“I liked making the pretty pictures,” he says. “I wanted to go back to finding a medium that could draw my pictures for me, and this was one. And, since I had done traditional filmmaking in school, I liked the concept of placing lights and lighting scenes, so that’s what I fell into - putting characters over backgrounds, integrating effects with photographed plates, creating the final imagery. That was my specialty and that’s what I enjoyed doing.”

At Imageworks, he jumped onto the crew working on 'Starship Troopers,' his first day on the job, and helped create effects that would garner an Oscar nomination for the film. His job was lighting spaceships. From that film, he moved onto 'Godzilla' and then to 'Stuart Little.'

Stuart Little. Sony Pictures Imageworks.

Stuart Little. Sony Pictures Imageworks.

I got some of the first shots on ‘Stuart Little,’ so I helped establish the look of the mouse,” Smith says. “It was the first time I’d worked with CG cloth, fur, and getting that glow in the skin of Stuart’s nose and his ears. I just made the final look, but that was my expertise. I liked having that role and being part of that team.”

His work on 'Stuart' led to a role as a look development and lighting TD on 'Hollow Man,' and both those films received Oscar nominations for visual effects. So, by the time the first 'Harry Potter' film rolled into the studio, Smith had moved on up to CG supervisor, one of four who worked on CG characters, making sure all the components flowed correctly through the pipeline all the way into rendering and out for compositing.

“We have teams of specialized people,” Smith says. “I just made sure the models in my shots could go into the next stage.” That was also true for the next big film he worked on, 'The Matrix: Reloaded.'

Jim Berney was visual effects supervisor for both those films at Imageworks, and when he took on that role at Imageworks for 'The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe,' he asked Smith to work with him as digital effects supervisor. “I’ve worked with Jim for 10 years, and he’s always invited me to move up and do better than I thought I could,” says Smith. “That’s given me a lot of confidence.”

In the meantime, though, Smith had also overseen the CG pipeline for smaller films – 'I Spy,' 'Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy,' 'Matchstick Men,' and 'Cursed,' which had given him more experience.

“Generally, with the tight schedules we have, we need someone supervising the work here at the studio while the visual effects supervisor is on location,” says Smith. “On ‘Narnia,’ Jim was going to be in New Zealand and traveling throughout the world. And, we had the beaver, the fox and the wolves to create at home.” After 'Narnia,' for which Berney received a visual effects Oscar nomination, the pair worked together on 'I Am Legend,' and most recently, on the science fiction action thriller, 'Eagle Eye.'

I Am Legend.

For 'Eagle Eye,' Imageworks created approximately 260 shots. The studio placed scenes shot on a sound stage into a digital version of Chicago created from photographic plates, adding a digital crane and other elements. In addition, they sent a CG drone aircraft shooting missiles into a digital tunnel.

“The challenge was to put life into inanimate objects so that it seemed like some sort of intelligence controlled them,” Smith says. “In one scene, for example, we had to work with the physics of high-voltage cables to make it feel like they were moving naturally, but that their action was intended.”

To help fit the resulting animation, which animators created by hand, into the plates, the crew used a ray-tracing renderer called Arnold. “We’re co-developing Arnold to be production ready so the artists can light the way someone would light on set,” says Smith. “In the tunnel, we needed 1700 light fixtures because the real tunnel had four rows of fluorescent tube lights every five feet across the top. With Arnold, we put 1700 lights in there, turned them on, and let the light bounce around.”

'Eagle Eye'

Smith believes he’s lucky to have entered the industry at a time when he could grow into the role as digital effects supervisor. “I didn’t have a computer background,” he says. “I came in as an artist with the ability to learn the technical side. Now, you need more of an advantage. You need a savvy technical background to avoid being pigeon holed.”

For someone who wants to follow his path, from technical director to CG supervisor to digital effects supervisor, that means more than knowing Maya, XSI, 3ds Max, and other software packages. Smith strongly recommends having a computer programming background. “You need to know how to connect the dots from Maya to the plate,” he says.

But that isn’t enough. He also recommends going through traditional art and filmmaking programs. “You need to learn what makes an image interesting,” he says. “And, you need to learn the storytelling nature of filmmaking. For a long time, I thought I was putting together pretty pictures. When I got to this level, I realized how much of our job is helping to tell the story, and all the little tiny stories each shot tries to tell. That’s what I’m trying to do on a shot-by-shot basis. If an effect doesn’t have some sort of story line or point to make, it falls flat. I think that’s what separates a pretty picture from a compelling picture.”

He gives an example from a sequence in 'Eagle Eye' when the 'reaper' chases the main characters Jerry and Rachel (Shia LaBeouf and Michelle Monaghan) through the tunnel. “In the original design, you see the reaper enter the tunnel in full frame, and then you realize you’re looking at it in the rear view mirror of the car Shia is driving,” says Smith.

But, after they shot the plates and put the sequence together, they realized it didn’t work. “It didn’t tell the story,” Smith says. “We had to rework the photography to put the reaper far enough behind that there was still a chance the characters could escape. We could do that because we had the digital tunnel, a digital reaper, and enough photography to make it look real. It’s a pretty cool shot.”

With 'Eagle Eye,' Smith came full circle in a way because he was able to work with his first mentor, Jim Rygiel, who was the overall visual effects supervisor on the film. But, he also has come full circle in another way. The filmmaking student from San Diego State is now helping to tell stories in film through his role as a digital effects supervisor.

'Eagle Eye'

So, we asked if he’s now interested in becoming a visual effects supervisor?

“Every once in a while, I get the itch to do something out of my comfort zone,” he says. “I’ve been involved in some of the planning, in what we need to do to achieve an effect. I have the experience to know what we need to acquire on set and I have been on set. But, just as I’ve gotten to the point where they might send me out, I have a reason not to go.”

The reason? He and his wife Lynn, who is a visual effects producer, have a beautiful two-year-old daughter. “And, she’s at a very cute stage,” he says.

He's continuing to do lots of things he's never done before. That’s a story no one could argue with.