Liam Russell, Kent alum, returns to the University to impart the magic of visual effects

Liam Russell, Lead Animator at Framestore and Kent alum, returned to the University of Kent last night to deliver the School of Engineering and Digital Arts’ fourth 50th anniversary lecture ‘The Art of Film VFX’.

Liam explained the various components that make up the VFX pipeline and the audience enjoyed show and tell showreels which explained the visual effects magic behind popular movies such as Gravity, Guardians of the Galaxy, Paddington and Edge of Tomorrow to name a few.

After graduating from the University of Kent with a Masters in Computer Animation, Liam joined Framestore in 2007 as an animation intern, initially starting his career in TV animating creatures for ITV’s’ Primeval’ series. He then moved over to Film and joined the crew on ‘The Tale of Despereaux ‘which cemented him into the film VFX animation team. Liam has worked on many high profile films over the last few years including Clash Of the Titans, Avatar, The Chronicles of Narnia, Sherlock Holmes and Harry Potter.

In 2010 he joined the Gravity animation team to previs and lead the animation for one of the main sequences of the film where he also oversaw aspects of character and technical animation. More recently he lead the animation team on the 2014 film a New York Winter’s Tale directed by Akiva Goldsman.

Liam regularly returns to EDA to give master classes in computer animation.