biography

BIOGRAPHY

Known and respected for his dedication, commitment, and never-quit attitude, Carey Villegas has been a supervisor for many of the most demanding “effects-driven” directors like Michael Bay, Robert Zemeckis, David Fincher, James Cameron, and most recently Tim Burton. As a Visual Effects Supervisor on Burton’s Alice In Wonderland, Carey oversaw every aspect of the production of over 1700 visual effects shots, from pre-production and photography to final rendering, compositing, and stereo 3D dimensionalization. This included the design and implementation of the Red Queen’s giant head, the Mad Hatter’s enlarged eyes, and Alice herself, as she ranged in size from six inches to nine feet tall. For his contribution to the film, Carey won the 2010 Golden Satellite Award for Best Visual Effects. He was also honored with many nominations, including the 2011 Academy Award® (Oscar), British Academy Award (BAFTA), Critics Choice Award, Saturn Award, and the Visual Effects Society Award (VES) for Outstanding Visual Effects in a Visual Effects Driven Motion Picture.

After graduating from the University of St. Francis, Carey began his professional career working at Editel in Chicago, the midwest’s largest post-production facility of its time. He quickly rose through the ranks as a Quantel Paintbox / Harry artist, working on national commercials for many of the world’s largest advertising agencies. When Discreet Logic introduced their compositing software in the early nineties, Carey made a transition, becoming one of the country’s first Flame artists. In 1995, he moved to Los Angeles to pursue work on feature films at Digital Domain.

While at Digital Domain, Carey helped to make it one of the top visual effects facilities in the industry and was a Compositing Supervisor and lead artist in the company’s first two visual effects Academy Award® wins: Titanic and What Dreams May Come. His other credits while at Digital Domain include such films as Fight Club, Rules of Engagement, Supernova, Armageddon, The Fifth Element, Dante’s Peak, Chain Reaction, Michael Collins, Sgt. Bilko, and the Universal Studios stereo 3D theme park attraction, Terminator 2 3-D: Battle Across Time. Carey also supervised many commercial projects and music videos including those for Michael Jackson, Celine Dion, and the Rolling Stones.

In 1999, Carey joined Sony Pictures Imageworks as a Visual Effects Supervisor to work with director Robert Zemeckis on the feature films Cast Away and What Lies Beneath. Cast Away was recognized as one of the top seven Best Visual Effects Films of 2000 by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. In 2003, as the Visual Effects Supervisor for Bad Boys II, he was nominated for a Visual Effects Society (VES) Award for Outstanding Supporting Visual Effects in a Motion Picture. Prior to Alice In Wonderland, Carey was brought in to supervise and ensure the delivery of more than 550 shots for Hancock, in less than nine weeks. Carey was also the overall Visual Effects Supervisor for films as diverse as I Spy (700 shots), Bewitched, The Forgotten, The Jane Austen Book Club, Little Black Book, Hollywood Homicide, and America’s Sweethearts. In addition, Carey was often called upon to supervise “on-set” visual effects photography for a number of features including Eagle Eye, Spider-Man 3, I Am Legend, Aviator, and most recently, for actor/director Tim Allen’s Crazy on the Outside. In 2006, Carey co-directed and supervised the effects for Eight Days, a two-and-a-half minute promotional trailer for the international launch of the Playstation 3. The fully computer-generated trailer was shot using motion capture technology and starred actor Ving Rhames. Produced by Sony Computer Entertainment Europe, it premiered at the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) later that year.

Carey is a respected figure in the motion picture visual effects community for his leadership, his creativity, and his technical expertise, including an exemplary affinity for color and design. Having helmed thousands of visual effects shots as a Visual Effects Supervisor, and thousands more as a Compositing Supervisor and Digital Artist, Carey is extremely proficient in every aspect of visual effects production. His experience spans two decades of shot and sequence design, pre-visualization, motion control, motion capture, miniatures, greenscreen photography, compositing, CGI, and stereo 3D. Appreciated for his ability to juggle multiple projects and personalities, Carey has supervised teams from several artists to well over two hundred. His relationships have crossed international borders, while working with a wide range of vendors both large and small, including those in Canada, England, India, Thailand, and Australia.

Carey has also designed and developed many film, imaging, and compositing pipelines, as well as proprietary tools including Bonsai, Imageworks’ in-house compositing software. Bonsai was used to composite over fifty film projects since it’s inception on Cast Away, including Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, Superman Returns, the two Matrix sequels, and the franchise of Spider-Man films, to name just a few. He was also instrumental in the development of what is now the Foundry’s Nuke compositing software, for which he designed and implemented many of its tools while at Digital Domain.

Carey is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the Visual Effects Society, the International Animated Film Society, and the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers. He has lectured extensively on visual effects and film-making at numerous venues, including the Hollywood Film Festival, the National Association of Broadcasters, Siggraph, the Visual Effects Society, UCLA, eDIT (The European Festival for Production and Visual Effects), Mecon / Cologne, among many others.

Carey is currently working with director Alex Proyas on the film adaptation of John Milton’s epic 17th-century poem, Paradise Lost.

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