 2, CG Supervisor on The Amazing Spider-Man and The Amazing Spider-Man 2, and Digital Effects Supervisor on Spider-Man: Homecoming. Comments Waegner, “The opportunity of having worked with three great directors and their creative teams on all cinematic franchises has been a wonderful experience. It has given me a wealth of knowledge that I’ve brought with me to the latest instalment depicting the multiverse in Spider-Man: No Way Home.”

“Fortunately, some of these concepts [in the new film] had been explored and visually developed within previous films, creating a visual language that fans can relate to. These previous films have become a great source that we were able to build upon. Often times, this requires new workflows, techniques and specific software development to ensure we meet the creative demands of the creative team.”

—Chris Waegner, Visual Effects Supervisor, Sony Pictures Imageworks

Like Webb, Jon Watts made a name for himself as an indie filmmaker with the crime thriller Cop Car (2015), revolving around two 10-years-olds taking an abandoned cop car for a joyride only to be pursued by a sheriff looking for the missing vehicle. Marvel Studios has gotten in the habit of choosing those with a proven indie track record rather than established Hollywood directors. One theory for this is that Marvel Studios can exert more control over the production, while others suggest that it has to do with the ability for indie filmmakers to develop empathetic characters which are what immerse audience members in the storyline, not the visual effects spectacles. “Jon Watts is very passionate about the story he’s telling and his characters,” notes Waegner. “He’s collaborative and at times will even act out specific actions he feels are important for these characters.” Watts has collaborated through the trilogy with The LEGO Batman Movie screenwriters Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers, twice with Special Effects Supervisor Daniel Sudick (Ant-Man and the Wasp), and welcomed Production Designer Darren Gilford (The King’s Man) and Cinematographer Mauro Fiore (X-Men: Dark Phoenix) into the fold.

An overseer of the overall aesthetic of the MCU since Iron Man (2008) is Ryan Meinerding, Head of Visual Development, Marvel Studios. Upwards of 200 to 300 designs can be done for a character in the MCU before settling on the final version. “One of the fun parts of my job is the notion of knowing that the Iron Man suit could mean something different in the next movie, and figuring out how to make the character design a storytelling opportunity. Sometimes the storytelling is not that important, like the notion of Tony Stark’s armor getting more advanced. However, in other occasions, Captain America is wearing a shield outfit instead of a Captain America costume because he has left behind some of the patriotism that had been part of his previous looks.”

The web slinging and crawling techniques for Spider-Man get more refined with each film.

“The characters themselves all have their own unique style of VFX associated with their abilities. Since this franchise spans across many years, VFX styles for specific characters had to be reinvented, and in some cases refined/changed in order to craft a look toward Jon’s vision. Dr Otto Octavious had a small team associated just to him in order to resurrect the same visual demands with our modern software and pipeline. It was important to the filmmakers and fans that he literally matched to the previous movie.”

—Chris Waegner, Visual Effects Supervisor, Sony Pictures Imageworks

Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) unleashes the Astral Form of Spider-Man (Tom Holland), which is when the soul exists outside of the body in a parallel dimension.

The Iron Spider Suit makes an appearance featuring a red, blue and gold color palette as well as the high-tech mechanical iron spider arms and nanobots that result in a quick suit transformation. “The concept art, previs and postvis has been essential when tackling a project like Spider-Man: No Way Home,” remarks Waegner. “We rely on such items as the initial stage to begin the digital builds, which can be quite time consuming.” For the most part, adds Waegner, the visual effects created for the previous films were not leveraged, as the technology is constantly evolving. “In some cases, yes, but since the assets from previous movies had been created years ago, most of these previous assets were used as a reference guide. Also, various visual effects elements associated with specific characters had to be re-developed, and some took on a different look per creative direction.”

Magic and the multiverse had their own unique technical challenges. “Concepts like the multiverse require quite a bit of visual research on many levels,” states Waegner. “It’s very important to create something the audience can relate to and is visually fresh. Hours have been spent going through visual media, which can be scientifically-based art concepts and found media, to help create images that are special to the show.” Adding an element of surrealism is the Astral Form, Eldritch magic, portals and Mandelbroting associated with Doctor Strange, leading to the various dimensional versions of the train sequence taking place at the same time. “Fortunately,” says Waegner, “some of these concepts had been explored and visually developed within previous films, creating a visual language that fans can relate to. These previous films have become a great source that we were able to build upon.” Most films requiring high-concept, intense visual effects will need development. “Often times,” Waegner observes, “this requires new workflows, techniques and specific software development to ensure we meet the creative demands of the creative team.

“Sony Picture Imageworks completed approximately 600 shots and many digital assets, with a production time of 10 months,” continues Waegner. “The digital scope of this show is quite vast. We shared many of our digital assets and several were shared with us. Modern software and technology have allowed the ‘shared asset’ concept to work much smoother these days between different VFX facilities.”

A major part of the visual effects centers around the supernatural powers. “The characters themselves all have their own unique style of VFX associated with their abilities,” states Waegner. “Since this franchise spans across many years, VFX styles for specific characters had to be reinvented, and in some cases refined/changed in order to craft a look toward Jon’s vision.” Digital effects have come such a long way that the practical arms which were puppeteered during the making of Spider-Man 2 for Doc Ock are now a CG creation, and de-aging has become a standard practice for the MCU. Says Waegner, “Dr. Otto Octavious had a small team associated just to him in order to resurrect the same visual demands with our modern software and pipeline. It was important to the filmmakers and fans that he literally matched to the previous movie.”

“Having worked on all the previous films, our web slinging and crawling techniques seem to get more refined with each film. In this case some small refinements were implemented achieving the same great results. The efficiencies in this area allowed the team to focus on other needs for the show.”

—Chris Waegner, Visual Effects Supervisor, Sony Pictures Imageworks

There can be no Spider-Man without web shootings, webbing and gravity-defying action. “Having worked on all the previous films, our web slinging and crawling techniques seem to get more refined with each film,” notes Waegner. “In this case some small refinements were implemented achieving the same great results. The efficiencies in this area allowed the team to focus on other needs for the show.”

If Spider-Man: No Way Home can channel the critical and box-office success of Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, one can expect more multiverse scenarios populating the MCU, as it will literally allow for different dimensions of characters to be explored which will result in unlimited storytelling possibilities. “On a show like this,” says Waegner, “the biggest challenge is to always meet the visual needs of our director and the adoring fans. There’s such a deep rich history with these characters and their individual stories throughout the entire franchise. It’s our responsibility to raise the bar and set a new standard for the franchise.”

2,400 visual effects shots were produced with the magic and the multiverse creating their own set of creative and technical challenges.
THE VFX OSCAR – FOR IMAGERY TRANSCENDING A TIME OF TURBULENCE January 10,2022

By TREVOR HOGG

Special effects team lead Gerd Nefzer created 300 palm leaves that were later engulfed in flames for a brief scene in Dune. (Image courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures)

The only James Bond outings to receive Oscar nominations for Best Visual Effects were Thunderball and Moonraker, with No Time to Die looking to add to the total. (Image courtesy of EON Productions, United Artists Releasing and Metro Goldwyn Mayer Studios)

An action adventure about rival fishermen was the first to be acknowledged for outstanding achievement in creating Special Photographic and Sound Effects. The legacy started by Spawn of the North (1938) at the 10th Academy Awards would later see the two different crafts be given their own separate categories with Emil Kosa Jr. receiving the Best Special Visual Effects Award for Cleopatra at the 36th Academy Awards. A sign of what was to come occurred in 1979 when five rather than the usual three nominees vied for the renamed Best Visual Effects Award with two being the first installments of major cinematic franchises: Alien (the winner) and Star Trek: The Motion Picture. Five nominees became the standard when Paul Franklin, Chris Corbould, Andrew Lockley and Peter Bebb took center stage at the Kodak Theatre for Inception.

The past three winners First Man (2018), 1917 (2019) and Tenet (2020) have been rewarded for their ability to seamlessly blend practical and digital effects rather than being pure CG spectacle. As for what to expect at the 94th Academy Awards on March 27, 2022 predictions have been complicated by theatrical release dates being like moving targets with an expected nominee Top Gun: Maverick being jettisoned to 2022 while Venom: Let There be Carnage was moved up a couple of weeks. The only certainty is uncertainty. So here, after consulting a number of industry experts to get even a faint pulse of what might happen when the nominees are announced on February 8 are the best guesses for best effects.

One has to wonder what would have happened if Ridley Scott had not left the original production of Dune for family reasons and been replaced by David Lynch. But then Blade Runner would not have come into existence. Serving as a bridge between ‘what if’ and what actually happened is Denis Villeneuve, who directed the sequel Blade Runner 2049, which went on to win the Oscar for Best Visual Effects in 2017, and got to make his teenage aspiration of re-directing Dune a reality. The story revolves around a spice with supernatural properties, blue-eyed desert inhabitants, giant sandworms, insectoid vehicles, a manipulative galactic empire and a messiah.

Jason Reitman follows in the paranormal footsteps of his father, Ivan Reitman, in bringing Ghostbusters: Afterlife to the big screen. (Image courtesy of Columbia Pictures)

There is a possibility that only covering half of the first book, as well as aspects of the narrative making their way into Star Wars, might work against the production. However, the term ‘visionary’ is not used haphazardly when describing Villeneuve, who is able to create epic worlds that do not overshadow the trials and tribulations of the characters. His emphasis on naturalism, which is built upon real locations and sets that are digitally augmented, will avoid the campy and outdated effects that plagued Lynch, and pave the way to Oscar glory for a second time.

What are going to be the contenders that could possibly usurp House Atreides? Marvel Studios has made a heroic effort with the Phase 4 release of Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings and Eternals. Marvel Studios President and COO Kevin Feige has a developed reputation for what are seen to be risky projects that turn out to be box office gold with the prime example being Guardians of the Galaxy, which received one of the 10 Oscar nominations for the MCU when it comes to visual effects; however, the comic book empire that Stan Lee, Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko built has yet to see that translated into a win. Shang-Chi features Destin Daniel Cretton utilizing the crowd-pleasing bar-brawling of Captain America with the iconic Vibranium shield replaced by magical bracelets.

The fight choreography is elevated by paying homage to the death-defying Hong Kong action films that pride themselves on showmanship. Much has been said about the bus and scaffolding fights that embody the mischievous spirit and determination of Jackie Chan, which is a welcomed addition to the MCU. As for Eternals, Chloé Zhao follows the Villeneuve philosophy of naturalism and the avoidance of vibrant, saturated colors. She is essentially dealing with celestial beings echoing the Gods of Olympus, with the major exception being that their view of the world comes from ground-level rather than a mountaintop.

Also, banking on the popularity of comic book adaptations is Sony Pictures which has partnered with Marvel Studios on Spider-Man: No Way Home (2018) and gone solo with Venom: Let There be Carnage.

Not surprisingly, epic visuals were created for the rematch between iconic kaiju in Godzilla vs. Kong. (Image courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures)

Jungle Cruise channels the African Queen via Pirates of the Caribbean, which was also inspired by a theme park ride. (Image courtesy of Walt Disney Studios)

By taking cues from Hong Kong martial arts films, the fight sequences in Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings rise above what has been seen before in the MCU. (Image courtesy of Marvel Studios)

Doctor Strange brings some of his magic to Spider-Man: No Way Home, such as summoning the astral form of Peter Parker. (Image courtesy of Sony Pictures)

Symbiotes reign supreme with serial killer Cletus Kasady making a pact with the main adversary in Venom: Let There Be Carnage. (Image courtesy of Columbia Pictures)

A dream becomes a reality as Steven Spielberg finally gets to make a musical with his remake of West Side Story. (Image courtesy of 20^thCentury Studios and Walt Disney Studios)

For the sheer fun factor and nostalgia appeal, the edge has to be given to the quick-witted Web Slinger from New York City. If Jon Watts can capture even half of the innovative and narrative craftmanship exhibited in the Oscar-winning Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, that will go a long way to satisfying the masses and Academy voters. Just the thought of the various cinematic incarnations of Peter Parker and his adversaries appearing together for the first time is enough to spark giggles of glee, but is also a recipe for utter disaster like Spider-Man 3 which was riddled with the ‘way too many characters’ syndrome despite being directed Sam Raimi.

For the adult crowd craving an R rating rather than a PG13, have no fear as the symbiote that debuted in Spider-Man 3 has gained enough popularity to warrant the Venom sequel directed by Andy Serkis. The true act of wizardry has been the ability to create the Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde dynamic without obscuring the performance of Tom Hardy as a mild-mannered investigative journalist having to share his body with an aggressive and perpetually hungry alien parasite. Undoubtedly, the blood and gore factor will be upped as a serial killer portrayed by Woody Harrelson gets infected and fully embraces the opportunity to greatly increase his sociopathic mayhem.

Godzilla vs. Kong, Jungle Cruise and The Suicide Squad would make an interesting threesome battle. The safe bet would be Adam Wingard’s rematch between the iconic Kaiju that became a cultural institution in Japan and later to the entire world. Interestingly, the original King Kong (1933) sparked the discussion about establishing a visual effects award with producer David O. Selznick petitioning the Academy Board of Governors to recognize the groundbreaking work of animator Willis O’Brien. It is a testimony to how far the digital technology has matured that a project like this required no major pipeline overhaul and the artists could focus more on crafting the performances of the creatures. Jungle Cruise by Spanish director Jaume Collet-Serra takes place in an African Queen setting and mixes together the Oscar-winning effects of Life of Pi and Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest by bringing to life a photorealistic leopard and living-dead buccaneers. When it comes to The Suicide Squad, what is there not to love about Sylvester Stallone voicing a giant shark that is an aquatic manifestation of Rocky Balboa with a much lower IQ and treats his opponents as edible snacks? James Gunn has done a great job in the past of integrating CG characters into the principal cast, in particular a monosyllabic anthropomorphic tree.

Considering the harsh critical reaction to the two sequels, it is hard to imagine Lana Wachowski returning to the franchise that launched her blockbuster career, unlike her sister Lilly who decided to take the blue pill this time around. The Matrix was lauded with an Oscar, while Reloaded (2003) and Revolutions (2003) were not even nominated despite being a training ground for a lot of the top visual effects talent in the industry today. The Matrix Resurrections brings Neo and Trinity back to life by having Keanu Reeves and Carrie-Ann Moss return to their signature roles. The storytelling ambitions of the Wachowskis always go way beyond the realm of what is physically possible, which means that Reeves and Moss will be surrounded and supported by boundary-pushing technology.

James Gunn is no stranger when it comes to incorporating CG characters into the principal cast, such as the monosyllabic King Shark voiced by Sylvester Stallone in The Suicide Squad. (Image courtesy of Warner Bros.)

David Lowery deserves credit for re-imagining an Arthurian legend on an independent budget that features a talking fox, walking giants and a defiant tree adversary in The Green Knight. (Image courtesy of A24)

Defying their AI overlords, Neo and Trinity resurface once again in The Matrix Resurrections. (Image courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures)

Another franchise revival has become a family affair as Jason Reitman follows in the footsteps of his father, Ivan Reitman, with the release of Ghostbusters: Afterlife. Homages have been woven into visuals with miniature rather than skyscraper-sized Stay Puft Marshmallow Men making an appearance along with Slimer, an ominous thunderstorm, and the station wagon emblazoned with the Ghostbusters logo. Despite the supernatural premise, both Reitmans use visual effects to heighten the dramatic and comedic situations that reveal something about their characters.

Visual effects are not only found in the action and science fiction genres as they assisted Steven Spielberg in fulfilling his ambition of shooting a musical with his remake of the West Side Story; the closest for him previously was the opening sequence in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984). There will be no digital doubles or massive explosions to be simulated, but expect invisible environmental work to get the necessary size and scope that will enhance the already gorgeous cinematography by Janusz Kaminski.

For the outlier that might surprise everybody, David Lowery took the time during the pandemic lockdown to re-edit The Green Knight and added another 60 visual effects shots. The work consists of a talking fox, a tree-like adversary, wandering giants and fantastical landscapes done with an indie budget. That in itself is a major feat worth celebrating.
HOW INTERNAL ART DEPARTMENTS HELP TO SHAPE THE VFX STORY January 10,2022

By IAN FAILES

A Framestore concept frame for Blade Runner 2049. (Image courtesy of Framestore. Copyright © 2017 Warner Bros. Pictures)

We regularly hear about the incredible artistry inside visual effects studios to pull off final shots. But a key step in the VFX component not always discussed is the intricate concept, design and visualization processes carried out within visual effects studios, which often helps shape the particular story being told.

In this roundtable discussion, representatives from Framestore, ILM, Pixomondo, Scanline VFX, Technicolor Creative Studios, TRIXTER and Weta Digital break down their role in this story-shaping process, especially within their internal art departments.

THE PROCESS BEGINS

Daniel Matthews, Concept Artist, TRIXTER: “We will get our very first brief via our internal supervisor on a project, who distills a short, open ‘TL;DR’ version of what’s been discussed with the client. This minimal brief helps us to keep our creativity totally free-flowing, and allows us to cast the widest net possible for ideas. It gives us the freedom to mess up – which is a fantastic thing as an artist – and get bad ideas out of our system. It allows us to brainstorm and build on each other’s ideas as a team. At this stage, ‘happy little accidents’ can happen which often work their way into the final result.”

Mujia Liao, Head of Virtual Art Department/Art Director, Pixomondo Toronto: “Generally, we create mood boards, sketches, illustrations and key art frames that describe a particular moment in the show to help drive the direction for other departments to follow. Aside from creating designs from scratch, we collaborate closely with the asset department. We create paint-overs on renders for quick design changes, mocking up texture/color variations, as well as provide reference photography to help the asset team look dev the character/creature/environment.”

Mujia Liao carried out matte painting work on a hollow-like planet in Star Trek Discovery. (Image courtesy of Pixomondo. Copyright © 2020 CBS Television Studios)

James Clyne, Senior Visual Effects Art Director, ILM: “I don’t think there is a part of the production pipeline that ILM’s art department doesn’t touch. The department is involved in ‘blue sky’ conceptual designs, working directly with the director or with the production designer, sometimes just with the studio. Then we’re involved in everything from character design to vehicle design, prop design, environments and creatures. I think VFX has also allowed filmmakers to make some of the design decisions a little later because we can actually tackle some of those design decisions in post-production like we couldn’t before.”

Martin Macrae, Head of Art Department, Framestore: “As well as designing for projects internally, we’re also able to work independently on projects that don’t necessarily come through the company’s VFX team. Another part of what we do is to help directors put a pitch package together for studio presentations to help get a film greenlit. This will involve discussions with the director to try and establish their vision for the film, taking extracts from early drafts of the script, if there’s one ready, and creating concept art for film beats that evoke the right look and feel for key scenes in the story.”

Leandre Lagrange, Art Director, Technicolor Creative Studios: “We often get pulled in for greenlighting a project. At that point there is no VFX involved at all. Either we’re being reached out to by studios or we already have a VFX supervisor attached to the project who invites us to create images as a pitch to do the final shots. There are lots of different roles we play.”

