Raised in rural Australia, Ben Snow studied computing and film at the University of Canberra. He did a variety of work and traveled extensively before working as a runner for a computer graphics house in London. Snow later returned to Australia to set up the computer animation department for a company in Sydney where he worked on commercials, broadcast indents and openers, including a computer graphics title sequence for Beyond 2000.
Snow left Australia to join Industrial Light & Magic in 1994, where his first project was to help create the three-dimensional computer graphics image of the “Enterprise B” for Star Trek: Generations. This version had to intercut seamlessly with the motion control model shot on ILM’s soundstage, one of the first such endeavors for a feature film. In addition to his feature credits, Snow was instrumental in the research and development required for the groundbreaking images seen in Twister,Deep Impact and Pearl Harbor.
After spending several years in New Zealand with Weta Digital as Visual Effects Supervisor on King Kong, Snow returned to ILM in 2008 to begin work on the Marvel franchise, Iron Man. Since then, Snow has been honored with a number of Academy Award, Visual Effects Society and BAFTA nominations for achievements in visual effects including: Terminator Salvation, Iron Man 2, and his more recent work, Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides. In early 2013, Snow began working closely with Darren Aronofsky on his latest film, Noah, an adaptation based on the epic story from the Bible. Ben supervised the work on the film, namely looking for inspiration from some of the same films he had worked on in his early career. Slated for release next summer, Snow recently supervised work on Avengers: Age of Ultron, the blockbuster sequel to Marvel’s The Avengers.
ILM CREDITS
Feature Films
2015 AVENGERS: AGE OF ULTRON – Visual Effects Supervisor
2014 NOAH – Visual Effects Supervisor
2011 PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: ON STRANGER TIDES – Visual Effects Supervisor
Visual Effects Society Award Nomination – Outstanding Visual Effects in a Visual Effects Driven Motion Picture
2010 IRON MAN 2 – Visual Effects Supervisor
Academy Award Nomination — Best Visual Effects
Visual Effects Society Award Nomination – Outstanding Visual Effects
2009 TERMINATOR SALVATION – Visual Effects Supervisor
Visual Effects Society Award Nomination – Best Single Visual Effects of the Year
2008 IRON MAN – Visual Effects Supervisor
Academy Award Nomination — Best Visual Effects
British Academy of Film and Television Award Nomination – Best Visual Effects
Hollywood Film Festival Award — Best Visual Effects
Visual Effects Society Award Nomination – Outstanding Visual Effects
Visual Effects Society Award Nomination – Best Single Visual Effects of the Year
2005 KING KONG – Visual Effects Supervisor Weta Digital
2003 VAN HELSING – Visual Effects Supervisor
2002 STAR WARS: EPISODE II “Attack of the Clones” – Visual Effects Supervisor
Academy Award Nomination – Best Visual Effects
2001 PEARL HARBOR – Associate Visual Effect Supervisor
Academy Award Nomination – Best Visual Effects
1999 GALAXY QUEST – Associate Visual Effects Supervisor
1999 THE MUMMY – Computer Graphic Supervisor
1998 DEEP IMPACT – Computer Graphics Supervisor / Head of Research & Dev. Team
1997 THE LOST WORLD: JURASSIC PARK – Comp. Graphics Sequence Supervisor
1996 DRAGONHEART – Technical Director
1996 TWISTER – Technical Director / Research & Development Team
1996 MARS ATTACKS! – Computer Graphics Sequence Supervisor
1995 CASPER – Technical Director
1994 STAR TREK: GENERATIONS – Technical Director