SteveWright

Director of Education

Our Founder, Steve Wright, is an award winning Senior Visual Effects Artist & Pioneer with over 25 years of production experience creating digital visual effects for over 70 feature films and 70 television commercials. His extensive film credits may be viewed on IMDb.

As a Senior Digital Compositing Artist and 2D Technical Director, Steve has an unusual combination of both the artistic and technical understanding of digital compositing.

Steve is also a well-received public speaker, published author, prolific writer, and a widely recognized expert in the digital effects industry.

He now devotes his time to teaching and training students from beginners to pros on both the technical and artistic sides of VFX compositing. As a master trainer, Steve conducts live location-based classes, online mentored workshops, and has traveled to over 25 VFX facilities around the world to conduct digital compositing training for their entire staff.

Steve's Digital Career

Steve’s digital effects career actually started in the 80’s at Atari where he designed and programmed video games.

From the video game industry he then joined Robert Abel & Associates, the award winning leader of the 3D animation industry producing leading edge CGI commercials for television.

From Robert Abel & Associates, Steve and a partner opened Sidley-Wright and Associates, a VFX studio in Hollywood. It was at Sidley-Wright that Steve purchased the Pixar P2 compositing computer system, mastered the art of digital compositing, and produced high-end VFX compositing first for commercials, then for feature films. He even developed a cel animation digital ink and paint system that was used for a dozen television commercials plus the special effects shots for five animated feature films.

From this rich background of digital compositing for commercials, feature films, and even animated films, Steve was invited to join Cinesite Hollywood, Kodak’s premier digital effects facility, as a senior compositor. His command of the art and science of digital compositing quickly won him a promotion to 2D Technical Director where he later became the digital imaging go-to guy for Cinesite’s ground-breaking Digital Intermediate operation.

Advancing VFX Skills & Knowledge

Authoring books for VFX artists and compositors

Since 2005, Steve has focused on authoring and training for VFX compositing. He has published two very successful books; the introductory book Compositing Visual Effects and the more advanced Digital Compositing for Film and Video which to date have been translated into the following languages: Spanish, Japanese, Chinese, Russian and Korean. Artists and compositors rely on these books: Digital Compositing for Film and Video is now in it’s 4th edition (available late 2017) and Compositing Visual Effects / Essentials for the Aspiring Artist is in its second edition.

Teaching the World VFX Compositing

He has traveled to VFX facilities around the world in countries like India, Macedonia, Mexico, the Czech Republic, Canada and Malaysia to teach digital compositing as well as to numerous facilities in the U.S. where he has conducted Master Compositing classes. In addition, Steve is often called upon to conduct training at trade shows like the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) and SIGGRAPH or for groups such as the Digital Cinema Society, the Los Angeles Post Production Group, various Foundry User's Groups, the Los Angeles SIGGRAPH Chapter and many others.

Making Compositing Tools Understandable

He has published extensive Nuke and Shake tutorials seen on Lynda.com. Due to his unique ability to make a complex subject immanently understandable, Steve was hired to create tutorials for other companies like The Foundry the makers of Nuke, mocha tutorials for Imagineer Systems, stereo 2D to 3D conversion tutorials for YUVSoft's conversion suite and for Nuke's Particle plug-in software from Red Giant.

Building Certifiable Courses

Steve has also created courseware for many companies and several one-year VFX Diploma programs certified by the both the PCTIA which is the Canadian government’s accreditation agency and the Australian government’s accreditation agency, the ASQU.

Accolades for Steve

2015 – Honorary Bachelor of Arts degree in Visual Effects – Art Institute of Colorado
2014 – SMPTE Kodak Educational Award for outstanding VFX training
2010 – Telly award for outstanding tutorial videos – Lynda.com
2010 – Telly award for outstanding tutorial videos – CG Society
2008 – Telly award for best VFX for a fantasy short film DORME
2006 – President’s Volunteer Service Award for VFX training in Macedonia through USAID
1993 – PROMAX Gold Medallion Award for ACTION 7 News, Florida campaign
1992 – Regional Emmy for CGI in MASTERS OF ILLUSION – National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences
1991 – Dentsu Award (Japanese CLIO) for outstanding CGI commercial REGAL SHOE