Ihimu Ukpo

Before working as a senior production engineer at Industrial Light and Magic (ILM) on films and TV shows such as Deadpool and Wolverine, Andor, and Tron: Ares, Ihimu was a pipeline developer for ScanlineVFX, where he did pre-visualization and production work on films and television shows such as The Gray Man, Aquaman 2, and Slumberland. He first got his professional start in visual effects working as a senior software engineer for NextVR, where he helped build the rendering pipeline and graphics engine of the Sony Playstation version of their VR television application. He has also worked in the avionics field, with over a decade of experience working on in-flight entertainment systems and real-time drone flight simulation software. Before all this, he worked as a part time beta tester for Activision and Virgin Games, the latter of which he started at age thirteen.

Long before all this though, he learned the rudiments of programming, animation, and computer graphics as a five year old armed only with a Commodore 64.

Outside of work, he paints leather, collects custom movie poster artwork, designs his own costumes and clothing (ask him about his Tron costume!), occasionally plays a Roland FA-08 keyboard synth, and enjoys travel to obscure destinations. He is also a voice actor, Unreal Engine fellow, and FAA licensed Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) pilot.

Role with the VES

Secretary of the Los Angeles Section of the Visual Effects Society