Kennedy, Sean

Sean Kennedy

1991 Graduate

After graduating from the Art Institute of Pittsburgh in 1997, Sean Kennedy moved to Los Angeles and has been working in special and visual effects ever since. His first few years were spent doing physical effects, everything from props and miniature models to animatronic creatures and special effects make-up. He was fortunate to be able to work at effects studios both large and small, including Oscar winning effects studio Amalgamated Dynamics Inc, and the studio of legendary make-up effects artist Rick Baker. Sean worked on such movies as Spider-man 1 & 2, The Santa Clause 2,  AVP: Alien vs. Predator, and Men in Black 2.

In 2001, seeing the industry moving towards digital effects, Sean began working as compositor and 3D artist on movies such as Austin Powers in Goldmember, Meet the Fockers, Superbad, Sin City, Alvin and the Chipmunks, and Night at the Museum. While at renowned studio Rhythm & Hues, he contributed to two Visual Effects Academy Award winning movies, The Golden Compass in 2007 and Life of Pi in 2012.

Since 2015, Sean has been at CoSA VFX working on both movies and television shows. TV shows include Stranger Things, Lucifer, The Walking Dead, Agents of SHIELD, and Resident Alien. He also worked on the shows Gotham and Westworld, which both won Emmy Awards for Visual Effects in 2017.

Sean has written and directed a few short films that were accepted into various film festivals, and as an advocate for free and open source software, he shares tutorials and tips for visual effects on his own training website. He has contributed to visual effects software books and magazines, and also given presentations on his work and career multiple times at the annual Blender Conference in Amsterdam.

Sean lives in Los Angeles with his wife Kristen, occasionally publishing short horror stories and still wondering if being a rock guitarist would have been a more exciting career choice. A full list of his 100+ credits can be found on IMDB.com.