The Instructor
Bio and Filmography
Kris Costa
Founder / Instructor
I was born in Rio, Brazil and moved to the US in 2004, following a seemingly impossible dream to work for the VFX industry. Here I met my lovely wife Jessica and we now live in Marin County with our two little boys and a cat. I am currently a Character/Creature Supervisor at The Mill LA, after leaving ILM San Francisco at the end of 2021, company for which I had worked for 14 years. My professional career encompasses 15 years and 30+ movies, from organic to hard surface modeling, concept, viewpainting, lookdev, character animation and facial rigging. I have had the opportunity to work on such projects as Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Avengers, Bumblebee, Pacific Rim, Transformers, Rango, Kong: Skull Island, Pan’s Labyrinth, among many others. My personal career includes winning pieces in major competitions such as CGSociety’s MachineFlesh Challenge (2004), Master & Servant Challenge (2005) and B-Movie Challenge (2010).
Instructor's Gallery
Personal Work
Events and Conferences
I was a guest speaker/instructor in the following events
- CG Con 2010 - Montreal, Canada - Speaker
- Industry Giants 2012 - Dallas, USA - Speaker
- AnatomyTools Workshop 2013 - Los Angeles, USA - Guest Instructor
- AnatomyTools Workshop 2014 - Los Angeles, USA - Guest Instructor
- AnatomyTools Workshop 2015 - Los Angeles, USA - Guest Instructor
- THU 2015 - Troia, Portugal - Speaker
- IAMAG 2018 - Paris, France - Speaker
- Unhide Conference 2018 - São Paulo, Brazil - Speaker/Instructor
- ZBrush Summit 2018 - Los Angeles, USA - Speaker
- CG Futures 2019 - Melbourne, Australia - Speaker/Instructor
- Unhide Conference 2019 - São Paulo, Brazil - Speaker/Instructor
Instructor's Gallery
Professional Work
Filmography
2022 - The Book of Boba Fett (TV Series: Episode 6 - Facial Model Lead: ILM)
2022 - Jurassic World Dominion (senior digital artist: ILM)
2020 - The Midnight Sky (uncredited: ILM)
2019 - Terminator: Dark Fate (senior digital artist: ILM)
2019 - The Irishman (senior digital artist: ILM)
2019 - Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (senior digital artist: ILM)
2018 - Bumblebee (senior modeler: ILM)
2018 - Aquaman (senior digital artist: ILM)
2018 - Solo: A Star Wars Story (senior digital artist: ILM)
2017 - Transformers: The Last Knight (senior modeler: ILM)
2017 - Kong: Skull Island (creature model supervisor: ILM)
2016 - Warcraft: The Beginning (senior creature modeler: ILM)
2015 - The Revenant (senior digital artist: ILM)
2015 - Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens (senior creature modeler: ILM)
2015 - Ant-Man (senior digital artist: ILM)
2015 - Jurassic World (senior digital artist: ILM)
2015 - Avengers: Age of Ultron (senior digital artist: ILM)
2014 - Transformers: Age of Extinction (senior digital artist: ILM)
2014 - Noah (senior creature modeler: ILM - uncredited)
2013 - Pacific Rim (digital artist: Industrial Light & Magic)
2012 - The Avengers (senior creature modeler: ILM)
2011 - Cowboys & Aliens (senior digital artist: ILM - uncredited)
2011 - Transformers: Dark of the Moon (digital models and simulations: Industrial Light & Magic)
2011 - Super 8 (digital artist: ILM - uncredited)
2011 - Rango (senior creature modeler: ILM)
2009 - Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (senior modeler: ILM)
2009 - Star Wars: The Clone Wars - Blue Shadow Virus (2009) ... (senior modeler - as Kris Costa)
2007 - The Mist (creature animator: CafeFX) / (creature modeler: CafeFX) / (texture artist: CafeFX)
2007 - Evan Almighty (character animator: CafeFX)
2007 - Lucifer (Short) (modeling and texturing)
2006 - Snakes on a Plane (texture artist: CafeFX - as Kris Costa)
2006 - Barnyard (character animator)
2006 - Pan's Labyrinth (character animator, viewpainter and rigger: CafeFX - as Kris Costa)
2005 - Zathura: A Space Adventure (modeler and viewpainter: CafeFX - uncredited)
