I met Jami through our critique group and enjoy reading her manuscripts. She creates warm and comforting characters that have a timeless feel, and she also illustrates them. Jami started her artistic career in digital animation before moving to 3D and VFX work, as you will see, and entered the kidlit world with her debut picture book Mae and Moon published through Ripple Grove Press. Her follow up book Seb and the Sun, also through Ripple Grove, is due in 2018.
Thank you, Jami for sharing your story.
Jami, you have a cool day job as a visual effects artist and you’ve worked on some pretty big movies: Batman v. Superman, Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian, Pan, and Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children. Can you be more specific on what you do?
When a film is shot these days, a lot, sometimes even the majority, of shots are done in a studio in front of a giant green screen. I work with a team that fills in that space with digital environments, creatures, vehicles, and props, all of which are created solely in the computer. I do a lot of different tasks, but my main focus recently has been on texture painting and lighting scenes.
Which movie has been your favorite to work on? Do you have a favorite sequence or asset?
It’s hard to pick one film as my favorite as they all bring their own unique challenges. My favorite projects have been ones where I am given the most creative liberty. Sweeney Toddwas a wonderful experience because I got to work at the film studio doing concept art and I was able to meet and learn from some of my heroes, Tim Burton and Dante Ferretti. I also loved working on the giant shoes and lily pad sequence for Terry Gilliam’s film, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, and painting the Jolly Roger ship in the film Pan.
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