Transformers One – More than Meets the Eye

Behind the scenes with the artists who helped put this origin story together.

Date: Wednesday, December 11, 2024
Time: 5pm Pacific
Location: Online

About the speakers:

Sherry Hitch, Associate Visual Effects Supervisor, ILM:

With a career span of nearly 30 years in visual effects, Sherry Hitch began her career in visual effects working on episodic television shows in Los Angeles. She initially worked on shows such as Babylon 5, Deep Space Nine, Star Trek Voyager and television movies; where she cut her chops at learning computer graphics, photography, and onset supervision.

During her time in LA as Compositing Supervisor, Sherry was nominated for three Academy of Television Science Emmy Awards and contributed to a winning fourth. Among her Emmy nominations, she has also received a Sci-Fi Universe Award for her work in Babylon 5, the first television series to utilize feature quality effects, and was nominated for a Hollywood Post Alliance Award for Best Compositing in a Feature Film for Peter Berg’s Battleship.

Since joining Industrial Light + Magic in 2003, Sherry has worked on over 50 films ranging from the first Pirates of the Caribbean to working on the deaging of Harrison Ford in the most recent Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, to Transformers One which opened in theatres this Fall.

In 2019, Sherry served as Visual Effects Supervisor on EA’s live action trailer Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order. She completed work as an Associate VFX Supervisor on The Marvels last fall, and most recently served in the same role as an Associate VFX Supervisor on the animated film Transformers: One, due out in September. Sherry is also a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences as well as the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, British Academy of Film and Television Arts, and the Visual Effects Society. She majored in Telecommunications at Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana.

Ian Milham, Virtual Production Supervisor, ILM:

Ian joined Industrial Light & Magic in 2018 as a Virtual Production Supervisor, after a 24 year career in real time computer graphics and video games. He lead the on-stage team of artists operating ILM’s Stagecraft Virtual Production toolset in its first major deployment on Season One of The Mandalorian, helping supervise its use since then on dozens of feature and TV projects.

For Transformers One, Ian supervised the ILM team working with the filmmakers to bring art department assets to life during pre-production and shooting pre-visualization on stage.

Ian got his start as an environment artist in video games, becoming an Art Director and Creative Director on several titles. He was nominated for Best Real-Time visuals by the Visual Effects Society and a BAFTA for Outstanding Visual Achievement for Dead Space.

Amy Beth Christenson Smith, Art Director, ILM:

Amy Beth Christenson Smith experienced her first moviegoing moment with the original Star Wars film, inspiring her to spend her childhood drawing ships and creatures. In 2000, she began her career at LucasArts to pursue her passion for Star Wars and design.

Amy worked through eight Star Wars titles during the first eleven years, including a role as senior and lead concept designer for the games of Star Wars: The Force Unleashed series, designing most of the main characters. In 2011, she joined Lucasfilm Animation as a senior concept artist for the Emmy Award-winning television series Star Wars: The Clone Wars and Star Wars Rebels. Amy took on the role of Art Director in 2015, leading the character, ship, and set designs for the television series Star Wars Resistance, which went on to win a Saturn Award.

She joined the ILM Art Department team in 2019, working on Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, and many other television, film, and ILM Immersive projects. She was one of three Lucasfilm artists to work with a team of Porsche designers for The Designer Alliance project. As her hobby, Amy designs and fabricates her own fashion and costume designs. Her fashion design won first place at the Her Universe Fashion Show at San Diego Comic Con in 2014, and she went on to design a small fashion line for Hot Topic.

Categories: Past Events