About

Ari Rubenstein is a Creative Director and Visual Effects Supervisor with over 30 years experience serving the CGI (computer graphics imaging) and feature film industries. He has been fortunate to work for 3 industry pioneers, Xaos Inc, Tippett Studio, and Blue Sky Studios on a wide variety of Live-action and Feature Animated Films, from The Matrix to Ice Age.

Outside of these commercial ventures, Ari spends his time developing independent not-for-profit films utilizing a worldwide crew of remote-based talent. These films explore and evolve the art and technology of filmmaking


Since the early 1990’s, Ari has been immersed in the arts and technology of CGI (computer graphic imaging). His passion eventually narrowed to focus on visual effects (VFX) for feature films.

In 1997, Ari joined Xaos Inc., in San Francisco, an early pioneer of visual effects technology which became an inspiration for the burgeoning industry of the day.

In January 1998, he founded Curv Studios, a VFX production company in Marin County, directly north of San Francisco. Under his creative supervision, Curv initially developed 3D animated communications tools for Silicon Valley tech companies. Continuing in this vein, Curv produced 3D animation and 2D compositing for game cinematics, television documentaries, IMAX and feature films.

In 2003 Ari joined Tippett Studios in Berkeley, CA, to work on The Matrix trilogy. While at Tippett he worked on a variety of high-profile feature films such as Charlottes Web, Constantine, and Hellboy among others. At Tippett Ari was fortunate to learn directly from vfx and animation pioneer Phil Tippett and his partner Craig Hayes, both academy award winning craftsman. Tippett Studio’s crew comprised some of the most seasoned and seminal craftsman in the industry.

In late 2005 Ari joined Blue Sky Studios in New York to work on animated feature films for 20th Century FOX. Blue Sky had been an early pioneer in computer graphics, primarily notable for the invention of raytrace rendering technology which is now ubiquitous throughout the global vfx and animation industries. During his time at Blue Sky Ari contributed a variety of creative techniques and technologies which advanced the aesthetic quality of Blue Sky’s films over the years.

Beginning in October 2018 Ari wrote, produced and directed the multi-award winning 3D animated short film “The Blues Crab”. For the film he developed a remote-based VFX & Animation pipeline, subsequently managing and supervising a crew of over 60 artists spread across 15 different countries for 2 years. In addition to the creative goals for this film was the goal of exploring how a global community of artists could effectively collaborate remotely. Ari partnered with several software developers and a cloud rendering service vendor to produce this not-for-profit film. The Blues Crab screened at more than 80 film festivals globally in 2019, winning top honors at 15 of them.

The Blues Crab Poster

Following directly on the heels of The Blues Crab came the production of Ari’s second animated short film “Small Blue Shadow” (SBS). SBS is the product of a near 25 year old script that had been pulled out and shelved a number of times due to its ambitious nature (intended as a 30 minute photo-realistic animated film) and the resources required to pull it off successfully. With the momentum gained off production of his previous film Ari set out to produce a Teaser Trailer for SBS in order to gain interest, and potential investment for the film.

He was fortunate to be awarded an Epic MegaGrant, predicated on his goal of evolving the VFX and Feature Animation pipelines by integration of Unreal Engine into these standard production models. With this budget Ari was able to successfully produce and share the Trailer globally (June 2022) while keeping the film moving forward on a slow-burn as he seeks further investment.

In February 2021 Disney shuttered Blue Sky Studios, the feature animation studio Ari had been employed by for over 15 years. After which he was hired as VFX Supervisor for BREAK+ENTER, a film and episodics production company, to oversee production of Amazon Studios highly acclaimed “Outer Range” series, and for “Nanny”, an independent horror film which went on to win the Grand Jury prize at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival. This was followed with a promotion to the role of Creative Director where Ari lead the studio’s team of VFX Supervisors and artists, co-managing its slate of film and episodic projects and setting its overall creative approach.

By the end of 2022 BREAK+ENTER would also be shuttered by its parent company. Throughout this transition Ari would play a key role in brokering a deal with another VFX vendor who had been working on the same episodic show he had been VFX supervising at B+E. This deal saw the transfer of the entire project from BREAK+ENTER along with almost his entire creative team of 14 artists to their new home at Chicken Bone FX (CBFX).

