The Visual Effects Society announced today that it has inducted seven Fellows based on their contributions to the art and science of visual effects. The new Fellows include visual effects supervisor Richard Edlund; Pacific Data Images founder Carl Rosendahl; Ed Catmull, president of Walt Disney Animation Studios and Pixar Animation Studios; director, producer, visual effects supervisor and stop motion pioneer Phil Tippett; cinematographer and visual effects supervisor Bill Taylor; visual effects supervisor Mark Stetson; and visual effects producer and software developer Ray Feeney.
VES Fellows are honored for making exceptional achievements and sustained contributions to the art, science or business of visual effects and maintaining outstanding reputations. No more than ten Fellows are created in any given year. The inaugural Fellows who were inducted last year are Dennis Muren, Doug Trumbull and Jonathan Erland.
VES Chair Jeffrey A. Okun noted, “Fellows represents the pinnacle achievement possible by Visual Effects Artists and Scientists. To be recognized by the VES as a Fellow is not just an honor, but also recognition of the scope and impact they have made on the entertainment industry and storytelling. Each of our new Fellows have demonstrated not only a mastery of art and imagery, but also provided the leadership and inspiration that make the visual effects and the world of entertainment in general, a brighter and more compelling and imaginative place to work. Each of them have changed lives due to what they have brought to life, created or imagined and then realized. Each have contributed to the industry in a significant manner and we are proud to award them this prestigious honor.”
The VES Fellows steering committee examines each of the candidates’ contributions in terms of leadership/management, service, works and knowledge.
Academy and Emmy Award winning visual effects supervisor Richard Edlund has worked on films including Star Wars, The Empire Strikes Back, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Poltergeist, Return of the Jedi and Ghostbusters. Edlund was the one of the founders of the Visual Effects Branch of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
Emmy Award winner Carl Rosendahl, helped pioneer computer animation with his founding of Pacific Data Images in 1980. The company was sold to DreamWorks SKG in 2000. Rosendahl was a founding board member of VES.
Edwin Catmull, recipient of the Gordon E. Sawyer Award at the Academy Awards—among many other awards—is president of Walt Disney Animation Studios and Pixar Animation Studios. As vice president at Lucasfilm, he helped develop digital image compositing technology.
Director and Academy Award winning visual effects supervisor and producer Phil Tippett co-developed the technique ‘Go Motion’ while at ILM, which was utilized in the Star Wars films, Dragonslayer and Starship Troopers. He is the founder of Tippett Studio.
Bill Taylor has supervised and photographed visual effects on films including the Fast and the Furious, Bruce Almighty, Casanova and Milk. Taylor has received a Saturn, an Emmy and a Motion Picture Academy Technical Achievement Award. He has served several terms as a governor of the Visual Effects Branch of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
Visual effects supervisor Mark Stetson received a BAFTA (British Academy) award for visual effects in his debut effort, The Fifth Element. He also won an Academy Award and a second BAFTA award for visual effects in The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring. Mr. Stetson founded his own models and miniature company, which later was purchased by Digital Domain.
Academy Award winner Ray Feeney is president and founder of RFX, Inc. He has pioneered numerous new technologies for the visual effects industry that have become industry standard techniques and are currently in use to produce visual effects for feature films, television shows and commercials.
The Fellows were announced at the Annual 2012 VES Membership Meeting, September 27 at the Academy’s Pickford Center.
