How would you explain your job to someone who doesn’t know VFX?
Visual effects bring to life the difficult or impossible things to capture with a camera through the use of computer tools wielded by talented artists. My job is to guide our client partners and the Ingenuity team through the whole process, from pre-production to post, to deliver the best possible VFX on time and within budget.
What does a day in the life look like?
In post-production, my day mostly consists of meetings with a lot of people: clients, producers, and our various team leaders and artists. Together we review work, plan technical and creative approaches, tackle problems and roadblocks, and budget future work. Outside of that, I spend hours "on the box" working on shots or concepts. During production, I'm on set guiding the film crew through shooting visual effects shots, in addition to the above.
What are some of your favorite projects? Why?
Working on the Horizon film saga was a career highlight for me for three reasons: the work itself was challenging but very rewarding, we had a great working relationship with our client partners including Kevin Costner, and ING assembled an outstanding team that made working every day an absolute pleasure. I'm especially grateful that our work on Horizon was nominated for a VES award in 2025.
Horizon: An American Saga | Warner Bros.
What's something you wish people knew about what you do?
Visual effects is a huge team effort - involving many artistic disciplines, and people collaborating from all different walks of life. A 5-second effect in a movie that you may or may not notice is usually the result of dozens, if not hundreds of human beings working together in sync, towards a singular creative vision.
What is something that excites you about your career?
While the constantly-evolving technology is one interesting aspect, what excites me the most is that VFX is an interface with reality. More often than not, we are replicating a variety of real-world objects and phenomena, and so part of the process of creating authentic and faithful visuals is the necessity of understanding, on a deeper level, the stuff we are trying to make. That involves a lot of learning and researching of topics I never thought I'd need to study before, which can be very rewarding and exciting.
Are you learning anything new?
VFX involves so many intersecting disciplines and areas of knowledge, along with ever-changing technology, so I, along with most people in the field, are always learning something new - whether it's new tools, techniques, technology, or whatever esoteric knowledge about a topic is needed to create something. On the artist side, I am painting and practicing light and form. On the technical side, I am looking into novel machine-learning / AI workflows and python coding. On the real world research side I am studying cardiac anatomy, behavioral characteristics of the animals living in Yosemite, urban planning in the 1860s, whatever knowledge and topics the job requires.
What do you like to do outside of work?
Outside of work, I am passionate about electronic music and go to DJ sets. I've got my own record collection, mixer, and pair of turntables. I enjoy jogging and am currently training for a marathon. And I have a few other odd hobbies, like brewing beer, smoking meats, writing optical tracking software for telescopes.
What's the best advice you've ever received?
Understand the why, not just the how.
SPOTLIGHT
JP Jaramillo
VFX Supervisor
SPOTLIGHT
JP Jaramillo
VFX Supervisor
How would you explain your job to someone who doesn’t know VFX?
Visual effects bring to life the difficult or impossible things to capture with a camera through the use of computer tools wielded by talented artists. My job is to guide our client partners and the Ingenuity team through the whole process, from pre-production to post, to deliver the best possible VFX on time and within budget.
What does a day in the life look like?
In post-production, my day mostly consists of meetings with a lot of people: clients, producers, and our various team leaders and artists. Together we review work, plan technical and creative approaches, tackle problems and roadblocks, and budget future work. Outside of that, I spend hours "on the box" working on shots or concepts. During production, I'm on set guiding the film crew through shooting visual effects shots, in addition to the above.
What are some of your favorite projects? Why?
Working on the Horizon film saga was a career highlight for me for three reasons: the work itself was challenging but very rewarding, we had a great working relationship with our client partners including Kevin Costner, and ING assembled an outstanding team that made working every day an absolute pleasure. I'm especially grateful that our work on Horizon was nominated for a VES award in 2025.
Horizon: An American Saga | Warner Bros.
What's something you wish people knew about what you do?
Visual effects is a huge team effort - involving many artistic disciplines, and people collaborating from all different walks of life. A 5-second effect in a movie that you may or may not notice is usually the result of dozens, if not hundreds of human beings working together in sync, towards a singular creative vision.
What is something that excites you about your career?
While the constantly-evolving technology is one interesting aspect, what excites me the most is that VFX is an interface with reality. More often than not, we are replicating a variety of real-world objects and phenomena, and so part of the process of creating authentic and faithful visuals is the necessity of understanding, on a deeper level, the stuff we are trying to make. That involves a lot of learning and researching of topics I never thought I'd need to study before, which can be very rewarding and exciting.
Are you learning anything new?
VFX involves so many intersecting disciplines and areas of knowledge, along with ever-changing technology, so I, along with most people in the field, are always learning something new - whether it's new tools, techniques, technology, or whatever esoteric knowledge about a topic is needed to create something. On the artist side, I am painting and practicing light and form. On the technical side, I am looking into novel machine-learning / AI workflows and python coding. On the real world research side I am studying cardiac anatomy, behavioral characteristics of the animals living in Yosemite, urban planning in the 1860s, whatever knowledge and topics the job requires.
What do you like to do outside of work?
Outside of work, I am passionate about electronic music and go to DJ sets. I've got my own record collection, mixer, and pair of turntables. I enjoy jogging and am currently training for a marathon. And I have a few other odd hobbies, like brewing beer, smoking meats, writing optical tracking software for telescopes.
What's the best advice you've ever received?
Understand the why, not just the how.