Concurrent with the development of Small Blue Shadow Ari had been co-developing a live-action short film script titled “BEN | BOT” with a Writer, Director, and DP (Director of Photography) who all share a similar vision. Like his two prior films, this one would also employ remote based production, and in addition explore the burgeoning market of Virtual Production, specifically ICVFX (in-camera VFX shot on an LED Volume Stage).

The film would serve as a prototype for a new Virtual Art Department (VAD) which would broaden the company’s services with Virtual Production. As Director of this burgeoning department, Ari would additionally be tasked with the training of its entire crew in this new discipline and the integration of Unreal Engine into their standard VFX pipeline.
However, as the winds of change shifted and decreased the opportunities for the Virtual Production business model across the world, so did the investment and continued development of departments within companies to serve it. And so it went with the VAD effort at CBFX.
Shortly thereafter Ari was hired as VFX Supervisor on Amazon’s “Mr & Mrs Smith”, an 8- part episodic series, by Assembly VFX. This role led to VFX Supervision on the FX Channel’s “What we do in the Shadows”, and then on Apple’s “The Instigators” with Matt Damon & Casey Affleck.

And then the 2023 Writers and Directors strikes took root and all but collapsed the film & episodics industries. Luckily after a little self reflection Ari restarted Curv Studios, his near 30 year old production company which had been periodically contracting over the years. The first contract was to build a Virtual Production stage for IBM in Brooklyn, NY. This stage would allow live actors to be real-time composited with computer generated environments, which was then broadcast to four regions globally. These broadcasts were IBM’s internal quarterly sales presentations held in North America, Europe, Japan and Singapore.

Directly following this contract Actor, Writer, Director Ed Burn’s hired Ari to VFX Supervise his latest feature film, “Finnegan’s Foursome”, and Curv Studios to produce all the visual effects for it. What followed was a wonderfully collaborative and successful production. Were it that they all went so smoothly!

All the while during 2023 Curv had been producing another independent short film called “Poncho & Lefty in Chrome Don’t Get Ya Home”.

This film is Written and Directed by Matt Jacobs, an old friend of Ari’s and his supervisor from The Matrix back when they were co-workers at Tippett Studio. This film, like all the others Curv produces, is another foray into the exploration and advancement in the arts and technology of filmmaking and storytelling. And like the others, it will be entered into the global film Festival market. I hope whoever sees it loves it as it’s a buddy film with a simple ole message, “ all the glitters isn’t gold”.

It’s gonna be good, and hopefully lead us over the next horizon!

About

Ari Rubenstein is a Creative Director and Visual Effects Supervisor with over 30 years experience serving the CGI (computer graphics imaging) and feature film industries. He has been fortunate to work for 3 industry pioneers, Xaos Inc, Tippett Studio, and Blue Sky Studios on a wide variety of Live-action and Feature Animated Films, from The Matrix to Ice Age.

Outside of these commercial ventures, Ari spends his time developing independent not-for-profit films utilizing a worldwide crew of remote-based talent. These films explore and evolve the art and technology of filmmaking


Since the early 1990’s, Ari has been immersed in the arts and technology of CGI (computer graphic imaging). His passion eventually narrowed to focus on visual effects (VFX) for feature films.

In 1997, Ari joined Xaos Inc., in San Francisco, an early pioneer of visual effects technology which became an inspiration for the burgeoning industry of the day.

In January 1998, he founded Curv Studios, a VFX production company in Marin County, directly north of San Francisco. Under his creative supervision, Curv initially developed 3D animated communications tools for Silicon Valley tech companies. Continuing in this vein, Curv produced 3D animation and 2D compositing for game cinematics, television documentaries, IMAX and feature films.

In 2003 Ari joined Tippett Studios in Berkeley, CA, to work on The Matrix trilogy. While at Tippett he worked on a variety of high-profile feature films such as Charlottes Web, Constantine, and Hellboy among others. At Tippett Ari was fortunate to learn directly from vfx and animation pioneer Phil Tippett and his partner Craig Hayes, both academy award winning craftsman. Tippett Studio’s crew comprised some of the most seasoned and seminal craftsman in the industry.

In late 2005 Ari joined Blue Sky Studios in New York to work on animated feature films for 20th Century FOX. Blue Sky had been an early pioneer in computer graphics, primarily notable for the invention of raytrace rendering technology which is now ubiquitous throughout the global vfx and animation industries. During his time at Blue Sky Ari contributed a variety of creative techniques and technologies which advanced the aesthetic quality of Blue Sky’s films over the years.