A ship and plan design illustration crafted by Scanline VFX for Midway. (Image courtesy of Scanline VFX. Copyright © 2019 Lionsgate Ltd.)

A scene from Prometheus in which the art and the final matte painting work melded into one. (Image courtesy of Technicolor Creative Studios. Copyright © 2012 20th Century Fox)

Rodan emerges from a volcano in a concept piece by Technicolor Creative Studios. (Image courtesy of Technicolor Creative Studios. Copyright © 2019 Warner Bros. Pictures)

TRIXTER crafted its artwork over Black Widow plate photography. (Image courtesy of TRIXTER. Copyright © 2021 Marvel)

The final reveal, in TRIXTER concept form, for this Black Widow scene. (Image courtesy of TRIXTER. Copyright © 2021 Marvel)

Jelmer Boskma, Visual Effects Supervisor and Art Director, Scanline VFX: “There have been projects where we were involved early enough to help establish the look and influence the shoot in a way that complemented our ideas and designs wonderfully. Obviously, this is particularly beneficial to us as we can ensure the lighting and general shot setups will translate well later in post. Just as common, though, is for our design services to be requested at a later stage during production. It’s not uncommon for a director to have a change of heart with regards to a certain design, or to find the production’s art department to have simply ran out of time to fully flesh out an idea.”

Sidney Kombo-Kintombo, Animation Supervisor, Weta Digital: “I’m an animation supervisor, but I do lots of previs as well now. It’s even sometimes previs at the end, in the post-production process. It can be previs, postvis and shots all melded into one thing. For example, Marvel always comes up a very strong concept of what they want – ‘Let’s have a dogfight in a canyon.’ They’ll have super-strong art development. But then the missing link is the connection between that strong concept design art and the thrill of the visual. It’s basically taking the strong concept that already exists and adding all the little elements that make that concept visually as interesting as it can be.”

TOOLS OF THE TRADE

James Clyne, ILM: “There are many applications that we use. I would say Photoshop is probably the most dominant, but there’s a lot of 3D applications from Maya to Modo that people are using every day. The strength lies in not just being really good at one thing, but being pretty proficient at not only 2D drawing, but 3D model modelling as well, and being able to do rapid sketching, all the way up to doing photorealistic environments.”

Martin Macrae, Framestore: “It’s a very organic process, every project is done in its own unique way with no set ways to get things done. Artists can use whatever means they need to get an idea out, be it a pencil sketch or a 3D sketch – it doesn’t really matter what tools they use. Concept artists need to be flexible in the way they work as the creative idea is the most important thing to get out, so they have access to any software they need to use. When it comes to software the trend now seems to be Photoshop and Blender, but, again, anything goes.”

ILM’s James Clyne designed this bomber for Star Wars: The Last Jedi. (Image courtesy of ILM. Copyright © 2017 Lucasfilm Ltd.)

For Spider-Man: Far From Home, Scanline helped establish the smokey look of Mysterio’s suit. (Image courtesy of Scanline VFX. Copyright © 2019 Sony Pictures)

The futuristic, and heavily polluted, Las Vegas in Blade Runner 2049 as imagined by Framestore. (Image courtesy of Framestore. Copyright © 2017 Warner Bros. Pictures)

Daniel Matthews, TRIXTER: “Some of my colleagues like to explore 3D with Blender or ZBrush, or even using 3D fractals like Mandelbulbs as a base for their concept art. However, I prefer to start out with free-flow using Photoshop and sketches, which sometimes allows happy accidents to occur. If I want to explore 3D, it’s usually with cool software called 3D Coat.”

Jelmer Boskma, Scanline VFX: “Some artists are more comfortable working in 3D and are able to provide high quality iterations in a highly economic manner that way. Others rely more on their traditional drawing and painting skills to communicate ideas. Certain tasks call for a specific approach, but, in general, whatever gets the job done well in a quick and organized manner wins. Whether that is through painting in Photoshop, sculpting in ZBrush, photo-bashing, a rough 3D render, a mock-up in SketchUp, or most commonly a combination of all of the above.”

Leandre Lagrange, Technicolor: “We do create a lot of FX simulations with 3D tools such as Blender and Vectron to give us a base to work from. With painting skills and photo-manipulations, there’s quite a lot that you can do for concepting those. It’s preferable not to have a Houdini artist go into it on their own and start shooting in the dark because it’s very time consuming and it’s so heavy. The idea is we’re giving them a look and feel and some direction, and then they can work with that. As it goes on, they can create more and more accurate FX simulations based on the images that we create. We have a close relationship with VFX artists for that type of complex FX work.”

Digital matte painting by Mujia Liao for the jawa camp in an episode of The Mandalorian. (Image courtesy of Pixomondo. Copyright © 2019 Lucasfilm Ltd.)

Concept by Mujia Liao for Midway. (Image courtesy of Pixomondo. Copyright © 2019 Lionsgate Ltd.)

A development frame by Framestore for Pan. (Image courtesy of Framestore. Copyright © 2015 Warner Bros. Pictures)

Sidney Kombo-Kintombo, Weta Digital: “I storyboard a lot. I always try to have a really quick visual sketch of what I’m after. So Photoshop is a big part of it, just like any concept artist will do. But right after that it’s straight into Maya [for previs or postvis]. The best way to make sure that you’re not going to hit any hiccups is to make sure that you are doing this in the software package that will be used ultimately for the shots.”

KEY PROJECTS, KEY CHALLENGES

Daniel Matthews, TRIXTER: “The photostatic veil in Black Widow stayed in the refinement stage for a long time. As they say, 20% of the work takes 80% of the time. We had a rough idea of the look we were aiming for, but of course we wanted to make something new, exciting and as good as possible. The idea was to make this mask look like one of those peel-off self-care masks, with the ability to make the wearer look like someone else entirely. There was also the matter of finding the right shapes. In the end, we settled for the hexagon pattern, which fans say is a shape that features heavily in the Marvel Universe. We definitely get it – hexagons look great, have a futuristic tech-y feel and fit together neatly.”

Jelmer Boskma, Scanline VFX: “We worked on designs for Mysterio’s smokey FX appearance in Spider-Man: Far From Home. We provided concept illustrations in which we tried to capture the look and feel of the effect as much as possible within the constraints of a still image. For FX like these, illustrations only provide part of the solution. Much of the final design is based on the motion, timing and behavior of the simulation. We find that approaching design challenges like this from multiple angles is essential to finding the answer for a director. As a general principle, we like to instill as much real-world reference and logic into any design to give the idea a grounding in reality.”

A sunken boat dining room concept by Scanline VFX for Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children. (Image courtesy of Scanline VFX. Copyright © 2016 20th Century Fox)

An ILM concept for one of the conquistador characters in Jungle Cruise. (Image courtesy of ILM. Copyright © 2021 Walt Disney Pictures)

Sidney Kombo-Kintombo, Weta Digital: “On the canyon chase in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, we tried to see what we could change in the original design of the canyon to make that a more thrilling experience. The first thing I do is go to dogfight reference – Star Wars comes to mind, and Japanese anime. We say, ‘How can we make this interesting?’ I try to come up with the idea for the sequence first and then the environment that makes that idea shine. We rebuilt the canyon from scratch. We did that in the animation department. Usually, the build comes out of modeling and layout, but here it was more a rough model of blocks of rocks done in the animation stage. Animation then passed it back to modeling who adjusted it. It’s a different way of creating the same type of work.”

Leandre Lagrange, Technicolor: “For Prometheus, some of our pieces of artwork were actually concepted by an artist who had a digital matte painting (DMP) background. So, they would actually end up being projected and used in the final VFX shots in the film. Then on Godzilla: King of the Monsters, for example, we worked on an image of Rodan emerging from a volcano. For that we used a design that was already done by Amalgamated Dynamics. We used their design and then built on top of that to make an image. That was more about making a key frame.”

Mujia Liao, Pixomondo: “On The Mandalorian, we worked on several environments on the planet of Arvala-7, a very barren, desert-like planet covered in wet mud, home to creatures like the iconic Blurrgs. I turned to what I knew best and ended up matte painting the looks we needed for approval. We looked closely at a large number of deserts and found some good images of Atacama Desert after rainfall, although none really provided us with the level of detail we needed. Our CG Supervisor, Winrik Haentjens, then came across this area in Toronto’s Scarborough Bluffs with snow that was just starting to melt, creating these streams that flowed across a muddy surface, giving us some beautiful natural-looking erosion shapes. We took lots of photos of that area and created photogrammetry of the details, and that became the foundation to the closeup areas of Arvala.”

Martin Macrae,
Head of Art Department,
Framestore

Jelmer Boskma, Visual Effects Supervisor/Art Director, Scanline VFX

Sidney Kombo-Kintombo, Animation Supervisor, Weta Digital

Mujia Liao, Head of Virtual Art Department/Art Director, Pixomondo Toronto

Leandre Lagrange, Head of Art Department, Technicolor Creative Studios

Daniel Matthews, Concept Artist, TRIXTER

James Clyne, Senior Visual Effects Art Director, ILM

A New Dawn in the VFX Art Department

The rise of virtual production has introduced many chang- es to the way visual effects studios operate. LED volume and stage work in particular require some of the final pixel VFX shot work to be carried out upfront – before shooting – rather than traditionally in post.

This means that some production companies and visual effects studios have now launched virtual art departments, or VADs. For example, Weta Digital established a VAD-like department out of work on Avatar and Tintin, with a formal VAD on The BFG, while Lucasfilm and ILM ramped up a VAD with The Mandalorian. Other studios such as Pixomondo have followed suit.

“With the same emphasis in visual development and pre-production, the VAD focuses on not only design but creation of real-time assets from initial lookdev to produc- tion-ready models and environments for virtual production,” details Mujia Liao, Head of Virtual Art Department/Art Director at Pixomondo Toronto.

“We process practical scans and create custom assets to block out initial environments, allowing our clients to do virtual scouts and pre-light early on. In addition to the pre- liminary environment build, the VAD will also supply close to final key visuals by over-painting and hand-off design packages including photographic references and mood boards. This design package and early environment build sets a solid foundation for our virtual production and VFXteams to take further into fully realized worlds.”

Martin Macrae, Framestore: “Blade Runner 2049 was a definite highlight for all of us. For Vegas, we worked initially from designs coming from the production designer and Syd Mead sketches, and working closely with VFX we set to work designing everything from large buildings right down to street-level details, also designing the spinner drone that flew over the city – everything was thought out. We generated hundreds of sketches, paintings and 3D models, all with the purpose to help finalize a look for this sequence so the Montreal team could generate the final shots. As an art department we worked on Blade Runner for over a year and loved every second of it!”

James Clyne, ILM: “On The Last Jedi we had to design this bomber. We were asking ourselves, what is a Star Wars bomber? How does that work in space? I started developing something that had a vertical bomb bay rather than a typical horizontal one. The director, Rian Johnson, said, ‘I like the idea, but you’re going to have to really show me that it works.’ So we went back to the drawing board and did drawings and models of it. It was story driving the design rather than the design driving the story. Through discussions and weeks and weeks building out what this could be, it became what you saw in the movie, which was amazing.”
LYNWEN BRENNAN: KEEPING LUCASFILM AT THE FOREFRONT OF ENTERTAINMENT January 10,2022

By TREVOR HOGG

Images courtesy of Lynwen Brennan and Lucasfilm.

Lynwen Brennan, Executive Vice President & General Manager, Lucasfilm.

Looking at the responsibilities of Lucasfilm Executive Vice President & General Manager Lynwen Brennan, which involves overseeing Lucasfilm, ILM and Skywalker Sound, one could imagine her head spinning around in bewilderment, but via Zoom she has a ready smile and good sense of humor. “Sometimes it does feel like that! I have an amazing team that helps to keep me on track.”

San Francisco is half a world away from Tenby, Wales where Brennan was the youngest of three born to two school teachers. “It’s as far away from Heathrow Airport as you could possibly get on that island. Everybody knows everybody. My childhood was spent either in the harbor, on the beach or on a boat. My dad was a larger-than-life personality. I got my drive and values of being respectful and interested in other people from him. My mum was definitely the organizer and her work ethic is a thing to behold even now at the age of 84.”

Music rather than movies had a big influence on the family. “My sister and niece are music teachers,” states Brennan, who is an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama. “Those experiences of playing in orchestras and being involved in a team at such an early age, having those social experiences and having that self-motivation to do your part and practice were hugely important. I play the piano every day. It was the first instrument that I learned. I played the violin and viola in the orchestra, which I still play but not well.” Tenby had one cinema that has since closed down. “I was a [Girl Guide] Brownie when my father took us to see Jaws. Bear in mind I was in a coastal town and spent my whole life on a boat. I was terrified to go into the sea or to even have a bath for ages afterwards! That was the first one I remember going to see. Watching movies became a social thing with friends. When there was a good movie on terrestrial TV, we would get together to watch it. When we were able to get VHS tapes, I watched E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial and Grease over and over again. Then I got into wanting to actually understand more about movies and what I should be watching, like Casablanca and Citizen Kane.”

Her career path to the movie industry was paved by accidents. “I did biology and geography at the University of London and specialized more on the ecology side,” remarks Brennan. “I was interested in the history behind human behavior and how that leads to either sustainable land use practices or environmental damage. I had intended to take a year off after university and return to do a Masters or PhD or go into law.

Brennan with ILM leadership team Hal Hickel and John Knoll posing with the Oscars and VES Awards won by ILM.

The week after I graduated, I went to a local theme park with some friends and fell off of a rollercoaster. It took me about a year to learn how to walk again. In that time my brother, who had been working in broadcast television graphics, had an idea to do some software for film visual effects. He was thinking about setting up Parallax Software and asked me if I would help him. There were only five us in the beginning. I was doing everything from hiring people, payroll, customer support, marketing, public relations, office management to sales. About nine months later, we went to our first tradeshow and Doug Smythe at ILM was looking for the type of paint and roto software that we had created, called Matador. ILM was our first customer and Jurassic Park was the first film that they used it on. I remember sitting in the theater, seeing that Brontosaurus walk onto the screen, and thinking, ‘This is what I’m going to do, and I’m going to work at ILM one day.’”

Parallax Software was sold to Avid Technology in 1995. “I stayed there for two years and was then asked to work for Alias Wavefront for a period of time,” recalls Brennan. “Cliff Plumer, who had worked at Parallax with us, was at ILM and called me about an entry level job and asked if I wanted to assist them to gear up for Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace. I thought, ‘I’ll do that for six months and then go back to the U.K.’ That was 22 years ago and I’m still here. Much has and hasn’t changed, which is the way we like it at ILM. I started as a Technical Area Leader for the Computer Graphics Technical Directors. A lot of the time then was hiring artists and figuring out how to scale the crewing systems that we had to handle multiple shows at one time. As things began consolidating, growing and requiring efficiency within the way that we ran the computer graphics side of things, I organically absorbed new responsibilities. I worked my way through the entire pipeline. Eventually, while I was on maternity leave, Chrissie England told me that she was intending to retire and would like me to take on the presidency [of ILM]. I would have a nice ramp in to learn the ropes from her, and she was generous with her contacts and training me on how to work with clients to get their visions on the screen.”

A radical shift had to be made to the business model of ILM as global tax incentives as high as 40% became important in attracting clients. “We grew our Singapore office, pivoted away from games and animation, and focused that team on full pipeline visual effects,” explains Brennan. “This was right around the time of the acquisition by Disney, and George Lucas brought Kathleen Kennedy in.

Brennan with the Marvel Studios leadership team of
Victoria Alonso, Peyton Reed, Kevin Feige and Joe Russo.

Brennan is interviewed by Andi Gutierrez of The Star Wars Show during the 2019 “Star Wars Celebration” in Chicago.

The Tech Building of Skywalker Sound, located at Skywalker Ranch in Lucas Valley, near Nicasio, California.

The Perfect Storm was a project that nearly brought ILM to its knees.

The advancements in digital effects have come along way from Star Wars, which was entirely optical, to Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, which features CG spaceships.

We were going to make movies again, and wherever shooting was taking place we had to make sure that ILM had a studio there. We expanded into London, Vancouver and more recently to Sydney. That was a huge shift from a management perspective to figure out how do you scale as a global company and keep the DNA that is ILM, but also allow those studios to have a unique character. How do you share work across shots, sequences or shows between studios in different time zones? Also, how do we keep our San Francisco studio feeling energized that its not their jobs going away, and when we’re saying that we are committed to staying in California, we really mean it. San Francisco is as big now as it was then. The part that hasn’t changed is the spirit of loving impossible things, and we’ll figure it out together. John Knoll always says, ‘A good idea is always a good idea no matter where it comes from.’ That is the mantra of ILM. I love that constant striving to push the envelope and to do better. There is never a sense that we know it all, and you can sit back and rest on your laurels.”

“Everybody in visual effects knows that it is not an easy business to run and stay profitable,” observes Brennan. “You have to have a clear vision of what is your North Star. We want to be putting images on the screen that delight audiences and enthuse our clients. We want to be delivering to our directors things that are even better than what they had already imagined. We also want to be looking for work that isn’t just what we’ve done over and over again. We do 15 projects at one time right now, so not everything is something that we haven’t done before, but there is probably an element of it in everything that we do. I will often say when we have taken on something that is hard and the financials are looking scary, ‘Remember why we took it on.’ You’re looking ahead of what you’re going to need, what the problems are, trying to solve them in advance, and you move things around in the company as you need to.

A scene from Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace. Brennan’s first job at ILM was as a Technical Area Leader for the Computer Graphics Technical Directors.

Brennan joined ILM as Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace was about to begin production.

The gamble of relying on StageCraft paid off for the production of The Mandalorian.

We have amazing producers who are making sure that we are focusing the resources on where the problems are going to be. Also try to minimize the amount of time that you waste. If we have a full pipeline, there is a lot of leeway in terms of efficiency. If you don’t have a full pipeline, then you lose money very quickly over the year.”

Brennan is fascinated by the Music and Sound Design Lab that Skywalker Sound does in partnership with the Sundance Institute. “One of the things I love about Skywalker Sound is when they take a scene and do different takes on the audio, whether that be different editing or mix or music, and how you feel differently depending on what the sound choices are made; it brings to the forefront how important sound is. Lucasfilm’s films and series are places where sound have shone, and have been celebrated and noticed by the general audience.” Skywalker Sound works on 200 projects each year. “Some of the tools have changed and the ability to work remotely as freelancers. Not everything has to be done on a big mix stage; that has enabled some expansion and democratization of the sound industry. But when you go to Skywalker Sound there is so much that hasn’t changed. It is so much about collaboration and experimentation.”

Everything is done holistically from the storytelling to business decisions. “We think about what stories we are going to tell on all of these different platforms,” remarks Brennan. “Assets from ILM, our console games and ILMxLAB live in a central platform so there is a playbox that we can work with. Utilizing game and real-time technology, whether that would be Unreal Engine in combination with our own real-time engine Helios, we use the best tool for the job. Because virtual production demands for us to push the envelope in terms of the visual fidelity and the interactivity that is needed to move the camera and manipulate in real-time, it has helped us to be able to think beyond that and how entertainment might evolve.

