Jeff Wolverton is an American cartoon director, screenwriter, editor, and voice actor. He started his career in 2000 and continues to this day. Loves comedy and cats. Regularly participates in triathlon competitions on Catalina Island.
Biography
Jeff Wolverton was born and raised in Columbus, Ohio, USA. He received his secondary education at the prestigious Upper Arlington School, but for a number of reasons was expelled from it.
Later he tried to get a degree at Ohio State University, but for financial reasons he was forced to stop studying. It is said that during a desperate but vain attempt to make money, he tried to create an animation for the stadium scoreboard.
After dropping out of Ohio University, he "drank beer" for a while, in his own words. When the beer ran out, he moved to Los Angeles and took a job at Walt Disney's animation art studio as a digital producer.
Subsequently, however, he completed his studies and received a master's degree in computer science and computer graphics, as well as a bachelor's degree in computer graphics and animation.
Career
He earned a reputation as a valuable specialist while working on the animated films "Hercules" and "Tarzan". Having no professional experience, he successfully voiced one of the characters in "Dinosaur".
One day Jeff accidentally walked into the Sony Pictures Imageworks studio and it so happened that he got a job in this studio as a lighting artist for the Little Suart cartoon. He then worked on the Hollow Man project as an effects animator.
After that, Jeff began looking for work in different studios, looking for a better place. During this time, he presented some good ideas for Disney, Sony, Fox and several other small studios.
Wolverton rewrote the script for the animated short ChubbChubbs, for which he was nominated for a BAFTA.
In the next animated sequel, Fat Men Save Christmas, Jeff was given the voice of the title characters.
In 2016, for unexplained reasons, Jeff made a dramatic turn in his career.
He retired from all his previous positions and became an artist of the comic and improvised stage genre. At first he worked in various comedy clubs in Los Angeles, and then began to work closely with the improvised troupe "Team X".
Personal life
Jeff Wolverton lives alone in his Los Andeles home, aside from his many cats. He loves to create visual effects, write scripts, tell anecdotes. He speaks about himself only in the third person.
From 2004 to 2011 he regularly participated in the Catalina Island triathlon competitions. According to Jeff, in all competitions, he was in last or almost last place.
Creativity, achievements and awards
Jeff's main specialty is visual effects artist. His work experience is almost 20 years and includes working on live feature films. Eight of his works have been nominated for an Academy Award for Best Visual Effects.
He has extensive experience in creating game and animation visual effects, shooting, smoke, fire, sand, ice, explosions, debris, lightning and other unique fluid and ephemeral effects. Solid experience in scripting and voice acting.
Among his most important accomplishments, Jeff notes the following:
- Writing the script for the animated short film ChubbChubbs.
- British Academy BAFTA Award for Best Animated Short Film (ChubbChubbs).
- Writing the script for the animated film "Sinbad: Behind the Veil of Fog" (produced by Trimark).
- Second place in the Scr (i) pt script competition organized by Magazine Open Door.
- Second Place in the AAA Screenwriting Contest sponsored by Creative Screenwriting Magazine.
- Third place in the Fade In Magazine script competition.
- Achievement in the finals at the New Jersey International Film and Script Festival.
- Advance to the finals at the Century City Script Festival.
- Advance to the semifinals of Francis Ford Coppola's Zoetrope Script Competition.
- Scoring for the title characters and the animated films Fat Men and Fat Men Save Christmas.
As a visual effects artist, he has worked with Zoic Dynamics Studios in Vancouver, Los Angeles and New York. Among his projects are the TV series Strelka, Cold Adventures of Sabrina, Legends of Tomorrow, Star Girl and others.
For the VHC studio (Vancouver) he created water effects for the film "Aquaman".
Worked as Senior Effects Artist at Method Studios, Industrial Light & Magic, Digital Domain, MPC (all Vancouver), Framestore (London), Look FX (Los Angeles), Digital Studios (Los Angeles), Sony Pictures Imageworks (Los Angeles).
Jeff's works were:
- bloody effects in Deadpool 2;
- the transformation of Illyana Magik's hand in New Mutants;
- demon fire in Thor: Ragnarok;
- electricity and fire in Star Wars: The Last Jedi;
- the robot dinosaur Vomit in Transformers: The Last Knight;
- smoke, fire and debris in Kong: Skull Island;
- snow and fog in Beauty and the Beast;
- sand, debris and ephemeral effects in X-Men: Apocalypse;
- solar flares and explosions in Toializator, where bets are placed on the death of celebrities;
- Cyborg and Doomsday Lightning in Batman v Superman;
- oil and fluid effects in Monster Trucks;
- the effects of ray, blood and destruction in the "Rising Jupiter";
- the ocean in Noah;
- tornado, debris and destruction in Into the Storm;
- extreme effects, explosions and devices in Iron Man 3;
- destruction, debris and nets in The Incredible Spider-Man;
- magic dust in Arthur. Christmas";
- beams and structures in the Green Lantern;
- dust and destruction effects in P-Force;
- the explosions and murder of Hitler in the Valkyrie;
- destruction, debris and snow at the Hancock;
- explosions and light beams in the film "I Am Legend";
- smoke effects in Ghost Rider;
- water and fog, waterfalls, snow and ice in The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Magic Wardrobe;
- clouds of spirits in the "House of the Monster";
- invisibility and force field effects in Fantastic Four.
He worked as an effects animator at Stan Winston Studio, Dream Works Future Animation, Rhythm & Hues Studios, Sony Pictures Imageworks. In this position, he worked on the films "Daredevil", "Puss in a Poke", "X-Men", "Star Trek: Nemesis", "The Day After Tomorrow".
As a screenwriter and voice actor, he participated in projects:
- ChubbChubbs and Fatties Save Christmas;
- Spiderman;
- Hollow Man;
- "The Astronaut's Wife";
- "Random Hearts";
- Little Stuart;
- "Sinbad: Behind the Veil of Fog".
He worked as the technical director of the Walt Disney art animation studio in the projects Tarzan, Dinosaur, New Emperor's Groove, Hercules.
