Her

YEAR:
2015
ROLE:
Matte Painter
STUDIO:
Digital Domain

Her

YEAR:
2015
ROLE:
Matte Painter
STUDIO:
Digital Domain

Her remains one of the most meaningful projects of my career. I had been a fan of Spike Jonze's work for years, dating back to his early skateboarding films, so the opportunity to contribute to one of his feature films was exciting from the start.

The project also arrived during a unique moment in my life. Her was the final film completed at Digital Domain's historic Venice studio before the facility closed. A small group of artists remained, knowing that many of us would soon have to leave Los Angeles for Vancouver, London, or elsewhere as visual effects studios continued to consolidate around the world. Against that backdrop, we were tasked with imagining the most optimistic vision of Los Angeles I had seen in years.

Much of my inspiration came from contemporary architecture and the rapid urban development taking place throughout Asia. I was fascinated by cities that were growing vertically while integrating nature into rooftops, terraces, and public spaces. The challenge was finding a way to combine those ideas with the qualities that make Los Angeles unique: a sprawling collection of interconnected neighborhoods, each with its own identity and character.

The result was a vision of the near future that felt hopeful, human, and believable. More than a decade later, many of the ideas we explored still feel surprisingly relevant.