Shadi Almassizadeh

Shadi "Jones" Almassizadeh was studying for a degree in theater lightning at the time Presto’s The Journeyman Project 2: Buried in Time was in production and thought some of his course work could be applied to the 3D process. So he joined the production of BIT where he became known as the "Guru of lightning". At Presto, he also worked as Lead Animator on on The Journeyman Project: Pegasus Prime and The Journeyman Project 3: Legacy of Time.

He left Presto before it closed and joined Industrial Light and Magic as Technical Director (1997-2003). He is credited as Graphical/Digital Artist on movies such as Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999), Pearl Harbor (2001) and Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002).

From 2003-2006 he worked at The Orphanage, a leading visual effects, production, and technology company based in Los Angeles and San Francisco. As Computer Graphics Supervisor at the Orphanage, he contributed to various movies, such as Hellboy (2004 as Sequence Supervisor) and Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005 with credits for Visual Effects).

Then he left for the London for two years to work as Lead Look Dev at Framestore-CFC, where he contributed to Underdog (2007) and The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian (2008). After his London years he moved to Wellington, New Zealand, where he currently works at Weta Digital as Lightning Supervisor on Avatar.

In 2006, Almassizadeh married with Kristi Valk, Matte painter at the Orphanage and Weta Digital. His nickname "Jones" was chosen as it is easier to say than his real name.