Output increased after pipeline, templates, review cadence, and ownership were redesigned as one operating system.
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Case Studies / 04 · Lightstorm Entertainment
Building the Pipeline.
I built the creative operating system the production needed.
Postvis needed a dependable route from incoming material to a director-approved target for Wētā FX. I made that route repeatable, then helped the department scale around it.
Executive impact at a glance
Why this work mattered.
Built and improved the Post Visualization pipeline and operating model across two Avatar productions. Standardized shot intake, creative targets, review, approval, and delivery helped increase team throughput approximately 30×, from roughly one approved shot per week to a sustained 30+, with peaks near 50. The system supported team growth from 1 to 18.
Role
Post Visualization Department Lead
Pipeline, review cadence, ownership, and delivery designed as one system.
Approved shots delivered during steady production.
Highest-output production weeks after the system matured.
The team expanded after the operating model became repeatable.
My contribution
I built and improved the postvis pipeline, templates, review cadence, and role ownership, then developed the team’s ability to run and improve that system. Final visual effects were delivered by Wētā FX.
Finding the real problem
The production did not need more isolated shot work.
It needed a trusted function that could scale.
Post Visualization occupied a narrow but critical point between live-action photography and final visual effects. The work had to earn trust in Jim Cameron’s review process, then hand Wētā FX a clear, approved creative target.
Fully CG sequences moved directly to Wētā FX. The live-action-with-CG path was the part that needed a dependable operating model, clear ownership, and enough capacity to scale with the films.
The transformation
What I inherited.
What I built.
The starting point was not simply one artist. Postvis had no established production pipeline, no dependable review model, and no operating system that could scale with the films.
- No established shot pipeline, templates, or delivery standards
- No scalable review cadence or production tracking model
- Unclear interfaces with Previs, Editorial, and Wētā FX
- Production capacity depended on individual knowledge and effort
- One artist carrying an emerging function
- Repeatable shot intake, review, approval, and delivery workflows
- Templates, tracking, standards, and documentation that reduced reinvention
- Clear ownership and leadership depth inside the production ecosystem
- An approved-template pipeline connecting postvis to final VFX
- A system that enabled an 18-person team and 30+ approved shots per week
The Template
Our responsibility wasn’t to finish the shot.
It was to give Wētā the strongest possible starting point.
Every element was reviewed and approved by Jim Cameron before the template was delivered to Wētā FX. The final film frames shown here illustrate these decisions; they are not intermediate postvis templates.
Building the department
The pipeline made Post Visualization predictable, scalable, and trusted.
The important change was not adding people. It was making the path from incoming creative intent to an approved target and trusted Wētā handoff visible and repeatable.
Built to continue
The highest compliment was that the system no longer needed me.
By the time the department had scaled, the important outcome was not another productivity graph. Reviews were clearer, handoffs were dependable, templates reduced reinvention, and ownership had moved into the team.