NEW YORK — VFX and design house Phosphene (www.phosphenefx.com) has expanded its core creative team with the addition of CG supervisor Vance Miller, lead digital artist Eddie Porter, and lead compositor Scott Winston. In addition, lead digital artist Aaron Raff has been promoted to VFX supervisor.
Miller has been a part of New York’s visual effects world for 25 years. Early in his career, he took to CG work, and by 1995 was serving as VP of CGI operations at Pixel Light Communications. Realizing he craved a more hands-on approach, Miller went on to become a coveted freelance animator/modeler and lighter. Over the next 10 years he worked primarily in the commercial and gaming worlds for clients such as AT&T, MTV, Best Buy, McDonalds, Jeep, Tropicana, and Verizon.
In his heart he wanted to explore long-form, so in the mid-00’s, Miller made the transition to film and television work. He took on the role of CG technical director and lighting/rendering specialist. More recently, he’s been focused on character animation. After collaborating with Phosphene partners Vivian Connolly and John Bair for many years, he was brought on staff to help the studio continue to expand its CG pipeline, with greater focus on character animation and 3D environments.
Phosphene's (L-R) Vance Miller, Scott Winston and Eddie Porter.
Eddie Porter got his start in 2006 as lead matte painter/background designer on Fat Guy Stuck in Internet for Adult Swim. He later went on to work in the commercial world and from ’06 to ’10 had a range of roles, from development and previs to overseeing the completion of over 100 commercials. He also maintained passion about film work, dedicated free time to the shorts Mean to Me and Portal: No Escape.
After leaving the commercial world in 2011, Porter broke into feature work and episodic television again, working as a VFX artist and expanding his knowledge of title design. As a freelancer, he was able to work on many of the exciting television shows and films that have come through New York City including, Smash, The Borgias, So Undercover, Tower Heist, and Rampart. He also contributed to the title design and compositing of the 3D credits for Hugo.
Scott Winston is known for his technical talent, as well as for servings as a teacher and mentor to young artists. He got his start at a stop-motion studio and went on to train as a traditional animator at New York’s School of Visual Arts. As a freelancer, Winston had the opportunity to work as both a compositor and as an on-set supervisor, contributing to more than 50 projects, including The Da Vinci Code, SeeMore’s Playhouse, and Sinatra: His Voice, His World, His Way. Between ‘03 and ‘06, Winston lent his talents as an educator to NYU, teaching the theories and practices of visual effects work to undergraduates and graduate students. He’s been collaborating with the Phosphene team since ‘05 on projects such as The Adjustment Bureau, Salt, and Mildred Pierce.
Phosphene’s lead VFX artist Aaron Raff is now the company’s second in-house VFX supervisor. Raff has been working with Bair since 2008, and has supervised Treme, John Turturro’s Fading Gigolo, and is hard at work in New Orleans on the set of an upcoming HBO’s series that’s being directed by Cary Fukunaga.