Stewart Pomeroy III

I am a Technical Director with over 15 years of experience, starting with a degree in Communication Design from Pratt Institute, where I specialized in painting.

My original career focus was to be a commercial illustrator, but I always had a desire to work on movies in the back of my head.

Star Wars was, of course, a seminal moment for me. It wasn't just the effects; when the Star Wars Sketchbook was released and showed Joe Johnston's and Ralph McQuarrie's concept work, I was blown away by their ability to draw, which was equally inspiring to me.

However, starting a career in NYC while pining for film work, I was always stymied by how to get into that realm.

Graduating from Pratt put me into a very difficult job market (a cyclical theme, it appears), so I had to adapt. I’ve worked with some genuinely challenging places and people of varying ethical behaviors. It taught me a lot, for sure.

Persistence is a personal trait of mine, as is an absolute lack of desire to quit anything, so I stuck it out and eventually gained traction as my career started lurching forward.

I spent a good amount of time at Walt Disney in their Consumer Products division, working on graphic design and honing my actual hand character inking skills.

After that, I spent more time in the Consumer Products space at Warner Bros. Retail Design Studio. There, I learned the value of small, efficient teams that lack the political issues which arise when a department grows beyond a certain size—issues that can hinder any good progress.

After that, I spent some time at CNNfn in the network space. Following that, I worked at an interactive advertising agency, Poppe Tyson, one of the most stressful jobs I have ever had. However, the skill I took away from that was client interaction and how to handle it very well. As an ambivert, handling clients like Johnson & Johnson provided me with a fantastic foundation for understanding how communication (even delivering bad news) is one of the most important skills to have.

By this time, I had really honed my computer graphics skills in the 2D space.

Then, around 1995, Jurassic Park and Toy Story had just been released. Those films opened my eyes to how computer graphics, especially 3D, had advanced, and the bold leap forward both of those projects took. This really opened up the possibility of finally getting into feature films, though I also saw how hard it would be. So, I took a big gamble and bought an O2 and a full seat of Power Animator.

Scott Michelson at Alias Wavefront was personally championing efforts to train people and get the software into their hands to help fill a huge, arising need for people who could do the work.

Eventually, my career would include all sorts of generalist skills, including modeling, texturing, lighting, animation, and FX. Of course, compositing work was needed, and Shake had started to be used.

I worked for a variety of shops in the NYC area, including Brand New School, Hurd Studios, BlinkFX, Empire Video (which was actually my first foray into a staff spot doing 3D work), WildChild, Curious Pictures, and eventually The Mill.

The Mill was a huge step forward into doing much higher-end work with better timelines. The crew there was great, and their tools were shockingly robust and effective. Dave Levy was among the first luminaries I had the pleasure to encounter in our burgeoning field. His no-nonsense and sardonic approach to work and efficiency was inspiring.

The time at The Mill prepared me for a bigger step forward at Weta Digital. I spent a year in NZ away from my family, which had its own difficulties and would ultimately keep me from staying past my one-year contract. This is something I’ve always regretted, but it ended up working out. My time at Weta was transformative, both professionally and personally. Kiwis introduced me to the idea that balance in one's life does not have to be two things, but three: Work, Family, and Personal.

I became an endurance athlete (triathlete), and that carried over into my work ethic, further cementing the idea of just not quitting.

After returning from NZ, I spent a little time at Brainstorm Digital (working with Dan Abramovich for the first time) and then began an eight-year run at Blue Sky Studios, working as a Comp and Rendering TD with a short time in Lighting.

I had always wanted to work at either Pixar or ILM. However, an incredibly toxic experience with a recruiter from ILM really turned me off to the idea of working for them. I was not sure how to get into Pixar, figuring it would take a massive campaign of sorts to get hired there. It is the pinnacle studio, and everyone wants to work there.

However, a number of people I worked with at BSS were there, and I ended up at Pixar in 2016, working for another eight-year stretch. Then COVID hit, and we were all sent to work from home. This changed a lot of things. During the latter part of my time there, the department had an extended lull between shows. As much as it was nice to be able to focus on my sports and basically get paid for it, I like to work and be productive; it is an extremely rewarding thing for me. Adding to the fact that I really love the work that I do makes it a huge bonus. So, I reached out to WetaFX to discover if they needed any additional remote Lighting help. They did. I received approval from all legal entities at both studios and spent a year working on several shows. It was an incredibly busy time, but I loved every minute of it. I was able to be extremely productive and maintain my deadlines.

In 2024, I was laid off along with 14% of Pixar's staff. A number of significantly senior people were let go as well. It was a tough hit and still is. The cost of living in CA, as well as a mother in failing health, forced me out of the state. I relocated to FL to help with my mom at the end of 2024, and here I am, working through a variety of contacts over the years on a number of different types of work. Of late, I’ve been rapidly adding Houdini and ComfyUI and similar tools to my skillset.

Role with the VES

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