Jason Smith: Mormon Animator

Jason Smith is an animator who currently works as an associate visual effects supervisor at Industrial Light and Magic (ILM) where he oversees feature films digital effects, especially digital creatures. He was nominated for an Academy Award for best visual effects for his work on the film The Revenant (2015). His character work on the Hulk in The Avengers (2012) was nominated for a Visual Effects Society Award. He also worked on Rango (2011), Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest (2006), Star Wars: Episode III—Revenge of the Sith (2005), and Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005). He was visual effects supervisor on Warcraft (2016), the big-screen adaptation of the popular video game.

Smith earned his bachelor’s degree from Brigham Young University with a minor in visual arts in the computer science animation program. Part of his curriculum was studying traditional sculpture and prosthetic makeup effects. He joined ILM in 2001 as a technical assistant and became a creature technical director in 2003. He is co-creator of Block PartyTM, ILM’s proprietary creature rigging system. He also invented ILM’s Dynamic Rigging process used to accomplish the robot transformations in the film Transformers.

Smith is a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.