The Jedi known as F summons the Force in Star Wars: Visions episode “The Village Bride,” animated by Kinema Citrus.

Brennan is responsible for marketing the various franchises of Lucasfilm, which includes establishing a creative partnership with anime studios to produce Star Wars: Visions.

“I’m excited about where the future could go,” she continues. “Having various platforms to tell nuanced and targeted stories for different audiences and genres opens up the playfield so widely. Then also our job is to be good stewards of that so that we open it up in a thoughtful way. There is variety, but it’s not confusing, overwhelming or too much. The quality always has to stay high, which is Kathleen Kennedy’s mantra. The fact that we also have Skywalker Sound, ILM and ILMxLAB means that we have this creative community within Lucasfilm that we can bring to bear for our directors.”

Grogu becoming the breakout star on The Mandalorian was immensely satisfying for Brennan.

A huge moment for Brennan was the production of Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

Several career highlights stand out for different reasons. “I still remember that moment of walking through the door,” recalls Brennan. “Of my years at ILM, the projects that I remember are the ones which were really hard because we were doing something new and difficult. The Perfect Storm nearly brought us to our knees! You come out of that with this amazing sense of commandry. Star Wars: The Force Awakens was definitely a huge moment to be part of. The Mandalorian was another one of those moments. When we went all in on StageCraft, we didn’t know if it was going to work. Then to see how the series was embraced. Seeing Dave Filoni do live-action directing was a wonderful highlight as well. Even the decisions around Grogu, where we were part of a secret and couldn’t wait for the audience to see him. He went so beyond what we had hoped. There are so many highlights. I’ve been incredibly lucky with my career and the people I work with.”
CAPTURING A COLOSSAL CLOSE ENCOUNTER OF THE LUNAR KIND IN MOONFALL January 10,2022

By TREVOR HOGG

Images courtesy of Lionsgate and Centropolis Entertainment.

Director Roland Emmerich on the set of Moonfall. (Photo: Reiner Bajo/Lionsgate)

Whether it be an alien invasion in Independence Day, a raging Kaiju in Godzilla or the environmental catastrophe of The Day After Tomorrow, German filmmaker Roland Emmerich has gained a reputation of being able to destroy the world in creative ways. The cinematic tradition is carried over into Moonfall where a mysterious force knocks our lunar neighbor out of orbit and on a collision course with Earth. It is up to NASA executive Jo Fowler (Halle Berry), astronaut Brian Harper (Patrick Wilson) and conspiracy theorist K.C. Houseman (John Bradley) to save the day, and in the process of doing so they make a surprising cosmic discovery. Reuniting the team behind Midway, which includes Production Designer Kirk M. Petruccelli (The Space Between Us), Visual Effects Supervisor Peter G. Travers (Guardians of the Galaxy) and Special Effects Supervisor Guillaume Murray (Crisis), Emmerich has crafted a $140-million independently-funded action-adventure with a cerebral twist.

A different global disaster occurred during pre-production in Montreal as the pandemic caused the project to temporarily shutdown. “When I prepared the movie, I had 74 days to shoot, but then I had to figure out what to cut out to be able to afford the COVID-19 costs of $6.5 million,” states Emmerich. “For an independent film, you can’t go to a bank and ask for more money. I ended up with 61 shooting days. There were no compromises. I just shot faster.”

Re-igniting the public imagination and interest in outer space is the emergence of space tourism. “NASA read the script and supported us,” says Emmerich. “It took us three or four years to get the script right because it’s such an out-there story and we needed to give it some reality.

The Endeavour space shuttle encounters debris as it approaches the surface of the Moon.

I read a book called Who Built the Moon? by Christopher Knight and Alan Butler, and thought, ‘Maybe there’s a movie here.’ We made our own series. If you only do a story about the Moon falling down to Earth, that is a disaster movie. We wanted to do something deeper and more exciting than that.”

Even though Moonfall has been described by Emmerich as being a mix of 2012 and Independence Day, a cinematic classic from Stanley Kubrick casts a long shadow. “2001: A Space Odyssey is a seminal movie because it was not only a science fiction film, but also about the origins of life. In that perspective, Moonfall is closely connected to 2001,” Emmerich comments. “I knew by 2022 that nobody would go to the Moon. We figured that the space shuttles would get pulled out of a museum and, within a crazy time schedule, be put back together and sent up there. We thought about what problems that they could have, and that was a cool factor to make this realistic.” The spectacle has to be balanced with the human aspect, he observes. “The biggest problem for any movie that has spectacle is figuring out how much character can you infuse and how much character do people want to have? I’ve been battling with this all of my life! You try to be true to the characters, and we got good actors involved like Halle Berry, Patrick Wilson, Donald Sutherland, Michael Peña and John Bradley. Halle would say, ‘I wouldn’t say that line.’ Then you have discussions about it, and most of the time something better comes out of it. The cast worked with us to make this real.”

“Moonfall has 1,700 visual effects shots. You have to plan exactly what you want to do, because visual effects companies are already working on these shots while you’re shooting the movie. It is like a dance, but because I’ve been doing this for 40 years I’ve gotten good at it.”

—Roland Emmerich, Director

The Endeavour space shuttle docks at the International Space Station.

“If you only do a story about the Moon falling down to Earth, that is a disaster movie. We wanted to do something deeper and more exciting than that.”

—Roland Emmerich, Director

As part of the emergency response the space shuttle is recommissioned and retrofitted.

Sets had to be redesigned to accommodate COVID-19 protocols dealing with social distancing. “For instance, in the spacecraft, the chairs had to be four feet away from each other, whereas normally I would have them tighter together,” states Petruccelli. “Roland set into motion every nuance and dynamic that had to be enacted. 135 sets were built on six stages at Grandé Studios in Montreal as well as on a couple of filler stages at MELS Studios. Four to five sets were shot each day. Every set was specifically crafted with the visual effects team in mind. Roland thinks far beyond the physical structure. It all has to integrate with the post-production process. He is masterful at that.” Parts of Colorado had to be recreated onstage because location shooting was minimal. “We had to come in and know when we could use one section of the stage, move it to another section, and rotate pieces of it away to create another set,” says Petruccelli. “There were dedicated stages to space travel that were clean environments. We had to rebuild several locations in Los Angeles, including the planetarium, because everything was so dependent on atmospherics that would occur with the visual effects.”

Designs were based on reality and physics. “Roland loves the fact that truth and reality set us apart from pure fantasy and sci-fi,” remarks Petruccelli. “Things that occur in space are in a vacuum, while things on Earth are being manipulated by the forces that the Moon bears if this [catastrophic event] should happen.” Sets had to be designed to accommodate the physics, he says. “If you’re in a motel in Santa Monica, we had to be west-facing because the water would be coastal. We had to calculate how the water would impact the set, and integrate the volume of water with a bigger event. We talked to experts at NASA about what was the actual load capacity of the space shuttle.” A museum in Florida supplied an original space shuttle cockpit. “We made it usable for us to do the weightless scenes,” enthuses Emmerich. “That was some of the most complicated stuff that we did in the whole movie, because when you sit in a tight set interesting decisions have to be made on how to do it.”

The shooting methodology has evolved for Emmerich. “I’m not doing much floor effects anymore because I know later in visual effects you can do them much better,” he says. “For example, if you have snow flurries I only shoot with wind and leave the rest to visual effects.” Special effects still have an on-set presence. “Roland has clear ideas about how he wants to do things and make them work on-set and onscreen,” states Guillaume Murray. “That gives us the right tools to polish those mechanical effects for him. It has to be quick, efficient and easy to re-set. Most of the rigs that we do are modeled in 3D. The printing aspect will be used for prop building. CNC machines are utilized for all of the mechanical parts.” Motion control systems assisted with the zero gravity effects, Murray adds. “We built a robot and used motion control that allowed us to puppeteer actors or stunt people in the shot, and do it in a way where we didn’t need to stop and program every move on set.

“The Moon being out of alignment created the need for a lot of mechanical effects for the scenes on Earth,” continues Murray. “We had lots of people, cars and tents flying in every direction. There were a lot of body shells to avoid the cables that would cross faces. The majority of the practical elements were captured during the shoot.” Two space vehicles were fabricated with the art department, Murray adds. “Those set pieces were placed on tilt rigs so we could bring them up to 45 degrees for take-off scenes, and there were shaky motors to get everything shaking inside. The largest rig that we built was a tsunami. We had a 45-foot-high tip tank with two tanks each containing 3,200 gallons of water that could be dumped into a ramp right into the hotel lobby and wipe out whoever was there.”

DNEG and Framestore looked after space while Earth was handled by Scanline VFX and Pixomondo.

“Roland loves the fact that truth and reality set us apart from pure fantasy and sci-fi. Things that occur in space are in a vacuum, while things on Earth are being manipulated by the forces that the Moon bears if this should happen.”

—Kirk M. Petruccelli, Production Designer

Brian Harper (Patrick Wilson) stands before a misplaced Chrysler Building from New York City.

Three different color palettes were devised with Earth being organic, while space was chromatic and clean and the Moon colorless. “I was responsible for every digital asset that would be later used in post, so the creation of the post-production was happening far earlier in pre-production than you would imagine,” explains Petruccelli, who did 3D modeling in Maya. “The previsualization was so detailed that it was almost photoreal. You could understand what Roland was going to do and how best to tell the story. Every set was digitally created for visual effects, and then we isolated from it what had to be physically constructed to meet the needs of where Roland wanted to go.” Previs was created for every visual effects sequence. “My previs crew, visual effects supervisor and I talked about the purpose of the scene, how to build the environment and what’s happening, and then I set cameras,” explains Emmerich. “Once in a while it works. If it doesn’t work, we change it. It’s a tedious process that takes four to five months. Moonfall has 1,700 visual effects shots. You have to plan exactly what you want to do, because visual effects companies are already working on these shots while you’re shooting the movie. It is like a dance, but because I’ve been doing this for 40 years I’ve gotten good at it.”

As with the principal photography, the entire visual effects work was done in Montreal with Peter G. Travers supervising the contributions of DNEG, Framestore, Pixomondo and Scanline VFX. “You could make an easy argument that Montreal is the new hub for visual effects,” says Travers. “Considering the work that we needed and the amount people at certain facilities, Framestore and DNEG became ideal choices to add to Scanline and Pixomondo, which have longstanding relationships with Roland.”

Destruction, fires and looting occur around the Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles.

Brian Harper (Patrick Wilson) is surrounded by a mysterious force that caused the Moon to fall towards Earth.

In order to accommodate costs of the COVID protocols Roland Emmerich shot the entire project in 61 days rather than the originally planned-for 74.

DNEG and Framestore looked after space, while Earth was handled by Scanline VFX and Pixomondo. “There were clear lines. Two vendors never worked on the same shot, but assets were shared with the space shuttle being the biggest one.” Travers enjoys being able to research a different subject matter for each movie that he works on. “For this one, I learned every aspect about the Moon. There was an important process that happened in the beginning with Roland. The Moon falling towards the Earth is fantastical; however, what I ended up doing was building a physics simulation in Maya based on the question, ‘If the Moon gains more mass, could we get it to fall with actual physics?’ And we were able to do it.”

Maya is an actual physics simulator. “I built an accurate version of the Moon orbiting the Earth based on Newtonian physics,” explains Travers. “I constructed different virtual cameras showing the same simulation. Then I started messing with the physics of the Moon to see if I could get it to fall. Roland had certain requests, like having the Moon crash into the Earth in three weeks, which in essence is a design factor that got built into the simulation. What we discovered is that it’s not a perfect spiral orbit but elliptical. It was fascinating to learn what the Moon could do under these conditions. In rare instances when the Moon would be so close, you would be pulled 2Gs of gravity sideways while you’re being pulled down. There is a key sequence where the gravity is extremely unusual. This simulation ended up being our physics bible, but within that there is a certain wiggle room. But generally speaking, this was scary enough. We were also using my different cameras for actual moon size throughout the movie.”

LED panels were rigged on cranes and were constantly configured around the windows of the spacecrafts. “It got challenging because Roland wanted to shoot a master shot,” remarks Travers. “It just happened that outside there would be 10 significant events going on while these pages of dialogue were going on. We had to prep ahead of time content that would be done in Maya and be fed into the LED panels; then we would be cueing them editorially. Sometimes we were fed directly into Maya if the camera needed to be changed. There is a scene when one of the crafts is rotating quickly, so we had to have the sun rotating rapidly. We ran the sun across the LED panels. We were constantly figuring out ways to use these panels for lighting, and in some rare instances they would directly show up in camera.” The biggest design challenge was the Moon, states Travers. “I can’t [for spoiler reasons] reveal what aspect of it. It’s the best part of the movie. There is a sense of wonder. Of course, none of this is possible without Roland because he goes to places and shows us things that we have never seen before. That’s literally why we go to the theaters to watch a popcorn movie. This is what Moonfall has.”
VES TURNS 25: A CONVERSATION WITH VES EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR ERIC ROTH January 10,2022

By NAOMI GOLDMAN

Eric Roth

Visual Effects Society Executive Director Eric Roth has had a front row seat to the dynamic global VFX industry and a major role in the Society’s growth, serving at the helm of the organization’s staff for 18 years. VFX Voice sat down with Roth to get his perspectives as the Society celebrates its 25^thAnniversary.

What stands out for you as key achievements in the evolution of the Society?

On one level, it’s the tangible elements and events that have become synonymous with the Society – our award-winning VFX Voice magazine, three editions of the VES Handbook of Visual Effects, developing extraordinary VES Awards shows, our VES Honors Program and Hall of Fame, and our volunteer Committees who do important work for our organization. But on a broader sense, it’s the continuing healthy growth of the organization in terms of membership and reach. When I assumed this role, we were about 750 people, mostly situated in California; now we have more than 4,000 members in over 40 countries and 14 Sections worldwide. We are a vibrant organization that truly embodies a great sense of worldwide community for our profession. That is what I’m most proud of.

VES Awards Show host Patton Oswalt and VES Executive Director Eric Roth meet up for their annual on-stage banter.

One of the goals of the organization is to raise the profile, recognition and respect level of the visual effects industry – how are we doing in meeting those marks?

This pursuit has been one of the most dramatic efforts during my tenure. Right now, I think there is a common understanding across all sectors of entertainment that the industry’s biggest star is visual effects, which is reflected in the size of every show’s budget and what fans want to see. Hit after hit owes so much to the amazing artists who consistently deliver remarkable effects and imagery and make the impossible… possible. And as we keep forging ahead into streaming platforms and the demand for content is exploding, the future for VFX is seemingly limitless.

Tell us about the leadership of the VES Board over the years.

A huge blessing of my tenure has been working with our volunteer leaders serving on the Board in all capacities, and certainly the six people who have held the title of Chair – each of them singularly remarkable leaders. We strive to focus on issues of importance at the intersection of art, technology and business. The passion, knowledge and determination of these leaders to ensure the Society progresses have been essential as we work to represent the industry, the VFX craft and our membership.

At almost two decades as Executive Director, what does your VES legacy look like?

There are specific projects I want to see to fruition, and creating a VFX Digital Museum is at the top of my list. From interviews with luminaries to techniques and VFX props to befores/afters on awards submissions and our own rich history – I want to make sure these assets are preserved and available to our members and the rest of the world in a fun, accessible way. I also want to continue providing valuable benefits to support our members in their professional and personal lives, and our new Member Assistance Program providing health and lifestyle support 24/7 is the kind of programming I want to keep fostering. Ultimately, I’m now most interested in those projects that will stand the test of time so that my successors 30 years from now will look back and feel they have a strong foundation for the work and goals they want to achieve.

How has the VES innovated during the protracted pandemic?

With heads of the tech revolution and early adopters among our ranks, our industry pivoted quickly to tell stories in new and creative ways. And the Society shifted almost immediately into producing a wealth of online content, with dozens of dynamic webcasts and virtual events including a digital spin on the VES Awards. It was important that we maintain our traditions, while pushing the envelope of the pandemic’s constraints. The lessons we have learned to adapt and stay resilient have been invaluable.

We’re also coming up on the 20th Annual VES Awards. What is the magic of this annual event?

The VES Awards is a huge point of pride for me and my producing partner in crime Jeff Okun, as well as the VES Awards Committee, who work year-round to refine the Rules and Procedures that govern the Awards. The magic is the excitement and energy of the crowd. Every year, quieting the ballroom to start the show is a major feat, because people are so excited to be together, if only for one night. When I walk through the crowd and look at the audience from atop the stage, I feel like I am home with family.

What are some moments that stand out from these star-studded VES Awards?

So many. That time I flubbed Ridley Scott’s name and (then Fox Studios Chair) Jim Gianopulos stood up in the ballroom and called me out, mid-speech. Wafting in and out of greenroom conclaves between Jimmy Kimmel and Mark Hamill. Watching intimate moments, like Roger Corman swapping stories backstage with VES Board Chairs Jeff Okun and Mike Chambers. My annual shtick with our wonderful and sharp-tongued perennial host, Patton Oswalt. And moments that change our course, like when Steven Spielberg took the stage and passionately urged us to honor the next generation of artists. And by the following year, the VES-Autodesk Student Award was born. I’m grateful for every moment.

Can you share any closing thoughts?

The number one biggest strength and pleasure is working with extraordinary staff and passionate volunteer leaders as we serve our Board and Sections. We would never be able to pay for the caliber of award-winning artists and innovators who are on this journey with us, simply because they believe in who we are and what we do. I’ve been in the catbird’s seat for 18 years, and I’m the luckiest guy in the industry.
REFLECTIONS: VES BOARD CHAIRS ON 25 YEARS OF DRAMATIC EVOLUTION January 10,2022

By NAOMI GOLDMAN

VES Chairs group Zoom shot. Clockwise from left: Jim Morris, VES; Carl Rosendahl; Jeffrey A. Okun, VES; Jeff Barnes; Mike Chambers, VES; Lisa Cooke; and Eric Roth, with roundtable anchor Naomi Goldman.

From its ambitious inception in late 1996 with a few hundred members in Los Angeles to a flourishing global honorary society with more than 4,000 members in over 40 countries, the Visual Effects Society is proud to celebrate its milestone 25th Anniversary and the exemplary VFX community whose contributions have made the Society what it is today. As the entertainment industry’s only organization representing the full breadth of visual effects practitioners, the VES has built a rich legacy by advancing the arts, science and application of visual effects, improving the welfare of its members, celebrating VFX excellence and serving as a resource to the ever-changing global marketplace.

The Society has demonstrated its commitment to elevating the craft of visual effects and its practitioners in numerous ways, including:

• Giving birth to a tight-knit global community and 14 diverse VES Sections – Australia, Bay Area, France, Georgia, Germany, India, London, Los Angeles, Montreal, New York, New Zealand, Toronto, Vancouver and Washington;

• Publishing three editions of the industry’s go-to VFX reference, The VES Handbook of Visual Effects, and launching its award-winning print and digital magazine VFX Voice;

• Establishing the VES Hall of Fame and VES Honors program to recognize exceptional contributions to the Society and VFX community;

• Developing valuable programming that educates, inspires and uplifts, including a wealth of virtual content featuring the VFX Pros: Home Edition and VES-Autodesk Ask Me Anything: VFX Pros Tell All webcast series;

• Hosting the VFX industry’s must-attend Annual VES Awards, which recognizes outstanding VFX talent and fosters the next generation of filmmakers;

• And finding new ways to support and invest in our members, with mentoring, skills building, educational and health and wellness resources.

