Stormborn Studios is a Vancouver-based FX-house that specializes in complex, state of the art FX. Focusing solely on providing high quality effects and consultation services, the Stormborn team prides itself on its creativity and efficiency. Operating as an external effects department allows the team to maintain a streamlined pipeline equipped with optimized FX tools.
The core team is comprised of three senior FX technical directors and supervisors with over 30 years of combined industry experience. From small-scale projects to Hollywood productions, the Stormborn team has worked for renowned studios all over the world, including ILM, Weta, Scanline and many more. The scope of work that Stormborn offers includes a wide variety of FX, including large scale destruction setups, volumetric and fluid simulations, as well as procedural and particle effects.
Whether your studio needs an FX department with an established pipeline, or wants to supplement an existing project with a team of skilled specialists, Stormborn can provide you with everything you need to complete FX heavy productions.
Rising Sun Pictures
March 2015 - August 2015
Adelaide, Australia
- Created fx rigs for effects including fire, smoke, shale slide debris, clouds, ashes
- Implemented various pipeline tools using Python, such as a mesh cash exporter for Alembic
- Shot work on the films Tarzan, Pan & Gods of Egypt
Industrial Light & Magic
November 2014 - March 2015
Vancouver, Canada Area
Creating FX for the Avengers 2: Age of Ultron
Falling debris RBD & dust rig, complex paper digital asset handling collisions and custom vector fields, geometry cutting tool based on splines drawn by users in the viewport supporting VDB
Wētā FX
August 2014 - October 2014
Wellington & Wairarapa, New Zealand
Creating FX for the Hobbit: Battle of the 5 Armies.
Smoke plume libraries with Synapse (Weta's inhouse volumetric fluid solver), ground interaction simulations on animated characters & massive crowds, burning chariot fire rig
Industrial Light & Magic
March 2014 - July 2014
Vancouver
Transformers: Age of Extinction:
Rigid body simulations (RBDs), particle instancing setups, volumetric smoke, missile trails, smoke explosions, gore flip fluid simulations, spark setups, ambient dust, procedural
Sony Pictures Imageworks
September 2013 - February 2014
Vancouver, Canada Area
The Amazing Spiderman 2: Electric arc particle set-ups, Katana rendering & pre-comp, proce
- dural dust & smoke libraries (including Katana macro)
- RBD simulations (Bullet in Houdini)
Double Negative
February 2013 - August 2013
London, United Kingdom
- Godzilla: hanging dust, debris RBD, trailing smoke, dirt particles, look dev & simulations
- The Hunger Games: Catching Fire: procedural mist set-ups in Houdini, death fog volume
Rhythm & Hues Studios
April 2012 - February 2013
- Category 6: Tornado look development in Houdini, super cell cloud cluster set-ups
- R.I.P.D.: “soul bullet” tool development and artist support, debris vortex force tool, DOPs SOP
Lead FX Artist
Prime Focus World
2011 - 2012
- artist training and support in Houdini
- initial Houdini Pipeline implementation support and FX lead
- M.I.B. 3: Houdini procedural steam solutions and various particle set-ups
FX Artist
Prime Focus World
2010 - 2011
Final Destination 5:
- bridge destruction simulation with Thinking Particles in 3DS Max
- various Max Script texturing tools
