Oscar success for Teesside graduate

Teesside University is celebrating Oscar success as graduate Shaun Stephenson worked on the winning animated film.

Shaun Stephenson, who graduated with a master’s degree in computer graphics, created the environments and props used in Rango which stars Johnny Depp. The film won the Best Animated Feature Film at the 84th Academy Awards.

Shaun, 42, a senior artist in the film and game industry, said:

“I worked on creating the Mayor’s Office, Saloon, Bank, vehicles and smaller set dressing such as rocks, foliage, wagon wheels and bottles. Just about everything that wasn’t a character model.

'I also worked with the director Gore Verbinski and art director Mark ‘Crash’ McCreery on some sets in the pre-visualisation stage to block in basic models in the scouting process. Here the director can get an idea of the scene composition prior to the final modelling.'

Having begun his career at game developer Reflections UK in 1995 after graduating, Shaun, originally from Chester-Le-Street, worked on successful titles such as Driver and Driver 2 before joining Electronic Arts in 2000. At EA, he was Senior Technical Artist on the Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban game and, after joining LucasArts in 2004, worked on the Star Wars: The Force Unleashed video game.

'The great thing about games is that you have a lot of room to grow professionally. If you show the desire to learn new skills and move into other areas, that’s certainly a real possibility. Most senior game artists are also responsible for texturing, lighting, sometimes VFX work and even the technical side of the job such as scripting and scene optimisation.'

Shaun then moved to pioneering motion picture visual effects company Industrial Light and Magic, a subsidiary of Lucasfilm, where he worked on Rango as well as blockbuster film Transformers 3: Dark of the Moon.

Despite enjoying his work on films over the last few years, Shaun won’t discount the possibility of returning to the games industry: 'In film you get to work with some incredible industry veterans and really have the opportunity to concentrate on honing one particular skill. In my case, I really enjoy modelling so for the foreseeable future I will likely be working in film but I never try to limit myself to one particular industry or genre so long as I feel I am still acquiring new skills and experience.'

Chris Williams, Head of Animation and Visual Effects in Teesside’s School of Computing, said: 'Shaun's part in Rango's success is something that the School of Computing and the University as a whole is immensely proud of. On a personal level I'm delighted as Shaun was a good friend when we both studied together and joined the same company after graduating. Hopefully this is the first of many Oscars to come.'

Despite living in San Francisco, Shaun still maintains great friendships with several people both in the University itself and in the greater Teesside community: 'Living away, I don’t get a chance to visit as much as I’d like, however the development I have seen in the town centre and especially in the University over the last 10 years has been incredible. It’s definitely a great place to study.'

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