VES CHAIRS, ASSEMBLE!

Six distinguished professionals have served as VES Board Chair over the past 25 years, shepherding the VES’s impressive roster of programs and initiatives in conjunction with staff and Section managers. VFX Voice gathered all the chairs, with VES Executive Director Eric Roth, to share some reflections and insights. This small club of esteemed volunteer VES leaders includes: Jim Morris, VES – President, Pixar Animation Studios (and Founding VES Chair); Carl Rosendahl – Distinguished Professor of Practice and Director of the Entertainment Technology Center’s Silicon Valley campus; Jeffrey A. Okun, VES – renowned visual effects supervisor; Jeff Barnes – Executive Vice President, Creative Development, Light Field Lab; Mike Chambers, VES – acclaimed visual effects producer and consultant; and Lisa Cooke – animation and VFX producer.

Morris: The origin story: In the late ’90s, all of the studios were rolling into VFX and there was tremendous momentum, but we often felt like second-class citizens. The timing felt right to teach the industry about what we do, improve our standing and find a form for honoring the contributors to our industry. Building relationships among artists and practitioners was essential to our business, and so there was great support and acceptance to share our experiences and elevate our craft. Bringing VFX to the forefront and being part of the VES’s genesis – and this esteemed group – is a great point of pride for me.

Rosendahl: In taking the mantle from Jim, who helped realize the foundational vision for the Society, I focused on building the infrastructure… the processes and procedures that would help us mature from our infancy into a stable and sustainable organization. I was tasked with heading our recruiting committee, which ultimately brought on Eric Roth as Executive Director. Now 18 years in his tenure, I see hiring Eric as one of my biggest accomplishments.

Okun: The Awards show was really Jim’s baby… and it was a journey getting to that first show, with 350 people at the Skirball Center, to where we are today. Little known fact: we crowd-sourced the design of the award itself. One of our members came up with the Georges Méliès moon face idea, and here’s what’s unique – the back of the award is the back of a set with chicken wire and the whole thing lights up. Our award won an award for awards! What’s most gratifying is walking into the room on Awards Show night and seeing the mass of people who are genuinely excited to be there in celebration of their peers as we honor every vertical we can think of. And on serving as VES Chair – it’s a life-changer, and Jim and Carl were absolute lifelines.

Morris: I’m so glad we’ve had the opportunity to honor some of our pioneers in our early years of the show, like Lynwood Dunn and Ray Harryhausen. I have vivid memories of us then coming together to lobby the Mayor of Hollywood to get Ray a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Our show continues to be that beacon where VFX talent get their deserved moment in the spotlight. I’m so excited to attend our 20^thAwards show this year – it gives me goosebumps!

VES Founders Award recipient Toni Pace Carstensen and the late Bill Taylor at the 2019 VES Honors Celebration.

Zoe Saldana presents the Visionary Award to JJ Abrams at the 13th Annual VES Awards.

Inaugural VES Chair Jim Morris presides over the 1st Annual VES Awards.

Jimmy Kimmel and legendary filmmaker Roger Corman backstage at the 17th Annual VES Awards.

Steve Carell presents at the 17th Annual VES Awards.

Acclaimed filmmaker Ava DuVernay with VES Summit Chair Rita Cahill at the 2017 Summit.

Chambers: That rally around Ray Harryhausen is actually what inspired the Hall of Fame. While we had the Awards Show in place to honor our contemporaries, so many formative people that had passed on needed to be remembered. A lot of things came to fruition under my watch: the Hall of Fame, launching VFX Voice magazine, and certainly an explosion of global expansion, but everything was a team effort and built on what came before. What guided me when I came into this role was our mission and how could I help us continue to foster education and build recognition for the practitioners all across the industry. Over time, we have evolved into a more inclusive organization. COVID was a left turn, and yet we have been supportive and resilient during the pandemic, so adept at creating remarkable virtual programming and finding ways to keep us all tethered across the globe. We keep getting better, and that’s testament to all of our volunteer leaders and every one of our members.

Barnes: I love being around creative people, and the Society is the pinnacle when it comes to conveying outstanding professionals and using our collective resources to advance our work. When I came on as Chair, I was feeling a sense of responsibility in hiring people for my company and growing a business, and I was aiming to set some precedent and considerations that might help protect them and enhance their professional life. Providing that kind of value was and is really important to me, and I’m proud of the work not only as board member and Chair, but also as a member.

Cooke: Mike, yours were very big shoes to fill. Essentially, I inherited a beautiful, well-built house, but I didn’t have to build the house. The support among this special group who know what’s possible and how to make things happen has been invaluable. I’m proud to be the first woman in this role, and I’m committed to lifting up our future leaders so that I’m not the last.

Chambers: Our determination to outreach to all corners of the globe and to all of the disciplines across the VFX spectrum has definitely yielded us a very rich, talented membership, and that commitment to diversity will continue to be a driving force of the organization. And bottom line, more than just recognizing and honoring our history, we are actually making history for our industry… and we’re documenting it to create a powerful legacy that will endure.

Barnes: From the time that I joined to where the Society is today, it’s mind-blowing. We set out to raise the credibility and respect level of the visual effects community and shine a spotlight on the excellence of the artists and practitioners. And the extent to which that has happened is undeniable. Membership continues to skyrocket, and our magazine and awards show are acclaimed… and so our ability to have an influence gives us a great platform to keep innovating.

Okun: It’s the VES that draws the passion and respect out of people and invests it back into the Society and our industry. I may be biased, but the VES is the gold standard. The volunteerism that fuels our work, at every level, is amazing, and the new voices and new talents who are stepping up to help shape our future encourage me.

VFX legends Dennis Murren, Bob Burns, Phil Tippett, Doug Trumbull, John Knoll, Syd Mead and Ed Catmull at the 2017 VES Summit and Honors Celebration.

Lifetime Achievement Award honoree Sir Ridley Scott with Kate Mara at the 14th Annual VES Awards.

Visionary Award recipient Victoria Alonso beams at the 15th Annual VES Awards.

Rosendahl: The VES has played a vital role as an industry convener, providing forums for education and skills development, and in prompting conversations around the complexities of our rapidly evolving global marketplace. We have the aptitude to keep focused on how the industry adapts and innovates and can help shape that landscape, while we build capacity among our members to foster their success.

Cooke: When I took on this role, I wanted to delve into who the Sections are, so I’ve been on a global Zoom tour, listening in to keep building a sense of community that is a true reflection of our diverse industry. So much work is going on across the organization that fills me with pride and optimism. I’m enthusiastic about our Education Committee in developing programs to mentor young women and people of color and bring them into visual effects. That effort will only enhance our field for future generations. I’m proud that we will be introducing a Technology Award into the Awards program and of the work of our Archives Committee in capturing and preserving interviews with our VFX pioneers and luminaries. And I’m immensely gratified by the work of our Health and Wellbeing Committee, which has developed amazing resources to support our members, personally and professionally, including our new Member Assistance Program available to our members worldwide 24/7. These are the investments and benefits that make being a part of the Society so meaningful.

Okun: When VFX took the leap on the shoulders of the greats in the ’50s/’60s/’70s and the team on Star Wars – the rubber band that kicked us into orbit – that’s when the magic of VFX became a community of magicians. I begged to join the Society when it was formed, because that’s where the dark arts convened to share the real stories – and still do. We are pivotal to every aspect of the entertainment industry, and there is not a single image that we don’t touch. Our ongoing work to command the respect equal to our contributions is vital and makes a huge difference.

Morris: The esprit de corps, the camaraderie, the authentic sense of community at the center of everything we do, is why we have accomplished so much together our first 25 years… and here’s to the next 25!
VES Member Tribute January 10,2022

2022 VES MEMBERS

Our 25th anniversary issue would not be complete without celebrating our members from around the world.

You are our greatest strength and source of pride – so take a bow!

Argentina

Alejandro Iturmendi

Pablo Izaguirre

Australia

Ben Andersen

Jordan Bartlett

Jason Bath

Dan Bethell

Jason Billington

Kunal Biswas

Marten Blumen

Timothy Bond

James Bourne

Andrew Brown

Paul Buckley

Paul Butterworth

Stuart Cadzow

Kevin Campbell

Kiersten Casey

Fiona Chilton

Naeem Chudawala

Tony Clark

Andrew Clarke

Rob Coleman

Ian Cope

Fiona Crawford

Felix Crawshaw

Tim Crosbie

Kurt Debens

Domenic Di Giorgio

Zoe Diamond

Tyson Donnelly

Sigi Eimutis

Dean Elliott

Tyrone Estephan

Ian Failes

Stefan Gillard

Victor Glushchenko

Alexander Goodwin

Markus Graf

Robert Grbevski

Jonathan Hairman

Daniel Heckenberg

Sam Hodge

Lara Hopkins

Greg Howe-Davies

Benjamin Hudson

Julian Hutchens

Timothy Jeffs

Samuel Jensen

Ingrid Johnston

Bhautik Joshi

Gregory Jowle

Stephen King

Ryan Kirby

Paul Kirwan

Jamal Knight

Haris Kruskic

Alan Lam

Samuel Loxton

Linda Luong

Mathew Mackereth

Alex Meddick

Kirsteen Millar

Jay Miller

Naomi Mitchell

Bryn Morrow

Arwen Munro

Zareh Nalbandian

Kulathu House

Nandakumar Payan

Gregory Ng

Gregory O’Connor

Pawel Olas

Martin Orlowski

Christophe Pacaud

Premamurti Paetsch

Andrew Palmer

Adrian Paul

Nick Pitt-Owen

Dominik Platen

Anthony Poriazis

Justin Porter

Jeremy Pronk

Jason Quintana

Shane Rabey

Benjamin Rayner

Will Reichelt

Gabriel Reichle

Robbie Reid

Andrew Ritchie

Simon Rosenthal

Ray Ruawhare

Johannes Saam

Malte Sarnes

Mike Seymour

Dilen Shah

Ben Simons

Chris Spry

Alastair Stephen

Grant Street

Phillip Stuart-Jones

Jonathon Sumner

Aditya Talwar

Jo Ann Tan

Eleni Taylor

Lewis Taylor

Sharon Taylor

Arthur Terzis

Daniel Thomson

Anders Thönell

Ryan Trippensee

Noah Vice

Nina Walsh

Andreas Wanda

Marcus Wells

Stuart White

Bree Whitford Smith

Guido Wolter

Chris Young

Jennie Zeiher

Austria

Katharina Kessler

Martin Stegmayer

Valentin Struklec

Rainer Zoettl

Belgium

Michel Denis

Sander Jansen

Pascal Loef

Brazil

Eduardo Amodio

Alceu Baptistao, Jr.

Alexandre Cruz

Tomas Egger

Teisson Froes

Diogo Girondi

Raoni Nery

Thiago Pires

Rick Ramos

Eduardo Schaal

Marcelo Siqueira

Bulgaria

Ivan Grozev

Martin Naydenski

Canada

Charles Abou Aad

Michael Adkisson

Illia Afanasiev

Anton Agerbo

Prashant Agrawal

Nicolas Aithadi

Vladislav Akhtyrskiy

Christine Albers

Neishaw Ali

Alexandre Allain

Christopher Anciaume

Geoffrey Anderson

Kristen Anderson

Stuart Ansley

Roy C Anthony

Marina Antunes

Richard Arroyo

Arundi Asregadoo

Felipe Assumpcao

Greg Astles

Jarrod Avalos

Mostafa Badran

Fabricio Baessa

Larry Bafia

Sandra Balej

Michael Baloun

Berj Bannayan

Rob Bannister

Cristin Barghiel

Craig Barr

Francois Beaudry

Ron Bedard

Anders Beer

Greg Behrens

Jo Ann Belen

Frank Belina

Dennis Berardi

Danny Bergeron

Richard Bergeron

Laurence Berkani

Stefan Bernscherer

Romain Besnard

Melissa Best

Sucheta Bhatawadekar

Paul Binney

David Bitton

Thomas Blacklock

Duncan Blackman

Lucian Boicu

Landon Bootsma

Gaelle Bossis

Nicholas Boughen

Aharon Bourland

Eric Bourque

Gavin Boyle

Phil Brennan

Ian Britton

Andre Brizard

Scott Broad

Shaun Brown

Kevin Browne

Alan Bucior

Ayo Burgess

David Burgess

Greg Butler

John Cameron

Daniel Camp

Jeffrey Campbell

Zacary Campbell

Daniel Canfora

Dan Carnegie

Bradley Caruk

Marie Castrie

Trevor Cawood

Kevin Chandoo

Fred Chapman

Tavia Charlton

Matthieu Chatelier

Eve Chauvet

Nicolas Chevallier

Alan Chuck

Marko Chulev

Ovidiu Cinazan

Karen Clarke

Ryan Clarke

Eric Clement

James Cochrane

Sarah Coffyn

Tony Como

Cyril Conforti

Brian Connor

Chris Cook

John Cook

Shane Cook

Spencer Cook

James Cooper

Kerry Corlett

Sebastien Corne

Jacinthe Cote

Marc Côté

Pierre Couture

Mario Couturier

Daniel Cox

Louis Craig

Jan Cramer

Darren Cranford

Bret Culp

Martyn Culpitt

Colin Cunningham

Glenn Curry

Mark Curtis

Andrew Cuthbert

Rory Cutler

Laurence Cymet

Joe D’Amato

Nikolas D’Andrade

Frank D’Iorio

Cesar Dacol, Jr.

Marie-Cecile Dahan

Etienne Daigle

Johanna Damato

Kim Davidson

Michael Davidson

Colin Davies

Felipe Luiz de Andrade

Anthony De Chellis

Natalia De la Garza

Juan de Santiago

Thierry Delattre

Joel Delle-Vergin

Stanley Dellimore

Nicolas Delval

Peter Denomme

Mehul Desai

Thierry Dezarmenien

Theo Diamantis

Jeremy Dineen

Jean-Luc Dinsdale

Ben Dishart

Thai Son Doan

Eric Doiron

Peter Dominik

Jason Dowdeswell

Brett Dowler

Christopher Downs

Hank Driskill

Nicolas Dumay

Francois Dumoulin

Shawn Dunn

Charlene Eberle

Michelle Eisenreich

Mark Elendt

Filipp Elizarov

Mahmoud Ellithy

Nicolas Elsig

Eddie Englander

Eric Ennis

Jack Evans, Jr.

