James L. Davidson

Senior Lighter / Compositor — BT21 Happy Meal Commercial

• Lit and composited shots for broadcast and social packages on a global ad campaign.

VFX Supervising Producer — Episodic Animated Series

• Architected and deployed a cloud-based episodic pipeline supporting remote artists across multiple time zones — Maya, Arnold, Nuke, Deadline, and ShotGrid on a Linux render farm, with an ACES color pipeline end to end.
• Built the studio's Python and MEL toolset from scratch: asset publishing, shader export and propagation, animation publishing, lighting assembly, and automated render-layer and AOV setup.
• Authored production Arnold shaders and procedural OSL networks, replacing hand-painted texture work with parametric setups reusable across the character library.
• Supervised previs, layout, and shot creation — designing and editing shots to serve the story against a fixed resource budget.
• Ran look development, lighting, and compositing through final delivery.

Senior Compositor — Invincible VS Game Cinematics

• Composited cinematic sequences rendered in Unreal Engine for an upcoming animated game title.
• Complex compositing to achieve high-quality results from real-time engine renders.

Senior Compositor — Fortune 500 Tech Keynotes & National Campaigns

• CG integration, 3D tracking, and plate cleanup for a Fortune 500 tech company's worldwide developer conference keynote and marketing videos, 2024–2026.
• Composited Unreal, Houdini, and C4D Redshift renders in 12K×12K lat-long format for 180-degree projection at the Lenovo CES keynote at Sphere Las Vegas.
• Match-moving, cleanup, transitions, and motion graphics for national campaigns including Foot Locker back-to-school.

Lead VFX / Lighting & Shading Artist — Startup Game Company

• Previs and shot creation for cinematics and pitch videos.
• Oversee and develop VFX, materials, and lighting for a game in development.
• Developed a painterly-style shader for in-engine post-processing.

CG Supervisor — Monsters at Work, Elena of Avalor, and additional series

• Partnered with vendor studios across multiple time zones to ensure episodes met creative intent and technical specification.
• Traveled to vendor studios to resolve complex technical challenges on site, reducing iteration cycles and retake counts.
• Trained and provided technical guidance to overseas teams on asset creation, lighting, and compositing workflows.
• Developed pipeline tools and workflows for scouting/layout, shot production, reviews, and archiving.
• Developed and owned the ACES/HDR color workflow through IMF delivery with Dolby Vision in DaVinci Resolve.
• Ran daily asset, lighting, and FX reviews, working closely with the Art Director on feedback.

Previs Artist

• Previs on several sequences for Godzilla: King of the Monsters.

Executive Director of CG Production — Beware the Batman, Green Lantern: TAS, multiple LEGO series

• Built and managed the CG animation production division from the ground up.
• Established vendor relationships and contracts with overseas studios across multiple productions.
• Directed and trained overseas studios in lighting, compositing, and FX workflows.
• Designed rigging solutions for LEGO minifigs that satisfied aesthetic and legal requirements while enabling efficient vendor production.
• Scheduled, budgeted, and bid existing and upcoming productions, ensuring producibility within constraints.
• Look development and generation of the Emmy-nominated opening titles for Beware the Batman.

VFX Supervisor / Head of Research & Development

• Oversaw and built the CG animation production division, forming vendor studio relationships and contracts.
• Designed streamlined FX/lighting/compositing rigs that reduced vendor artist requirements and enabled complex FX with minimal iteration.
• Pipeline setup and development for the CG department and overseas studios.
• Scheduled, budgeted, and bid existing and upcoming productions.

Senior Compositor / CG Supervisor — The Third Floor, FuseFX, Zero VFX, Shade VFX, Encore, The Molecule, Toonbox, The Mill, Original Force

• Look dev, compositing, and 3D tracking for Godzilla: King of the Monsters, Daddy's Home 2, Mr. Mercedes, The Flash, Supergirl, and various features and series.
• CG supervision, pipeline development, and artist training for Duck Duck Goose and The Nut Job 2 & 3. Lead compositor for the State Farm "Yin Yang" national campaign.