Pascal Favron

Jean-Francois Ferland

Maxime Ferland

Daniel Finnegan

Stacy Fish

Jean-Pierre Flayeux

Niall Flinn

Julien Forest

Jenny Foster

Carlos Fraiha

Natasha Francis

Warren Franklin, VES

Fortunato Frattasio

TJ Galda

Rosie Galvin

Eric Gambini

Himanshu Gandhi

Wei Gao

Steve Garrad

William Garrett

Duolin Ge

Brent George

Eric Gervais-Despres

Kunal Ghosh Dastider

Michael Gibson

Raymond Gieringer

Dave Giles

Laurent Gillet

Michael Goldfarb

Patricia Gomes

Claudio Gonzalez

Marcus Goodwin

Dhruv Govil

Michelle Grady

Gavin Graham

Clint Green

Derek Grime

Larry Gritz

Lars Groeger

Tyson Groth

Luke Groves

Chloe Grysole

Eric Guaglione

Diego Guerrero

Jan Habib

Robert Habros

Robin Hackl

Winrik Haentjens

Marc Hall

Bill Halliday

Noah Hamdan

Matthew Hanger

Trey Harrell

Jessica Harris

Chris Harvey

Geoffrey Harvey

Leann Harvey

Oliver Hearsey

Christopher Hebert

Shawn Hillier

Cristian Hinz

Dennis Hoffman

Noel Hoffman

Ronald Honn

Noel Hooper

Kristian Howald

Roberto Hradec

Jo Hughes

Colin Hui

Terry Hutcheson

Chrismac Hwang

Sho Igarashi

Brett Ineson

Ludovic Iochem

John Iskandar

Vanessa Jacobsen

Ruheene Jaura

Colleen Jenkinson

Vivian Jim

Sheena Johnson

Laura Jones

Phil Jones

Yann Jouannic

Marc Joubert-Nederveen

Steve Jubinville

Gregory Juby

Luc Julien

Dushyant Kashyap

Joseph Kasparian

Chris Kazmier

Scott Keating

Tyler Kehl

Michael Kennedy

Tony Kenny

Alexander Kew

Cindy Khoo

Gyuri Kiss

Andrew Klein

Duffy Knox

Douglas Koch

Patrick Kolodziejski

Carsten Kolve

Arek Komorowski

Dmytro Korolov

Marshall Krasser

Mat Krentz

Ryan Kuba

Bartek Kujbida

Mike Kwan

Melanie La Rue

Laurent Laban

Mohamed Ghouse Labbai

Pierre-Luc Labbee

Benoit Ladouceur

Guillaume Laferrière

Jeff Lait

Francois Lambert

Alberto Landeros

Isabelle Langlois

Wendy Lanning

Amanda Lariviere

Shandy Lashley

Niña Laureles

Warren Lawtey

Emilien Lazaron

Tony Lazarowich

Daniel Leatherdale

Daniel Leduc

Mai-Ling Lee

Marine Lelievre

Matt Leonard

Rudy Leti

Bruno Leveque

Brenda Levert

Jacques Levesque

Meng Li

Todd Liddiard

Martin Lipmann

William Lipsmeyer II

Frederick Lissau

Kevin Little

Noah Lockwood

Jeremie Lodomez

Nathan Loofbourrow

Marc Lougee

Blaine Lougheed

Shannan Louis

Micael Luis Kobeh

Andreas Maaninka

Chris MacLean

George Macri

Allan Magled

Robin Mangat

Jeannette Manifold

John Mariella

Simon Marinof

Ricardo Marmolejo Garcia

Richard Martin

John Mather

Praveen Mathew

Seth Maury

James May

Kate McFadden

David McGhie

Nigel McGrath

Raymond McMillan

Sarah McMurdo

Laird McMurray

Perrine Michel

Virginia Mielke

Abel Milanes

Curt Miller

Jacob Miller

Marta Mintenko

Alberto Montanes

Carlos Monzon

Sebastien Moreau

Louis Morin

Dave Morley

Ben Mossman

Nancy Mott Basi

Cynthia Mourou

Didier Muanza

Gayle Munro

Michel Murdock

Alexander Naud

Jonathan Nelson

Christine Neumann

James Nicholl

Ken Nielsen

Paul Nightingale

Chad Nixon

Nicolas Noel

Peter Nofz

Annie Normandin

Andre Nugroho

Sabrina Nunes

Philip Nussbaumer

Sean O’Connor

Steven O’Connor

Marianne O’Reilly

Eddy Okba

David Olivares

David Oliver

Stephen Oliver

Mihaela Orzea

Scott Palleiko

Christian Paradis

James Paradis

Sehwi Park

Michael Parker

Anthony Paterson

Bhakti Patwardhan

Don Paul

Addison Pauli

Gillian Pearson

Gregory Peczinka

Martin Pelletier

Stephanie Pennington

Eric Pepin

Aymeric Perceval

Jonathan Piche-Delorme

Sergio Pinto

Sylvain Plourde

Darren Poe

Vincent Poitras

James Porter

Akie Prapas

Kristin Pratt

James B. Price

Aitor Prieto

Sly Provencher

Vicki Pui

Toni Pykalaniemi

Maickel Quinet

Sebastien Racine

Mahmoud Rahnama

Jeff Ranasinghe

Kenton Rannie

Pierre Raymond

Mathieu Raynault

Julia Reck

Brian Reid

Dominic Remane

Laurent Reynaud

Guy Riessen

Chris Ritvo

Eric Robinson

Rogelio Rodriguez

Mario Rokicki

Tom Rolfe

Andrew Rosen

David Rosenbaum

Justine Rosette-Nelligan

Marc A. Rousseau

Jean-Paul Rovela

Susan Rowe

Norbert Ruf

Mark Ryan

Kody Sabourin

Paul Saint-Hilaire

Erick Salazar

Paul Salvini

David Sanchez

Anthony Santoro

Atsushi Sato

Mark Savela

Ronald Saw

Ozen Sayidof

Brandon Schaafsma

Jakob Schmidt

Francois Schneider

Matt Schofield

Brett Schroeder

Sean Schur

Sebastian Schutt

Rebecca Scott

Kevin Sears

Lisa Sepp-Wilson

Wesley Sewell

Daryl Shail

Steve Shearston

Daniel Sheerin

Kirk Shimano

Bradley Sick

Bjoern Siegert

Laureline Silan

John Silander

Graham Silva

Victoria Simiele

Subodh Singh

Corey Smith

Robert Smith

Timothy Smith

Oleg Smykalov

Jordan Soles

Vib Soundrarajah

Frederic St. Arnaud

Harrison Stark

Mark Stasiuk

Darryl Stawychny

Adam Stern

Timothy Stevenson

Jeremy Stewart

Kenneth Stewart

Jelena Stojanovic

Tamara Stone

Boyan Stoyanov

Florian Strobl

Lee Sullivan

Prapanch Swamy

Sarah Swick

Glenn Sylvester

Sebastian Sylwan, VES

Fernando Talavera

Kenny Tam

Paolo Tamburrino

Anthony Tan

Dann Tarmy

Brendan Taylor

Edward Taylor

Christa Tazzeo Morson

Fausto Tejeda

Sebastien Terme

Benoit Terminet Schuppon

Kieran Tether

Steven Tether

Sylvain Thibodeau

Melinka Thompson-Godoy

Daniele Tosti

Benoit Touchette

Tony Tsai

Jerry Tung

Tom Turnbull

Dennis Turner

Ben Unsworth

Chris van Dyck

Ryan van Steenburgh

Jayme Vandusen

Jessy Veilleux

Andres Vitale

Frank Vitz

Stephen Wagner

Cameron Waldbauer

Andrew Walker

Ross Wallis

Shawn Walsh

Xiaoming Wang

Christopher Watkins

Andrea Weidlich

Aaron Weintraub

Larry Weiss

Tyler Weiss

Jeff Wells

Craig Wentworth

Joel Whist

David Whiteson

Bob Wiatr

Shane Wicklund

Sean Wicks

Lee Wilson

David Windhorst, Jr.

Philipp Wolf

Bruce Woloshyn

Sarah Wormsbecher

Aaron Wright

Bruno Xiberras

Mavis Xu

Gustavo Yamin

Ryan Yee

Clement Yip

Christopher Young

Keri Young

Jeffrey Zablotny

Christopher Lee Zammit

Timothy Zhao

Li Zhu

Ken Zorniak

Chile

Tomas Roca

China

Ashwin Agrawal

Chunlin Mi

Wei Song

Paul Yun Zhong

Colombia

Andrea Espinal

Catherine Florez

Andres Hernandez Ospina

Brayan Linares Nossa

Czech Republic

Sridharan Kaliyamoorthy

Denmark

Thomas Dyg

Nick Thye

Finland

Maya Kylmamaa

Scott Liedtka

Sami Nikki

France

Aurelia Abate

Chadi Abo

Nasser Abo

Alexandre Ada

Renata Azambuja

Frank Baradat

Harry Bardak

Beatrice Bauwens

Xavier Bec

Malica Benjemia

Leon Berelle

Stephane Bidault

Yann Blondel

Nicolas Bonnell

Yves Bosson

Tony Botella

Bastien Brenot

Laurent Brett

David Brochard

Denis Brunier

Pierre Buffin

Pascal Buron

Damien Canaméras

Olivier Cauwet

Mathilde Chambras

Bruno Chauffard

Bastien Chauvet

Sebastien Chort

Grégoire Cirade

Brice Colinet

Catherine Constant-Grisolet

Laurent Creusot

Noemie Cruciani

David Danesi

Jonathan Del Val

Yves Delforge

Wacyl Djender

Solenn Draia

Sebastien Drouin

Emmanuel Dufaure

Maxime Dumas

Margaux Durand-Rival

Laurens Ehrmann

Mhamed Elmezoued

Olivier Emery

Sebastien Fauchere

Roxane Fechner

Christophe Ferrier

Philippe Fournier

Ludovic Frege

Fabien Girodot

Pascal Giroux

Francois Gressier

Christian Guillon

Benoit Holl

Guy-Laurent Homsy

Yannick Honore

Alexandra Houillon

Boris Jacq

Marc Jouveneau

Renaud Jungmann

Gilbert Kiner

Raphael Kourilsky

Fabrice Lagayette

Julien Lambert

Franck Lambertz

Eric Lautard

Mathieu Le Meur

Thibault Leclercq

Brice Lehmann

Cedric Lejeune

Josselin Mahot

Bruno Maillard

Yann Marchet

Gaston Marcotti

Guillaume Marien

Quentin Martin

Julien Martins

Camille Mirey

Julien Mokrani

Sandrine Moniez

Antoine Moulineau

Aude Nguyen Ngoc

Bernard Nicolas

Xavier Nicolas

Alexis Oblet

Lolet Ong

David Pelle

Franck Petitta

Emmanuel Pichereau

Stephane Pivron

Dominique Pochat

Luc Pourrinet

Nicolas Rey

Milo Riccarand

Denis Scolan

James Sénade

Antonin Seydoux

Eric Texier

Cat Thelia

Simon Thomas

Luke Titley

Edouard Valton

Nathalie Vancauwenberghe

Alexis Vieil

Milan Voukassovitch

Germany

Jan Adamczyk

Christian Arlt

Katrin Arndt

Pablo Bach

Matthias Backmann

Sebastian Badea

Andrea Block

Moritz Bock

Kirstin Boettcher

Marcelo Bortolini

Heiko Burkardsmaier

Benjamin Burr

Patrick Busse

Christina Caspers-Romer

Cristiano Cesolari

Christopher Chaber

Sabrina Christoforidis

Alessandro Cioffi

Michael Coldewey

Philipp Danner

Mauricio de Oliveira

Markus Degen

Kay Delventhal

Ernest Dios Viaplana

Rico Dober

Michael Dohne

Tobias Dommer

Manuel Dongowski

Jimmy Duda

Sebastian Elsner

Volker Engel

Timm Engelkamp

Marco Erbrich

Francesco Faranna

Imke Fehrmann

Caroline Fetzer

Jan Fiedler

Markus Fischmann

Haggi Floeser-Krey

Kai-Florian Franke

Urs Franzen

Tonio Freitag

Sinje Gebauer

Florian Gellinger

Andreas Giesen

Joern Grosshans

Michael Habenicht

Thomas Haegele

Timo Hanczuk

Christoph Hasche

Eberhard Hasche

Jasmin Hasel

Dietrich Hasse

Volker Heisterberg

Volker Helzle

Mathias Herbster

Martin Herzberg

Annika Hirsch

Falk Hofmann

Oliver Hohn

Michael Honisch

Michael Honsel

Korbinian Hopfner

Holger Hummel

Julius Ihle

Radoslaw Jamrog

Zoran Kazic

Thilo Kienle

Niels Kleinheinz

Jonas Kluger

Thomas Knop

Constantin Konradt

Tanja Krampfert

Philipp Kratzer

Jesse Kretschmer

Patrick Kreuser

Michael Landgrebe

Johanna Lange

Vincent Langer

Michael Lankes

Sebastian Lauer

Nicolas Leu

Sebastian Leutner

Mei Lee Lim

Ivan Lima

Thomas Loeder

Julian Lojek

Tim Luecker

Aaron Luk

Axel Mahler

Igor Majdandzic

Christoph Malessa

Oliver Markowski

Gus Martinez

Natalie Meffert

Sebastian Meszmann

Johannes Mewes

Marco Meyer

Michael Mielke

Tobias Moenninger

Wilhelm Molderings

Rolf Muetze

Benedikt Niemann

Sebastian Nozon

Simon Ohler

Sven Pannicke

Stephen Parsons

Enrico Perei

Roland Petrizza

Frank Petzold

Jan Piccart

Robert Pinnow

Nina Pries

Christian Pundschus

Franzisca Puppe

Daniel Rath

Leslie Renaud

Dennis Rettkowski

Simon Richter

Martin Rosenkranz

Marcus Ruhmke

Nicola Russi

David Salamon

Sven Sauer

Marlies Schacherl

Stephan Schaefholz

Lisa Schmölzer

Abraham Schneider

Erik Schneider

Rolf Schneider

Timo Schnitt

Rayk Schroeder

Dominique Schuchmann

Oliver Schulz

Tobias Schwarz

Jeremie Sebban

Olaf Skrzipczyk

Christopher Smallfield

Julia Smola

Jan Stoltz

Julia Strack

Markus Strehl

Jonas Stuckenbrock

Tom Tiller

Markus Trautmann

Dominik Trimborn

Nicolai Tuma

Joerg Unterberg

Agon Ushaku

Ute Vollmann

Matthias Waesch

Mortimer Warlimont

Jonathan Weber

Helena Wegmann

Holger Weiss

Simon Weisse

Holger Wenzl

Philipp Wibisono

Ruth Wiegand

Benita Winckler

Carsten Woithe

Kai Wolter

Michael Wortmann

Daniel Yuhlmann

Fuat Yüksel

Farhad Yusufi

Dominik Zimmerle

Greece

Savvas Karampalasis

Hong Kong

iMan Javaherypour

Hungary

Gergely Takacs

Iceland

Matthías Bjarnason

India

Pranay Agarwal

Abir Aich

Venkatakrishnan Alwar

Bejoy Arputharaj

Sherry Bharda

Devrishi Chatterjee

Virendra Chauhan

Abhishek Choudhary

Yashaswi Ram D.N

Sarang Deshpande

Philippe Gluckman

Ankit Gokani

Michael Grobe

Kartik Gurunathan

Haresh Hingorani

Natalie Jadhav

Aby John

Pradeep John

Sandeep Kamal

Kareem KH

Aslam Khader Hayath

Suresh Kondareddy

Abhishek Krishnan

Ashish Kulkarni

Prakash Kumararajan

Tim McGovern

Anish Mulani

Balaji Muppalla

Suresh Pandi

Priyan Parab

Kamal Pasupuleti

Rutul Patel

Murali Manohar

Reddy Penubadi

Balakrishnan Rajarathinam

Srinivasan S.

Pinto Sasi Kumar

Vijay Selvam

Parth Shah

Sachin Shrestha

G. Shruti

BasanntRaj Singh

Akhauri P Sinha

Bhavik Sukhadia

Pawan Tetu

Srinivas Mohan Vadlamudi

Pankaj Verma

Keitan Yadav

Ireland

Ed Bruce

Fred Burdy

Kev Cahill

Lisa Kelly

Paul Timpson

Italy

Rosario Barbera

Gaia Bussolati

Pierre D’oncieu

Nicola Danese

Maurizio Giglioli

Federico Gnoli

Francesco Grisi

Davide Luchetti

Andrea Piersanti

Luca Gabriele Rossetti

Franco Valenziano

Vanessa Velasquez

Japan

Takahiko Akiyama

Ken Anjyo

Michael Arias

Makoto Chiba

Nobutaka Doki

Noriko Gotoh

Kimiyuki Hashimoto

So Hashimoto

Nobuhiko Hayashi

Masa Inakage

Toshio Ishibashi

Norio ISHII

Masaaki Kamada

Masato Kanezawa

Toshiyuki Kimura

Megumi Kondo

Takayuki Masuo

Koji Matsunaga

Yuetsu Murakami

Koichi Nobuta

Koichi Noguchi

Koji Nozaki

Junya Okabe

Hiroyuki Seshita

Kiyoko Shibuya

Shuzo Shiota

Ichiro Tanaka

Taku Wakisaka

Satoshi Yamaguchi

Yasuharu Yoshizawa

Takafumi Yuki

Kenya

Yvonne Muinde

Mexico

Jose Carlos Garcia de Letona Velasco

Raúl Pano

Adrian Pierral

Cesar Romero

Netherlands

Aleksandar Djordjevic

Caroline Garrett

David Goubitz

Ewoud Heidanus

Roy Hoes

Chris Kiser

Gillian Mackie

Kyle Obley

Belén Palos López

Hans van Helden

New Zealand

Gino Acevedo

Richard Addison-Wood

Gerardo Aguilera

Matt Aitken

Kris Andrews

Michael Bain

Hamish Beachman

Adam Bradley

Scott Brisbane

Robert Byrne

David Caeiro-Cebrian

Cedric Canlas

Jung Min Chang

Sophie Cherry

Andrea Christie

Emma Clifton Perry

David Conley

Rachel Copp

Tommaso Corona

Marion Davey

Jason Desjarlais

Paul Dickson

Jeffrey Dillinger

Amy Dilworth

Neil Dodgson

Gregory Ducatel

Douglas Easterly

Kevin Estey

Florian Fernandez

Alex Funke

Jason Galeon

Benjamin Goldberg

Dave Gouge

Rebs Guarina

Alex Gurevich

Leon Gurevitch

Geoff Hadfield

Markus Hagemeier

Oliver Heinrich

Quentin Hema

Kay Hoddy

Teijo Holzer

Joseph Howes

Paul Jenness

Miae Kang

Balazs Kiss

Matthias Klein

Jerry Kung

Ju Hee Kwon

Mathias Larserud

Lorenzo Lavatelli

Phillip Leonhardt

Joe Letteri, VES

Lance Lones

Jacob Luamanuvae

David Luke

Ross McWhannell

Jessica Millar

Sangita Mistry

Dora Morolli

Matthew Muntean

Alfred Murrle

Mark Nettleton

Teni Noravian

Alex Nowotny

James Ogle

Alex Ortoll

Daniel Ostrov

Helen Paul

Mike Perry

Dana Peters

Dave Preciado

Henk Prins

Cesar Quijada

Ula Rademeyer

Paul Raeburn

Mark Richardson

Philippe Roberge

Kevin Romond

Justin Rotolo

Frank Rueter

Christoph Salzmann

Steven Saunders

Caterina Schiffers

Marc Aurel Schnabel

Paolo Selva

Thrain Shadbolt

Tomoko Shin

Cameron Smith

Jason Smith

Eva Snyder

Jacob Stephens

Francois Sugny

Giuseppe Tagliavini

Hirofumi Takeda

Anne Taunga

Andrew Taylor

Richard Taylor

Sandy Coco Taylor

Richard Thwaites

Geoff Tobin

Rachael Trillo

Edward Twiss

Jonas Ulrich

James van der Reyden

Rocky Vanoost

Beck Veitch

Dylen Velasquez

Eric Vidal

Sean Walker

Faye Walkington

Ben Warner

Imery Watson

R. Christopher White

Tobias Wiesner

Lisa Jane Wild

Nicholas Wilson

Erik Winquist

Dennis Yoo

Norway

Tor Andreassen

Rami Hage

Arne Kaupang

Morten Moen

Karim Sahai

Otto Thorbjornsen

Poland

Mateusz Wojt

Portugal

Qian Han

Russia

Dmitry Tokoyakov

Arman Yahin

Serbia

Petar Jovovic

Milovan Mladenovic

Singapore

Siau Yene Ang

Sam Bassett

Aleksei Chernogorod

Dayne Cowan

Nicolas Delbecq

Josiane Fradette

Nihal Friedel

Thibault Gauriau

Samir Hoon

Mark Hopkins

Natapon

Huangsakuncharoen

Barry Kane

Simran Khalsa

Goran Kocov

Michal Kriukow

Frederick LeMaster

Barry Lim

Yi Ma

Dipesh V. Palan

Phil Pham

Khalid Ali Qureshi

Zhiyang Rong

Rakesh Roopavataram

Suhit Saha

Gunther Schatz

Betty Shaw

Piotr Skiejka

Nigel Sumner

Shawn Sun Shiyu

Lionel Taillens

She Fong Yap

Jeen Yee

Pedram Ziaei

Slovakia

Vladimir Valovic

South Africa

Jonathan Alenskas

Paul Kalil

Wicus Labuschagne

Bradley Stilwell

Douw van Niekerk

South Korea

Jia Kim

Youngsam Suh

Spain

Felix Berges

Astrid Busser-Casas

Pascal Chappuis

Antonio Chumillas Fraj

Pau Costa Moeller

Isaac de la Pompa

Yusef El Khadir

David Gacituaga

Miguel Garcia-Villaraco

Tripp Hudson

Eduardo Iglesias

Silvia Montes

Juan Manuel Nogales

Javier Pacin

Oscar Perea Marcos

Ferran Piquer

Angel Rico

Jose Rossi

Gabriel Roy

Guillaume Ruegg

Juan Luis Sanchez

Carlos Trijueque

Javier Urosas Torres

Celine Velasco

Alex Villagrasa

Hidetaka Yosumi

Sweden

Dane Bettis

Mans Bjorklund

Todd Daugherty

Jonas Ekman

Lukas Fabian

Jonny Gu

Niklas Jacobson

Fredrik Limsater

Markus Manninen

Xuan Prada

Jonas Skoog

David Wahlberg

Switzerland

Matthias Buehler

Vincent Frei

Martin Prazak

Stephan Schweizer

Taiwan

Benjamin Cheung

Howard Shih

Roy Yang

Thailand

Brynley Cadman

Peter Kim

Paolo Moscatelli

United Arab Emirates

Husni Hawash

United Kingdom

Ian Abbott

Evrim Akyilmaz

Marcus Alexander

Itamar Aloni

Jahirul Amin

Jarrod Anderson

Robert Andrews

Des Anwar

Phil Attfield

Matthew Badham

Stefano Bagnoli

Priyanka Balasubramanian

Keith Barton

Cedric Battude

Sara Bennett

Hal Bertram

Angus Bickerton

Mark Boorer

Jelmer Boskma

Zakaria Boumediane

Richard Briscoe

Darren Brooker

Danielle Brooks

Jason Brown

Adam Buckner

Mark Bullimore

Murray Butler

Julia Caram

Bernard Carbin

Helen Carr

Nicolas Casanova

Klaudija Cermak

Charmaine Chan

Michael Cheung

Peter Chiang

Stefano Cieri

Will Cohen

Jon Collins

Chris Corbould

Neil Corbould, VES

David Cordon

Jean-Nicolas Costa

Hal Couzens

Ciaran Crowley

Barney Curnow

Marco D’Ambros

Lee Danskin

Russell Darling

Neil Davies

Robert Davies

Michael Dawson

Claudia Dehmel

Gianluca Dentici

Craig Dibble

Justin Dobies

Thomas Doehlen

Harriet Donington

Markus Drayss

Julien Ducenne

Mike Duffy

Danny Duke

Hasraf Dulull

Ben Duncan

Dadi Einarsson

Harry Ellard

Michael Ellis

Georg Engebakken

Peter Eszenyi

TJ Falls

Andrew Feery

Andreas Feix

Andrew Fensom

Tim Field

Kelly Fischer

Anna Ford

Nicolas Galan

Wendy Garfinkle

Clement Gharini

Mauro Giacomazzo

Terry Glass

Meetal Gokul

Joshua Gotto

Alex Grau

Emily Greeley

Johnny Grilo

John Grotelueschen

Hugo Guerra

Meg Guidon

Alexander Gunn

Jesper Gyllstad

Derek Haase

Alexis Haggar

Kirstin Hall

Jason Halverson

Raphael Hamm

David Harris

William Harrower

Ben Haworth

Andy Hayes

David Head

Karsten Hecker

Barrie Hemsley

William Heslop

Drew Hess

Grant Hewlett

Martin Hobbs

Mark Hodgkins

Christian Hogue

Jon Hollis

Thomas Horton

Ian House

Timo Huber

Jack Hughes

Gemma Humphries

Antony Hunt

Emma Ibbetson

Doug Ikeler

Andrew Jackson

Robert Janda

Matt Johnson

Christopher Johnston

Aleksandar Jovanovic

Igor Jovanovic

Guillaume Julien

Allar Kaasik

Matthew Kasmir

Gregory Keech

Tim Keene

Stephen Kennedy

Kristof Kiraly

Abigail Klimaszewska

Lev Kolobov

Andreas Krein

Wendy Laybourn

Claudia Lechen

Dan Lemmon

Philippe Leprince

Jean-Francois Leroux

Francisco Lima

Lara Lom

Charlotte Loughnane

Brooke Lyndon-Stanford

Hugh Macdonald

Greg Maguire

Jay Mallet

Christian Manz

Jan Maroske

Rudy Massar

Rachel Matchett

Anthony McCaffery

Lauren McCallum

Jonathan McFall

Mike McGee

Adam McInnes

Duncan McWilliam

Clare Melia

Christophe Meslin

Dennis Michelson

Tony Micilotta

Luca Mignardi

Milos Milosevic

Anthony John Mitchell

Helen Moody

Michael Morehouse

Giuseppe Motta

Dan Neal

David Nolan

Clare Norman

Paul Norris

Jean Claude Nouchy

Roma O’Connor

Artemis Oikonomopoulou

Christopher Page

Prashanth Pandurangaiah

Zissis Papatzikis

Naz Parkar

Cecile Peltier

Rachael Penfold

Gina Pentassuglia

Victor Perez

Matthew Perrin

Mikael Pettersen

Rob Pieké

Ariele Podreider Lenzi

Pietro Ponti

Christian Poullay

Sirio Quintavalle

Benjamin Radcliffe

Soren Ragsdale

Jonathan Rawlinson

Julia Reinhard

Simon Richardson

John Richardson, VES

Jim Riche

Hannes Ricklefs

Neil Robinson

Roni Rodrigues

Jesus Rodriguez

Andrea Rosa

Valentina Rosselli

Christoph Roth

Gavin Round

Paul Round

Adam Rowland

Reece Sanders

Robin Saxen

Andrew Schlussel

Eduardo Schmidek

Michele Sciolette

Alexander Seaman

Pilar Seijo

Kevin Shepherd

Mark Sherwood

Priya Short

Rodrigo Silva

Rupert Smith

Cameron Smither

Mark Spevick

Davi Stein

Andrew Stevens

Paul Stirling

Natalie Stopford

He Sun

Stefan Susemihl

Jeff Sutherland

Laraib Tasneem

Melissa Taylor

Marios Theodosi

Amy Thomas

Michael Thompson

Lee Tibbetts

Matthew Tinsley

Roger Tortosa Aras

David Townsend

Sanju Travis

Dominic Tuohy

Michael Turoff

Matthew Twyford

Richard Van Den Bergh

Henry Vera

Fiona Walkinshaw

Carl Walters

Pieter Warmington

Martin Waters

David Watkins

Martin Weaver

Alex Webb

Jonathan Westley

James Whitlam

Chelsea Whittet

Tom Whittington

Hayley Williams

Angus Wilson

Salvador Zalvidea

Michael Zannetou

Adrien Zeppieri

United States

Heather Abels

Mimi Abers

Daniel Abramovici

Allyson Abrams

Brett Achorn

Kenneth Ackerman

Pedro Acosta

Brian Adams

Sharon Adcock

Brian Adler

Balu Adsumilli

Ivy Agregan

Sandra Aguilar

Bjorn Ahlstedt

Dan Akers

Matt Akey

Todd Akita

Fred Aldeschulte

David Alexander

Jon Alexander

Zachary Alexander

Candice Alger

Saham Ali

Kat Alioshin

Gianni Aliotti

Graham Allan

Nigel Allan

Stuart Allan

Eric Allard

David Allen

Domenic Allen

Isa Alsup

David Altenau

Joe Alter

Jen Alvares

Torey Alvarez

Jonathan Alvord

Jason Ambler

Jessica Ambrose

Paul Ambrosiussen

Paul Amer

Ronald Ames

Sean Amlaner

Noah Amrani

Joan Anastas

Lycee Anaya

Csilla Andersen

Kirsten Andersen

Brian Anderson

James Anderson

John Anderson

Scott Anderson

Peter Anderson, VES, ASC

David Andrade

Ricardo Andrade

Brian Andrews

Baptiste Andrieux

Fatima Anes

Alexis Angelidis

Cinzia Angelini

Timothy Angulo

Bernardo Antoniazzi

Anthony Apodaca

Doug Appleton

William Arance

Salvador Arditti

Andre Arevalo

Steve Arguello

Sam Arguez

Steven Argula

Ricardo Ariza

Andy Arkin

Barry Armour

Brent Armstrong

Chris Armstrong

Austen Armus

Tansal Arnas

Joakim Arnesson

Alastor Arnold

Sabrina Arnold

Carol Ashley

Andrew Ashton

Matt Ashton

Dave Asling

Jeff Atherton

James Atkinson

Elvis Au

Nicholas Augello

David Aughenbaugh

Kevin AuYoung

Jesse Averna

Patrice Avery

Adam Avitabile

Steve Avoujageli

Ozgur Aydogdu

Gregg Azzopardi

Andrew Babick

Colleen Bachman

Michael Backauskas

Sang-Jin Bae

Yoon Sun Bae

John Baer

Vince Baertsoen

Navid Bagherzadeh

Kevin Baillie

John Bair

Christopher Baird

Katharine Baird

Suzanne Baird

Donald Baker

Heather Baker

Reid Baker

Richard Baker

Edwin Bakker

Girish Balakrishnan

Adrian Balanon

James Baldanzi

Alessandro Baldasseroni

Tony Baldridge

Justin Ball

William Ball

Scott Ballard

William Ballew

Christopher Balog

Randall Balsmeyer

Pete Bandstra

Victor Banks, Jr.

Steve Bannerman

Johnathan Banta

Marco Baratto

Eric Barba

Laura Barbera

Anthony Barcelo

David Barclay

Andra Bard

Tom Bardwell

Eran Barnea

Jeff Barnes

Marla Barrett

Pharoah Barrett

Krystyna Barron

Craig Barron, VES

Tanner Bartlett

Yuri Bartoli

Alec Bartsch

Lynn Basas

Rodney Basham

Nicholas Bates

Addison Bath

Allen Battino

Christopher Batty

Joseph Bauer

Michael Baula

Carol Bauman

Brenda Baumgarten

Ines Baumgartner

Rick Baumgartner

Greg Baxter

Jamie Baxter

David Beavis

Aaron Beck

Mat Beck

Stephen Beck

Billy Becket

Joseph Beckley

Dion Beebe

David Beedon

William Beemer, Jr.

Chris Beers

David Bees

Tehmina Beg

Babak Beheshti

Joseph Bell

Shaun Bell

Zachary Bell

Christopher Bellaci

Thomas Bellissimo

Michael Belzer

Jeffrey Benedict

Steven Benjamin

Glen Bennett

Richard Bennett

Brian Berberich

Dimitre Berberov

Matthew Berenty

Lee Berger

Nathalie Bergeron

Daniel Berkowitz

Janet Berlin

Bari Jo Berman

Eric Bermender

Joaquin Berndt

Andreas Berner

Ashley Bernes

Jim Berney

David Bernkopf

Lisa Beroud

Paul Berry

Thomas Bertino

John Andrew Berton

Tim Best

Mikael Betru

Ashley Bettini

Jason Bidwell

Christopher Biggs

Wayne Billheimer

Derek Bird

Justin Bisceglio

Ken Bishop

Donald Bitters III

Loren Bivens

Jourdan Biziou

Alfonso Blaas

Matthew Blackwell

Allen Blaisdell

Debra Blanchard Knight

Cathy Blanco

Tranel Bland

Kevin Blank

Steven Blasini

Sandro Blattner

Robert Blau

Laurie Blavin

Ian Blewitt

Jonathan Bliss

Michael Bliss

Jeremy Bloch

Kent Blocher

George Bloom

Casi Blume

Andrew Bly

Rod Bogart

Tom Boland

Cosmas Paul Bolger Jr.

Joyce Boll

Jean Bolte

Austin Bonang

Eddie Bonin

Josh Book

Steven Booth

Roger Borelli

Randall Bosh

David Bossert

Erin Bosworth

Lydia Bottegoni

Alan Boucek

Christian Boudman

Brigitte Bourque

Maria Bowen

Stephen Bowline

Virginia Bowman

Tatjana Bozinovski

Kirstin Bradfield

Susan Bradley

Monique Bradshaw

Colin Brady

Wil Braithwaite

Timothy Brakensiek

Matthew Bramante

Julie Brame

Justin Brandstater

Jake Braver

Brian Brecht

Rob Bredow

Christoph Bregler

Thomas Bremer

Elliott Brennan

Gregory Brentin

Brooke Breton, VES

Eric Brevig

Thomas Briggs

Maria Brill

Kathryn Brillhart

Daniel Brimer

A.J. Briones

Vincent Brisebois

Matt Britton

Nigel Broad

Toby Brockhurst

Billy Brooks

Seth Brower

Corey Brown

Cynthia Brown

Jeremy Brown

Susan Brown

Judith Brownbill

Daniel Browne

Max Bruce

Armin Bruderlin

Dhyana Brummel

Eric Bruneau

Matthew Brunner

Eric Bruno

Tom Bruno Jr

Marc Bryant

Alexandra Bryman

Bruce Buckley

Karyn Buczek Monschein

Brian Budak

Chad Buehler

Peter Bullis

David Bullock

Kelly Bumbarger

Culley Bunker

John Bunt

Brian Buongiorno

James Buongiorno

Duncan Burbidge

Sonja Burchard

Bryan Burger

Everett Burrell

Cathy Burrow

Chrysta Burton

Erika Burton

Glenn Burton

Justin Burton

Rob Burton

Jay Busch

Sebastian Butenberg

Corey Butler

Naidu Buyyala

Prashant Buyyala

Mark Byers

Eban Byrne

Joey Cade

Rita Cahill

Bryon Caldwell

Jimmy Calhoun

Diane Caliva

Roberto Calvo

Jean Baptiste Cambier

Gordon Cameron

Andy Campbell

Colin Campbell

Glenn Campbell

Howard Campbell

Susan Campbell

Fiona Campbell Westgate

Alexandre Cancado

Daniel Candela

Casey Cannon

Nick Cannon

Tom Capizzi

James Carbonetti, Jr.

Deborah Carlson

Kelly Carlton

Ozzie Carmona

Carrie Carnevale

Eric Carney

Steven Caron

Renato Carone

Charlotte Carr

Lauren Carr

Tim Carras

David Carriker

David Carson

Toni Pace Carstensen

Mark Casey

Mei-Ming Casino

Jeffery Casper

Christian Castaneda

Oliver Castle

Marisa Castro

Edwin Catmull, VES

Craig Caton-Largent

Korey Cauchon

Robert Cavaleri

Sarah Cave

Daniel Cayer

Bernard Ceguerra

Camille Cellucci

Stephane Ceretti

Fabrice Ceugniet

Lawrence Chai

John Chalfant

Nick Chamberlain

Jessica Chamberlin

Mike Chambers, VES

Rick Champagne

Alan Chan

Elle Chan

Andy Chang

Can Chang

Kai Chang

TC Chang

Richard Chapelle, ACS

Christopher Chapman

Gordon Chapman

Kaycee Chapman

William Chapman

Laurent Charbonnel

Francois Chardavoine

Yolanda Charlo Rodriguez

Kathy Chasen-Hay

Kintan Chauhan

Parker Chehak

Alan Chen

Belinda Chen

Jason Chen

Jerome Chen

Jerry Chen

Max Chen

Tun-en Chen

Yongji Chen

Greg Cheng

Alexey Cheprakov

John Cherniack

Peter Chesloff

Simon Cheung

Michael Chiado

Yuheng “Danka” Chiang

Jeremy Chinn

Stephen Chiu

Steve Cho

Jean Choi

Jim Choumas

Amy Christensen

Eric Christensen

Tim Christensen

Mark Christiansen

Christopher Christman

Alan Chu

Kelvin Chu

Marc Chu

Junyoung Chung

Leslie Chung

Paul Churchill

Suzanne Cipolletti

Peter Claes

Sam Claitor

Blair Clark

Lucy Clark

Richard Clark

Trent Claus

Charles Clavadetscher

Terry Clotiaux

Kay Cloud

Sarah Coatts

Seth Cobb

Dan Cobbett

Arthur Codron

Kyle Cody

Franklin Cofod

Daniel Cohen

Julien Cohen Bengio

Webster Colcord

David Cole

Zachary Cole

Robert Coleman

Joan Collins

Michael Collins

Charles Collyer

Max Colt

Aaron Conover

Patrick Conran

Casey Conroy

Jeremy Constantine

Kevin Constantine

Michael Conte

Caitlin Content

Walt Conti

Lisa Cooke

Matthew Cooke

Sibille Cooney

Chris Cooper

Doug Cooper

Jacqueline Cooper

Krystal Cooper

Allen Corcorran

Michael Cordova

Johnathon Cormier

David Cornelius

Laura Cosner

Ryan Coster

Glenn Cote

Glenn Cotter

James Coulter

Scott Coulter

Erik Courtney

Diego Coutinho de Souza

Daniel Coutinho Ferreira

Dan Cox

Joyce Cox, VES

Bruce Coy

Karl Coyner

Ronald Crabb

Timothy Crabtree

Nicolas Cragnolino

Doug Cram

Craig Crawford

Robert Cribbett

Jonathan Cronk

Derek Crosby

Janelle Croshaw

Peter Crosman

Kristofer Cross

Judith Crow

Chris Cruse

Alvin Cruz

Ana Marie Cruz

Tiffany Cullum

Gregory Culp

Chris Cundey

James Cunliffe

Michael Cunningham

Sean Curran

Gail Currey

Daniel Curry, VES

Kevin Cushing

Karen Czukerberg

Anthony D’Agostino

Beth D’Amato

Rodney Da Costa

Nick da Silva

Thomas Dadras

Amanda Dague

Jayesh Dalal

Tristan Dalley

Frank Daponte

John Daro

Sanjay Das

Patrick Davenport

Art David

Lorelei David

Alan Davidson

Andy Davis

Anthony Davis

Cory Davis

Denise Davis

Dennis Davis

Fon Davis

Gary Davis

Joel Davis

Jonathan Davis

Matthew Davis

Susan Davis

Mohammed Davoudian

Anton Dawson

Christopher Dawson

Ian Dawson

Erik-Jan de Boer

Rodrigo de la Parra

Lindy De Quattro

Mark de Sousa

Diana De Vries

Adrian de Wet

Aladino Debert

Paul Debevec, VES

Norman DeCarlo

Tyler Deck

John Decker

Sébastien Deguy

Joshua DeHerrera

Eric Deinzer

Francisco DeJesus

Matthew DeJohn

Ante Dekovic

Chris Del Conte

Doug Delaney

Vic DeLeon

Ruy Delgado

Frank DeLise

Steve Dellerson

Tara DeMarco

Lawson Deming

Jean-Marc Demmer

Debbie Denise

Marie Denoga

Shannon Deoul

Dariush Derakhshani

Eric Deren

Caleb Deschanel

Fefo Desouza

Remi Dessinges

Natasha Devaud

Sean Devereaux

David Dewaik

Rob Di Figlia

Juan Diaz

Sharon Diaz

Joseph DiCesare

Andrew Diefenbach

Carsten Dietz

Luciano DiGeronimo

Daniel Dimian

Victor DiMichina

Catherine Dinh

Eran Dinur

Luke DiTommaso

Daren Dochterman

Laura Dohrmann

Brian Doman

Timothy Donlevy

Ryan Donoghue

Ali Donovan

Jeff Doran

Jonathan Dorfman

Jason Doss

Antoine Douadi

Kathryn Dougan

Scott Dougherty

Scott Douwes

Crystal Dowd

Jon Doyle

Loring Doyle

David Dozoretz

Alexander Dracott

Linda Drake

Miller Drake

David Dranitzke

Matthew Dravitzki

Steve Drew

Wilfred Driscoll

Andrey Drogobetski

Kristen Drosinos

Mary Alice Drumm

David Drzewiecki

Olivier Dubard

Mark Dubeau

Steven Dubin

Benoit Dubuc

Robert Ducey

Sheena Duggal

Rose Duignan

Haarm-Pieter Duiker

Rama Dunayevich

Renee Dunlop

Bill Dunphy

Simon Paul Dunsdon

Lauryl Duplechan

Art Durinski

Michiko Suzuki Durinski

Eric Durst

Christopher Dusendschon

Randal Dutra

Pauline Duvall

Animesh Dwivedi

Adam Ealovega

Tim Eaton

Jody Echegaray

Rony Edde

Selwyn Eddy III

Camille Eden

Hagop Edjourian

Richard Edlund, VES

Cliff Edson

Christopher Edwards

Mark Edwards

Robert Edwards

Sam Edwards

Chad Eikhoff

Sarah Eim

Joel Einhorn

Michelle Eisley

Monique Eissing

Mohamad El Ali

Kevin Elam

Thomas Elder-Groebe

Judy Elkins

Harrison Ellenshaw, VES

Erin Elliott

Jennifer Emberly

Jason Embury

Steve Emerson

Mark Empey

Eric Enderton

Chris Endicott

Jeffrey Engel

Wayne England

Tim Enstice

Daniel Enstrom

Doug Epps

Colin Epstein

Jonathan Erland, VES

David Eschrich

Thomas Esmeralda

Tyler Esselstrom

Fish Essenfeld

Kent Estep

Jud Estes

Robert Evans

Christopher Evart

Mark Everson

Edwin Fabian

Sean Faden

Steve Fagerquist

Reza Fakharieh

Sean Falcon

Brad Falk

Garrett Fallin

Yun-po Fan

Gabi Fang

Saeed Faridzadeh

Nathan Fariss

Alison Farmer

Mark Farquhar

S. Scott Farrar

Scott Farrar

Mark Fattibene

Stephen Fedasz, IV

Ronald Fedkiw

Ray Feeney, VES

David Fein

Danielle Feinberg

Christine Felman

Mitchell Ferm

Adam Ferrall-Nunge

Henrik Fett

Katie Fico

Paul Fiebiger

Charles Finance

Gregory Finch

Michael Fink, VES

Chad Finnerty

Johnny Fisk

Ken Fisk

George Fitz

Eve Fizzinoglia

Laurie Flamholtz

Patrick Flanagan

Dadrian Flavors

Alex Fleming

Albert Florencio Da Costa

Rocco Florimonte

Brian Flynn

Heather Flynn

Tyler Foell

David Fogg

Michael Sean Foley

Blair Foord

Barbara Ford

Bryan Fordney

Christopher Foreman

Mark O Forker

Charlotta Forssman

Crys Forsyth-Smith

Tim Fortenberry

Rebecca Forth

Nathalie Fortunel

Jaime Fortuno-Lavin

Gabriel Foster

Daniel Fotheringham

Christian Foucher

Andrew Fowler

Deborah Fowler

Deborah Fox

John Fragomeni

Alejandro Franceschi

Joseph Francis

Mark Franco

Ronald Frankel

Bruce Franklin

David Franklin

Dave Franks

Aidan Fraser

Lee Fraser

Russell Frazier

Sabina Fredenburg

Lori Freitag

Mark Freund

Corey Frew

Jacob Frey

Richard Friedlander

Bradley Friedman

Haskell Friedman

Layne Friedman

Mark Friedman

Joel Friesch

Michael Fu

SuAnne Fu

Regaye Fulcher

Jack Fulmer

Christopher Fung

Dave Funston

Krzysztof Fus

Graham L Fyffe

Max Gabl

Billy Gabor

Vicki Gabor

Paul Gaboury

Vijoy Gaddipati

Gil Gagnon

Joshua Galbincea

Chris Gallagher

Philip Galler

Darnie Galloway

Diego Galtieri

Mark Galvin

Shannon Gans

Christina Garberson

Fifer Garbesi

Andy Garcia

Anthony Garcia

Jorge Garcia Castro

Frederick Gardner

W. Jacob Gardner

Joe Gareri

Kirk Garfield

Diego Garzon

Michael Gates

Mitchell Gates

Dawn Gates Wells

Philippe Gaulier

Steve Gawley

Bridget Gaynor

Jack Geckler

Brian Gee

Willi Geiger

Sara Geimer

Robby Geis

Mark Gelfuso

Sari Gennis

Paul Gentry

Clinton George

William Georgiou

Tau Gerber

Brian Gernand

Howard Gersh

Allan Gersten

Addy Ghani

Adam Ghering

Christopher Ghio

Paul Giacoppo

Angela Giannoni-DeWilde

Charles Gibson

David Gidali

Ray Gilberti

Brent Gilmartin

David Ginsberg

Diana Giorgiutti

Piotr Glabinski

Cyrus Gladstone

Frank Gladstone

Noah Glasoe

Andrew Gleeson

Rick Glenn

Barry Goch

Bryan Godwin

David Godwin

Katie Godwin

Tolga Goktekin

Evan Goldberg

Steve Goldberg

Marian Golden

Daniel Goldman

Tami Goldsmith

Paula Goldstein

Rainer Gombos

Alejandro Gomez

Jose Luis Gomez Diaz

Nathalie Gonthier

Christian Gonzales

Claudio Gonzalez

Manuel Gonzalez

Roy L Goode

Demian Gordon

Scott Gordon

Tom Gorey

Zareh Gorjian

James Gorman

Ned Gorman

Joanna Goslicka

Holly Gosnell

Christian Gossett

David Gottlieb

Dylan Gottlieb

Jason Gottlieb

Jonathan Gourley

Stephane Grabli

Christina Graff

Paul Graff

Adrian Graham

Justin Graham

Lee Gramling

Rick Grandy

Darin Grant

Victor Grant

Matthew Gratzner

Vicky Gray-Clark

Jeff Grebe

Brian Green

Colin Green

Dirk Greene

Helen Greene

Eric Greenlief

Gavin Greenwalt

Daniel Gregoire

Douglas Gregory

Michael Gregory

Eric Grenaudier

Paul Griffin

Robin Griffin

Matthew Griffith

Annemarie Griggs

Bryan Grill

Paul Grimshaw

William Groebe

Greg Groenekamp

Edward T. Grogan

Julie Groll

John Gross

Scott Gross

Joseph Grossberg

Ben Grossmann

Dave Grove

Yvonne Grzenkowicz

Kim Guedin

Patrick Guenette

Ivan Guerrero

Matthew Guerrero

Miguel Guerrero

Indira Guerrieri

Catherine Gulácsy von Gulács

Divya Gupta

Alex Guri

Donn Gurule

Glen Gustafson

Ian Guthrie

Roger Guyett

Jean-Denis Haas

Adam Habib

Jennifer Hachigian

Nathan Hackett

Christopher Hagerthy

Mary Beth Haggerty DeLoura

Adam Hall

Alexis Hall

Betsy Hall

Joseph Hall

Martin Hall

Paris Hall

James Markham Hall Jr.

Lindsay Hallett

Craig Halperin

Yasser Hamed

Mark Hammel

H Haden Hammond

Justin Hammond

Johnny Han

June Han

Michael Sean Hannon

John Kieran Hanrahan

John Hansen

Eric Hanson

Jonathan Hanzelka

Satoshi Harada

Heidrun Haraldsdottir

Jonathan Harb

Michael Harbour

Robert Harbour

Mark Hardin

Alex Harding

David Hare

Joe Harkins

Brandon Harr

Tim Harrington

Lucien Harriot

Bruce Harris

Robb Hart

John Hartigan

Jane Hartwell

Lamarcus Harvey

Todd Harvey

Sho Hasegawa

Patrick Haskew

Gregory Hauptner

Marty Havran

Jack Haye

Bob Hayes

Brad Hayes

Daniel Hayes

John Hayes

Joshua Haynie

Christel Hazard

Kimberly Hazel

Kimberly Headstrom

Chris Healer

Janet Healy

John Heller

Sabine Heller

Edward Helmers

John Helms

Ronald Henderson

Steve Hendricks

Andy Hendrickson

Joe Henke

Alex Henning

Heino Henning

Micah Henrie

Erik Henry

Linda Henry

Marla Henshaw

Kevin Herjono

Veronica Hernandez

Derek Herr

Nicole Herr

Daniel Herrera

Andrew Hertzog

Christophe Hery

Karen Heston

Warwick Hewett

Brent Heyning

Halden Hickel

Brad Hiebert

Nicholas Hiegel

Sherif Higazy

Andreas Hikel

Jason Hill

Paul Hill

Paul L. Hill

Stephen Hill

Phillip Hillenbrand, Jr.

Jimmie Hillin, Jr.

Rory Hinnen

Yoshiko Hirata

Evan Hirschberg

Sherry Hitch

Elizabeth Hitt

Wensen Ho

Robin Hobart

Shiloh Hobel

Noel Hocquet

Naty Hoffman

Phillip Hoffman

Deron Hoffmeyer

Michael Hofstein

Pam Hogarth

Larry Hoki

Richard Hollander, VES

Sharon Smith Holley

Darin Hollings

Kevin Hollon

Aaron Holly

Christopher Holmes

John Holmes

Shaina Holmes

Jason Holt

Petra Holtorf

Andrew Honacker

Richard Honig

Eloisa Honrada

Carl Hooper

Fred Hooper

Michael Hoover

Benjamin Hopkins

Jill Hopper

Brian Horn

Steven Hornby

Patrick Horne

David Horsley

Oliver Hotz

Brian Houlihan

James Hourihan

Robert House

Sean House

Beverly Houwing

Adam Howard

Angie Howard

Beth Howe

Don Howe

Barry Howell

Bernice Howes

Jason Howey

Lubomir Hristov

Chung-Pu Hsiao

Emily Hsu

Ting-Jung Hsu

Chia-Chi Hu

Jean Huang

Shyh-Chyuan Huang

Steven Hubbard

Michael Huber

Geoff Hudson

Kevin Hudson

Dorne Huebler

Eric Huelsman

Charlotte Huggins

Harley Huggins II

Katherine Hughes

John Huikku

David Hulin

Shawn Hull

Carlo Hume

Chris Hummel

Derald Hunt

Jeremy Hunt

Jill Hunt

Jennifer Hunt-Halper

Nathaniel Hunter

Patrick Hurd

Kelsey Hurley

Maura Hurley

Bob Hurrie

Jessica Hurst

Mo Husseini

David Hutchins

Thomas Hutchinson

Jan Huybrechs

Roger Huynh

Stephen Hwan

Joel Hynek

Diana Ibanez

Jay Ignaszewski

Wataru Ikeda

Iki Ikram

Nick Ilyin

Ashwin Inamdar

Michael Inchalik

Chris Ingersoll

Angelica Inguanzo

Hitoshi Inoue

Katherine Ipjian

Ruth Irvine-Hauer

Todd Isroelit

Victoria Itow-Tsering

Carlos Iturriaga

Anthony Max Ivins

Christophe Ivins, MFA

John Jack

Mark Jackels

Gary Jackemuk

Christopher Jackson

Kenneth Jackson

Linda Jackson

Michael Jackson

Michael L. Jackson

Leigh Jacob

Evan Jacobs

Tim Jacobsen

Alexis Jacobson

Joni Jacobson

Tara Marie Jacobson

Terence Jacobson

Anthony Jacques

Josh Jaggars

Hetal Jain

Clark James

John Jamieson

Yoojin Jang

Kathleen Janus

R. Patrick Jarvis

Pierre Jasmin

Jeffrey Jasper

Jaime Jasso

Daniel Jeannette

Michael Jedlicka

Helen Jen

Nathaniel Jencks

Eric Jennings

Gareth Jensen

Arthur Jeppe

Pol Jeremias-Vila

Harley Jessup

Jimmy Jewell

Luc Job

George Joblove

Christopher Johnson

Douglas Johnson

Hilery Johnson

Jeff Johnson

Kristin Johnson

Matthew Johnson

Matthew Johnson

Michael B Johnson

Nicholas Johnson

Ronald Johnson

Ty Johnson

David Johnson, VES

Jason Johnston

Andrew Jones

Benjamin Jones

Bruce Jones

Christopher Jones

Ed Jones

Justin Jones

Oliver Jones

Scott Jones

Walt Jones

Lori Joseph

Norman Joseph

Karin Joy

Chris Juen

Burt Julio

Corey Just

Shannon Justison

Mike Jutan

Noah Kagan

Jesselee Kahaloa

Florian Kainz

Lindsey Kaiser

John Kalaigian

Laurie Kallsen-George

Steven Kaminsky

Michael Kanfer

Shyam Kannapurakkaran

Bonnie Kanner

Paul Kanyuk

Matthew Kapfhammer

Jeffrey Kaplan

Jonathan Karafin

Nitant Karnik

Michael Kaschalk

Jeff Kasunic

Michelle Kater

Eryn Katz

Louis Katz

Dan Kaufman

Andras Kavalecz

Douglas Kay

Brian Keane

Heather Keister

Michael Keith

Daniel Keller

Matt Kelly

Paddy Kelly

Shawn Kelly

Kolby Kember

Matthew Kemper

Jeremy Kendall

Tom Kendall

Michael Kennen

Blaine Kennison

Bill Kent

Rachael Kent

Lee Kerley

Isaac Kerlow

Richard Kerris

Scott Kersavage

Duncan Key

Alexander Khalyavin

Kshitij Khanna

Timur Khodzhaev

Richard Kidd

Scott Kilburn

Alex Kim

Brian Kim

Da Suel Kim

Danny S. Kim

Deke Kincaid

Michel Kinfoussia

Jeanmarie King

Todd King

Bradley Kinley

Asuka Kinney

Colton Kirkegaard

Amber Kirsch

Brent Kirsten

Scott Kirvan

Michael Kirylo

Tommy Kiser

Whitney Kitchen

Perry Kivolowitz

Jeff Kleiser

Randal Kleiser

Laurel Klick

Michael Kliewer

Martin Kline

Henry Kline II

Keith Klohn

Daniel Klug

Angus Kneale

James Knight

Jonathan Knight

John Knoll

Hael Kobayashi

Mach Kobayashi

Mark Kochinski

Jacqueline Koehler

Matt Koehler

Pauline Koh

Mari Kohn

Ken Kokka

Mark Kolpack

Alyssa Koncelik-Diemer

Steven Kosakura

Stephan Kosinski

Adam Kowalski

Gene Kozicki

Maggie Kraisamutr

Daniel Kramer

Markus Kranzler

George Krauter

Heath Kraynak

John Kreidman

Nicki Kreitzman

Gautham Krishnamurti

Paul Krist

James Kristoff

Mike Krohn

Bill Kroyer

Randall Krueger

Dana Krupinski

Bridgitte C Krupke

Daniel Kruse

Christian Kubsch

Eva-Maria Kuehlmann

Yorie Kumalasari

Vishishth Kumar

Frances Kumashiro

Kevin Kunze

Lincoln Kupchak

Markus Kurtz

Matt Kuruc

Yasumasa Kutami

Kevin Kutchaver

Matt Kutcher

Matthew J. Kutcher

Thilo Kuther

Tomash Kuzmytskyi

Helen Kwok

Kelly L’Estrange

Jaime Labelle

Henry LaBounta

Josh LaBrot

Shauna Lacoste

Vinnie LaCour

Adam LaGattuta

Kelly Lake

Randy Lake

Martin LaLand Romero

Ben Lam

Kenny Lam

Martin Lam

Paul Lambert

Christopher Lance

Hayden Landis

Cleve Landsberg

Ryan Laney

Cameron Langs

Lee Lanier

Lorne Lanning

Jeroen Lapre

Evan Larson

Kenneth Larson

Lisa Lassek

David Latt

Theresa Latzko

Alexander Laurant

Gary Laurie

Peter Lauritson

Matthew Lausch

Kim Lavery, VES

Jennifer Law-Stump

Michael Lawler

Aaron Lawn

David Lawson

Joseph Lawson

Kurt Lawson

Martin Lazaro

Phi Le

Tram Le-Jones

Alison Leaf

Demetrius Leal

Ryan Leasher

David Lebensfeld

Michael Lebensfeld

Scott Leberecht

Andre LeBlanc

Sophie Leclerc

Derek Ledbetter

Chris LeDoux

Mark LeDoux

Austin Lee

Don Lee

Gong Myung Lee

Han-Chin Lee

Herman Lee

Hyun-min Lee

Jang Lee

Jax Lee

Jenn Lee

Lawrence Lee

Matthew Lee

Woei Lee

Robert Legato

Mike Lehman

Marcus Lehto

Kira Lehtomaki

Eric Leidenroth

Craig Leigh

Michael Leitmann

Alex Lemke

David Lenihan

Michael Leone

John Leonti

John LePore

Leslie Lerman

Vlad Leschinski

Michael Lester

Deven Letendre

Victor Leung

Jim Leuper

Ahavatyah ‘Votch’ Levi

John Levin

Eric Levin-Hatz

Dave Levine

Adam Levy

Didier Levy

Mickey Levy

Stewart Lew

Janice Lew-Bastian

Alex Lewis

Beren Lewis

Joe Lewis

Rachelle Lewis

Andrew Lewitin

Suzanne Lezotte

Mark LHeureux

Linghao Li

Millie Li

Nan Li

Mark Lieberman

Gregory Liegey, Jr.

Brice Liesveld

Erik Liles

Alisha Lim

Nelson Lim

Neil Lim Sang

Daniel Lima

Richard Lima

Andy Lin

Cindy Lin

Jason Lin

Kevin Lin

Kuan Lin

Yi-chao Lin-Chiang

Torbjorn Lindback

Bryanna Lindsey

Van Ling, VES

Kevin Lingenfelser

Randy Link

Shawn Lipowski

Lenny Lipton

Robert Liscombe

Randy Little

Benjamin Liu

Francis Liu

Tingting Liu

Ying Liu

Michael Liv

Laura Livingstone

Victoria Livingstone

James Livolsi

Michelle Lloyd-Samson

Daniel Lobl

John Locke

Carl Loeffler

Michael Logan

Jack London

Hal Long

Julie Long

Sam Longoria

Patrick Longstreth

Benjamin Looram

Dan Lopez

Michael Lorrain

Bill Lorton

Andrew Loschin

Julia Lou

George Loucas

Justin Louis

Conan Low

Stuart Lowder

Daniel Lowenberg

Bob Lowery

Wei “Victor” Lu

Doug Luberts

Nick Lucas

Alberto Ludena

Stephen Lumley

Viktor Lundqvist

Alison Luong

Boris Lutsiuk

Lap Luu

Dean Lyon

Skye Lyons

Wanchun Ma

Daniel Maas

Don MacBain

Morgan MacCuish

Andrew MacDonald

Euan Macdonald

Martha Mack

Ross Mackenzie

Sean Mackenzie

Kim Mackey

Michael Macklin

Alastair Macleod

Dawn Macleod

Jason MacLeod

Douglas MacMillan

Timothy MacMillan

John Madden

Carol Madrigal

Jessica Madsen (Bakke)

Siddhartha Maganti

Anthony Magliocco

Luca Magnanini

Cecil Magpuri

Thomas Mahoney

Cristiane Maia

Marco Maldera

Marco Maldonado

Michael Maley

Namit Malhotra

Lee Malone

Yarin Manes

John Mangia

Ajoy Mani

Samuel Maniscalco

Jeff Mann

Dev Mannemela

Benoit Mannequin

Arnon Manor

Rune Mansson

Michele Maples

Francine Marchetti

Mark Marcin

Sharon Marcussen

Kevin Margo

Nick Mariana

Anthony Marigliano

Sarah Marikar

Jose Marin

Ian Markiewicz

Alan Markowitz

Harrison Marks

Andrea Marotti

Ed Marsh

Carol Marshall

Gary Marshall

Gray Marshall

Tia Marshall

Bettina Martin

Christopher Martin

Douglas Martin

Thomas Martinek

Andres Martinez

Maya Martinez Smith

Steve Martino

Patrick Marty

Ken Maruyama

Stu Maschwitz

Wendy Mashburn

Sergii Mashevskyi

Fumi Mashimo

Albert Mason

Terrence Masson

Todd Masters

Giuseppe Mattiolo

Matthew Maude

Will Maurer

Olivier Maury

Peter Mavromates

Kevin May

Steve May

Dale Mayeda

Bjørn Mayer

Phillip Mayer

Vinessa Mayer

Kenneth Mayfield

Jacob Maymudes

Andre Mazzone

Rich McBride

Ian McCamey

Vicky McCann

James McCarter

Omar McClendon

Omar McClinton

Aaron McComas

John McConnell

Barbara McCullough

Scott McCullough

Matthew McDonald

Petra McElvenny

Randy McEntee

Sarah McGee

John McGinley

Scott McGinley

Kevin McGowan

Sarah McGrail

Emma McGuinness

Nathan McGuinness

Mark McGuire

Robert McInnis

John McIntosh

Mare McIntosh

Ray McIntyre Jr.

Rich McKain

Allan McKay

Sherry McKenna

Garrett McKerlie

Jason McKinley

Kyle McKisic

Aaron McLane

Tim McLaughlin

Brian McLean

Marianne McLean

Sean McLean

Pat McNeely

Michael McNeill

Kevin McTurk

Arnie Mecham

Christopher Medley-Pole

Garrick Meeker

Michael Melchiorre

Juan Melgoza

Nicole Melius

David Mellor

Edwardo Mendez

Joel Mendias

Abraham Meneu Oset

Jie Meng

David Meny

Tory Mercer

Joel Merritt

Arthur Mesa

John Mesa

William Mesa

Brian Metcalf

Mischa Meyer

Robert Meyers

Pablo Mica

Ludovick Michaud

Tadao Mihashi

Thomas Mikota

Gavin Miljkovich

Alvah Miller

Grant Miller

James Michael Miller

Jed Miller

Julie Miller

Mark Miller

Mike Miller

Paul Miller

Stephen Miller

Tim Miller

Brian Millman

Corey Milne

Scott Milne

Michael Min

Glo Minaya

Mark Mine

William Mings

Natt Mintrasak

Craig Mirkin

Kamal Mistry

Chris Mitchell

Justin Mitchell

Sean Mitchell

Curt Miyashiro

Mahito Mizobuchi

Roger Mocenigo

Brian Moffet

Terry Molatore

Robert Molholm

Colin Moll

Pablo Molles

Ashley Monastra

Rodney Montague

Rohini Montenegro

Brittany Montero

John Eric Montgomery

Tim Montgomery

Ryan Montrucchio

Christopher Moore

Douglas Moore

Mac Moore

Ronald Moore

Troy Moore

Arturo Morales Rangel

Ivan Moran

Joey Morelli

Daniel Moreno

Michael Morgan

Jacquelyn Morie

Lauren Morimoto

Chris Morley

Anthony Morrelle

David Morris

Katie Morris

Thaine Morris

Jim Morris, VES

Jake Morrison

Shelly Morrow

Aaron Mortensen

Ashley Mortensen

Raphael Mosley

Victoria Most

Michelle Motta

Peter Moyer

Kenn Moynihan

Michael Muir

Mike Mulholland

Brian Mullen

Kevin Mullican

Craig Mumma

Gary Mundell

David Munier

Steven Muniz

Dennis Muren, VES

Brendon Murphy

K.C. Murphy

Karen Murphy

John Murrah

Ken Museth

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Will Muto

Bud Myrick

Paul Naas

Val Nabilskiy

Naren Naidoo

Rajesh Naiksatam

Kenneth Nakada

Roger Nall

Jasen Nannini

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Primo Navidad

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Charlotte Nelson

David Nelson

Derek Nelson

Jeremy Nelson

John Nelson

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Keith Nesson

Davy Nethercutt

Maia Neubig

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Gigi Ng

An-Tim Nguyen

Vinh Nguyen

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Doug Nichols

Jacob Nichols

Bruce Nicholson

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Louis Race

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Justin Raleigh

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Rick Ramirez

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Natasha Rand

Eliza Randall

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Phil Ross

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Nirad Russell

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Katie Weinberg

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Cary Welton

Mark Wendell

Olaf Wendt

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Neha Wickramasekaran

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Cyrus Wilson

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Adrian Winter

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Florian Witzel

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Patrick Wolf

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Audrey Wong

Carmen Wong

D’Lun Wong

Darren Wong

Eric Wong

Raymond Wong

Shelby Wong

Kieran Woo

Nicolas Woo

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Christian Wood

Lorin Wood

Stephen Wood

Laurel Woods

Alena Wooten

Wayne Wooten

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Jay Worth

Niel Wray

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Steve Wright

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Michael Wynd

Steve Wyskocil

Adhish Yajnik

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Allen Yamashita

Dawn Yamazi

Heungmo (Momo) Yang

Kaitlyn Yang

Lindsey Yates

Genevieve Yee

Gee Yeung

Teruyuki Yoshida

Amy Young

Brent Young

Mark Youngren

Scott Younkin

Debbie Yu

Gongqi Yu

Scott Yu

Susumu Yukuhiro

Dean Yurke

Joseph Zaffuto

Fran Zandonella Benjamin

Habib Zargarpour

David Zeevalk

Christian Zeiler

Rhaz Zeisler

Matthew Zelli

Alina Zepeda

Craig Zerouni

Dianshuo Zhang

Wei Zheng

Mingquan Zhou

Claudia Zimmer

Jason Zimmerman

Louis Zutavern

Susan Zwerman, VES
RANDALL WILLIAM COOK: AN OSCAR WINNER’S JOURNEY FROM HARRYHAUSEN TO HOBBITS January 10,2022

By ADAM EISENBERG

Photos courtesy of Randall William Cook, except where noted.

Cook and Harryhausen, 2012. Harryhausen passed away in 2013 at the age of 92. In 2019, Cook was made an advisor to the Ray and Diana Harryhausen Foundation.

When Randall William Cook arrived for his first day on the set of The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, director Peter Jackson immediately put him to work. Jackson introduced Cook to miniature supervisor Richard Taylor and to the enormous model Taylor and his team had constructed for the towering stone steps of Khazad-Dûm.

“Peter rushed me through the set and told me I was going to direct the previz animation,” Cook says. “We talked through the sequence with everybody offering opinions, including me. There were lots of ideas thrown out and I couldn’t see how they gelled, so I asked: ‘Do you want me to do what everybody’s been saying?’ ‘No,’ Peter replied. ‘You just do it. This is you.’”

From those initial words of encouragement, Cook went on to design one of the most breathtaking action sequences in The Fellowship of the Ring. In the scene, Frodo and company are deep in the dark mines of Moria, fleeing for their lives over stone stairs that are hundreds of feet high. As Orcs launch a barrage of arrows, the ancient steps crack and crumble beneath the Fellowship’s feet, revealing a bottomless chasm below.

“They gave me a scan of the miniature and little scale puppets of all the Fellowship guys,” Cook explains. “I choreographed the whole sequence from a God’s eye point-of-view and created a very simple presentation that Pete signed off on. Then I blocked out the camera positions, and my team of about four guys and I refined the previz. Pete gave the sequence to a second unit director and told him to copy it exactly and, with the exception of one or two shots, everything in the final film – from the lenses used to the angles to the cutting to the action – was from my previz.”

The Khazad-Dûm sequence represents just one of the many contributions Cook made as Animation Supervisor on The Lord of the Rings trilogy. It also demonstrates how his cinematic career has served as a bridge between the stop- motion techniques that brought the original King Kong to life and the modern motion capture technology that made possible the hobbit-gone-mad Gollum. Along the way, Cook has won three Academy Awards, but he is most proud of his close friendship with effects master Ray Harryhausen.

Cook’s success was far from certain in 1975 when he graduated from UCLA’s film school with the dream of becoming an actor and director. His first post-college job was an animation apprenticeship at Disney at a time when cartoon features were in decline and the studio was focused on forgettable live-action comedies.

Disney provided an opportunity to interact with great animators, including many of the original Nine Old Men, but Cook’s most high-profile assignment was drawing live-action gags for the Volkswagen and human characters in Herbie Goes to Monte Carlo. It was less than inspiring work, and after a year his apprenticeship was suddenly cut short.

“I got fired!” Cook recalls with a laugh. “John Lasseter also spent time in their apprenticeship program, and he tells people, ‘Randy and I were fired because we were too good.’ But truthfully, I wasn’t Disney material, and I knew that going in.”

Fortunately, the mid-1970s was an exciting time for low-budget science fiction films. Cook quickly landed on his feet doing stop-motion animation for The Crater Lake Monster, Laserblast and The Day Time Ended, alongside other young artists like Jim Danforth, Ken Ralston, VES, Jon Berg, Phil Tippett, VES and David Allen. He also worked for Rob Bottin on Humanoids from the Deep and on John Carpenter’s The Thing.

Then came 1981’s Caveman, a prehistoric comedy starring ex-Beatle Ringo Starr and The Spy Who Loved Me’s Barbara Bach. Cook was one of the key animators of comical stop-motion dinosaurs that stole the show, and the movie’s cult success led to a multi-year position at Richard Edlund’s (VES) Boss Films.

At Boss, Cook sculpted and animated the stop-motion puppets for the terror dogs in Ghostbusters, and choreographed the performances of the live-action full-scale puppets on set. He also worked on 2010, Fright Night, and Poltergeist II, and was planning to work on the next Boss project, Big Trouble in Little China, when director Tibor Takács approached him with an opportunity he couldn’t refuse – the chance to supervise the effects for The Gate.

“Working under Richard Edlund with Steve Johnson and a bunch of other competing talents was great,” Cook says. “But everyone wanted their voices heard and, as a consequence, sang very loudly. Tibor was going to let me do just about whatever I wanted effects-wise, so it wasn’t much of a choice.”

Cook and Ray Harryhausen, 1987.

Cook manipulating the Wolf Lizard puppet from The Day Time Ended (1979).

Cook “standing” in a scene from Caveman (1981) beside the T-Rex puppet he animated.

Sigourney Weaver pays a visit to Boss Films during the making of Ghostbusters (1984) and views her alter ego, a terror dog. (Photo: Virgil Mirano, Boss Film Studios)

Ghostbusters effects cameraman Jim Aupperle, right, takes a light reading as Cook adjusts the stop motion terror dog. (Photo: Virgil Mirano, Boss Film Studios)

In The Gate, teenagers accidentally open an entrance to Hell in their backyard and find themselves under attack from foot-tall minions and a multi-story-high Demon Lord. To accomplish the illusion of tiny minions, Cook convinced Takács to use forced perspective sets and in-camera tricks that were throwbacks to Disney’s Darby O’Gill and the Little People.

“You want to make the audience believe they’re seeing something that’s real,” Cook says, “and even if they know it’s fake – and they have to know it’s fake – they won’t know how the hell you did it. Darby O’Gill was a huge inspiration to me. What makes it magical is when the tiny leprechauns are dancing in front of the big Darby O’Gill, but they’re actually farther away from the camera and he’s closer up. That really confuses your mind because you expect the small guys to look as though they are behind the big guy.

“On The Gate, I planned shots with economy in mind,” he adds. “First, I figured if we had guys who were five-and-a-half feet tall playing the tiny minions, the sets could be a bit smaller, and the camera depth of field could be a bit shorter than if we had guys who were six feet. Every inch counts. Second, doing it in forced perspective put much of the budget on the art department. Fortunately, we had a really good art department under Bill Beeton that built four-times-scale brick walls and other set pieces that were gorgeous.”

Cook next collaborated with Takács on I, Madman, a horror thriller about a young woman who becomes entranced by a mystery novel she’s reading, only to find herself stalked by the crazed author and a fictional monster from the book. Cook not only supervised the visual effects, but also played the horribly disfigured author modeled after Lon Chaney.

Following I, Madman, Cook oversaw the effects for The Gate II, directed a segment of TV’s Life Goes On, and directed and co-wrote the fantasy film Demon in a Bottle.

Peter Jackson first contacted Cook in 1992 to do stop-motion work on a film Jackson was planning called Blubberhead. That project never got made, but the two stayed in touch and finally had the chance to work together on The Lord of the Rings.

Cook arrived in New Zealand in October 1998 and spent the next five years completing the trilogy. It was challenging, monumental work. His extensive previz work and other duties eventually earned him the title of Animation Supervisor, but he found himself consulted on a lot of sequences that had nothing to do with animation.

“For the scene in The Two Towers where Treebeard is first introduced,” he recalls, “Fran [Walsh, producer and screenwriter] originally staged it with the hobbits running from the orcs and, suddenly, two tree-branch hands come down and pull them out of the frame. I said: ‘Why don’t we have the hobbits climb up the tree and look around, not realizing it’s Treebeard’s face? One hobbit has his hand on Treebeard’s nose. He looks back, and Treebeard is already looking at him. The hobbit looks away, does a take, and looks back at him. Treebeard’s head turns, and the hobbit falls off.’

“We did a previz of the scene this way. I wasn’t there when they ran it in the dailies, but according to several people including Pete, Fran turned to Pete and said, ‘What’s this?’ Pete replied with a chuckle, ‘Well, apparently somebody thought they had a better idea than you.’”

Cook supervised the effects and played the psychotic author Malcolm Brand in I, Madman (1989).

Cook animating a bat puppet for Fright Night (1985). (Photo: Virgil Mirano, Boss Film Studios)

On Return of the King, Fran Walsh presented Cook with different problems to solve. “She came to me and said, ‘We want the ring to fall into the lava, and as soon it does Sauron will know the hobbits are trying to destroy the ring. But we want to play Frodo and Sam on the cliff after Gollum falls in with the ring. What do we do?’ I thought about it and said, ‘The ring was forged in high temperature, right? It can float on top of the lava and start to melt, but it doesn’t completely dissolve until you’re ready for it to finish melting.’

“I made a lot of suggestions that had nothing to do with animation,” Cook adds. “Peter and Fran were very generous and willing to collaborate, and I adored them both.”

Throughout the project, Cook and his team drew inspiration from a variety of sources, although sometimes he didn’t realize an influence until years later. In The Fellowship of the Ring, for example, Gollum appears only briefly in a shot where he is seen mostly in shadow and his hands reach into frame.

“I came up with that and animated it myself,” Cook explains. “A couple of years ago my daughter Matilda and I were watching Gunga Din, and at the end of the film, Sam Jaffe climbs to the top of the temple. You see the ledge and you see his hands come up, and I suddenly realized: ‘Son of a bitch! I stole that from Sam Jaffe!’

This past December marked the 20th anniversary of the debut of The Fellowship of the Ring. The film arrived in theaters just three months after terrorists crashed airplanes into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, and the 9/11 tragedy cast a long shadow over the final months of post-production.

“Peter and Fran called everybody together that morning,” Cook recalls, “and they were very sympathetic and solicitous to the Americans. Everybody was shocked, of course, but we still had a movie to finish.

Cook standing in as Gollum with Elijah Wood for a practice shot on the Stairs of Cirith Ungol for Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring (2001).

Scene from King Kong (2005) with Cook playing one of the pilots who attack Kong atop the Empire State Building. Frank Darabont is his gunner.

Cook and his Demon Lord creation for The Gate (1987).

“One of the last sequences in Fellowship to go into production was the prologue,” he adds. “The motion capture editor, Patrick Runyon, wanted my final approval on a shot of motion capture guys falling off a cliff in a rolling wave of bodies. But the week before I had watched live footage of real people jumping out the windows of the World Trade Center, and it was devastating. So, I said: ‘I trust you. If you think it’s fine, it’s fine, because I can’t look at that now.’”

After The Lord of the Rings trilogy, Cook served as a second unit director for Jackson’s remake of King Kong. His duties included directing the first dinosaur attack involving a Ceratops that was cut out of the theatrical release but is included in the extended version. He also directed the flying planes that attack Kong atop the Empire State Building and played one of the pilots – writer/director Frank Darabont was his tail gunner.

These days, Cook consults on a variety of projects and is hoping to direct Sinbad and the Sorcerer’s Bride, a fantasy he co-wrote with David Cairns that combines Hitchcockian suspense with the cheekiness of Ernst Lubitsch and the magic of Ray Harryhausen’s The 7th Voyage of Sinbad.

Cook saw 7th Voyage when he was seven and instantly fell in love with Harryhausen’s unique stop-motion approach known as Dynamation. Then, when he was 19, he met Harryhausen.

“Ray’s mother lived in Los Angeles and her number was in the phone book,” he says. “I called her up to get his address in London, and Ray happened to be visiting at the time. I didn’t have anything to show except for a couple of drawings and a little makeup thing I’d done, but I wanted to meet and get a sense of him because his work meant so much to me. Somewhere along the line Ray saw the work I did for Caveman and other projects, and we became friends.”

Forced perspective shots from The Gate. A workman falls on the floor and breaks into tiny minions. While the human teenagers appear to be behind the minions, they were actually in the foreground near the camera, perched on a normal-scale set piece suspended 15 feet above a larger-scale set below.

Cook and motion capture actor Andy Serkis reviewing a scene for The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002).

Cook and Jim Rygiel at 2003 Academy Awards where they won an Oscar for Best Visual Effects for Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring. Cook won the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects for three consecutive years (2002, 2003 and 2004).

Harryhausen’s final film was 1981’s Clash of the Titans. Just 12 years later, Steven Spielberg’s Jurassic Park introduced the world to CGI dinosaurs and, suddenly, Harryhausen’s Dynamation was considered passé. Even so, Cook says the effects master didn’t hold any hard feelings.

“CGI is a whole different approach,” he explains. “With stop-motion, blinking eyes require three to six separate rubber lids or a piece of clay that’s put on and sculpted per frame. You wouldn’t have the lashes or the meniscus – you’d just have the blink. With CGI, a character’s blinking eyes can be a wonderful simulation of flesh and muscle and skin and the mucous membrane. And the eyeball – rather than a doll’s eye or an acrylic eye made in your own shop – can be a gelatinous, dilating organ that perfectly simulates the way the eye transmits light and reacts to outside light sources.

“By the time CGI had arrived, Ray was a virtuoso in retirement who had no need or desire to learn a new instrument,” Cook adds. “Had Ray been born later I think he would have gotten CGI and created his illusions using a computer. As a boy I loved Ray’s films, but I was not reacting to stop-motion, I was reacting to Ray Harryhausen. I loved his work because of what that particular artist put into his work, and Ray just happened to be using stop-motion as his medium of expression.”

Harryhausen passed away in 2013 at the age of 92, and Cook is an advisor to the Ray and Diana Harryhausen Foundation.

Looking back on his own career, Cook recalls the night in 2002 when he won his first Academy Award for The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring. After the ceremony, Robert Redford came up to him and asked how it felt to hold an Oscar.

“I said, ‘It feels wonderful. But four weeks ago, my boyhood idol, Ray Harryhausen, came down to New Zealand and brought with him the skeleton from The 7th Voyage of Sinbad. I got to hold that, a thrill that has thrown this one into a slight shadow. Holding this Oscar is great, but the skeleton from Sinbad is why I got into the business.’”

Board of Directorsadmin2022-01-13T13:38:36-08:00

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