Beginning in October 2018 Ari wrote, produced and directed the multi-award winning 3D animated short film “The Blues Crab”. For the film he developed a remote-based VFX & Animation pipeline, subsequently managing and supervising a crew of over 60 artists spread across 15 different countries for 2 years. In addition to the creative goals for this film was the goal of exploring how a global community of artists could effectively collaborate remotely. Ari partnered with several software developers and a cloud rendering service vendor to produce this not-for-profit film. The Blues Crab screened at more than 80 film festivals globally in 2019, winning top honors at 15 of them.

The Blues Crab Poster

Following directly on the heels of The Blues Crab came the production of Ari’s second animated short film “Small Blue Shadow” (SBS). SBS is the product of a near 25 year old script that had been pulled out and shelved a number of times due to its ambitious nature (intended as a 30 minute photo-realistic animated film) and the resources required to pull it off successfully. With the momentum gained off production of his previous film Ari set out to produce a Teaser Trailer for SBS in order to gain interest, and potential investment for the film.

He was fortunate to be awarded an Epic MegaGrant, predicated on his goal of evolving the VFX and Feature Animation pipelines by integration of Unreal Engine into these standard production models. With this budget Ari was able to successfully produce and share the Trailer globally (June 2022) while keeping the film moving forward on a slow-burn as he seeks further investment.

In February 2021 Disney shuttered Blue Sky Studios, the feature animation studio Ari had been employed by for over 15 years. After which he was hired as VFX Supervisor for BREAK+ENTER, a film and episodics production company, to oversee production of Amazon Studios highly acclaimed “Outer Range” series, and for “Nanny”, an independent horror film which went on to win the Grand Jury prize at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival. This was followed with a promotion to the role of Creative Director where Ari lead the studio’s team of VFX Supervisors and artists, co-managing its slate of film and episodic projects and setting its overall creative approach.

By the end of 2022 BREAK+ENTER would also be shuttered by its parent company. Throughout this transition Ari would play a key role in brokering a deal with another VFX vendor who had been working on the same episodic show he had been VFX supervising at B+E. This deal saw the transfer of the entire project from BREAK+ENTER along with almost his entire creative team of 14 artists to their new home at Chicken Bone FX (CBFX).

Concurrent with the development of Small Blue Shadow Ari had been co-developing a live-action short film script titled “BEN | BOT” with a Writer, Director, and DP (Director of Photography) who all share a similar vision. Like his two prior films, this one would also employ remote based production, and in addition explore the burgeoning market of Virtual Production, specifically ICVFX (in-camera VFX shot on an LED Volume Stage).

The film would serve as a prototype for a new Virtual Art Department (VAD) which would broaden the company’s services with Virtual Production. As Director of this burgeoning department, Ari would additionally be tasked with the training of its entire crew in this new discipline and the integration of Unreal Engine into their standard VFX pipeline.
However, as the winds of change shifted and decreased the opportunities for the Virtual Production business model across the world, so did the investment and continued development of departments within companies to serve it. And so it went with the VAD effort at CBFX.
Shortly thereafter Ari was hired as VFX Supervisor on Amazon’s “Mr & Mrs Smith”, an 8- part episodic series, by Assembly VFX. This role led to VFX Supervision on the FX Channel’s “What we do in the Shadows”, and then on Apple’s “The Instigators” with Matt Damon & Casey Affleck.

And then the 2023 Writers and Directors strikes took root and all but collapsed the film & episodics industries. Luckily after a little self reflection Ari restarted Curv Studios, his near 30 year old production company which had been periodically contracting over the years. The first contract was to build a Virtual Production stage for IBM in Brooklyn, NY. This stage would allow live actors to be real-time composited with computer generated environments, which was then broadcast to four regions globally. These broadcasts were IBM’s internal quarterly sales presentations held in North America, Europe, Japan and Singapore.

Directly following this contract Actor, Writer, Director Ed Burn’s hired Ari to VFX Supervise his latest feature film, “Finnegan’s Foursome”, and Curv Studios to produce all the visual effects for it. What followed was a wonderfully collaborative and successful production. Were it that they all went so smoothly!

All the while during 2023 Curv had been producing another independent short film called “Poncho & Lefty in Chrome Don’t Get Ya Home”.

This film is Written and Directed by Matt Jacobs, an old friend of Ari’s and his supervisor from The Matrix back when they were co-workers at Tippett Studio. This film, like all the others Curv produces, is another foray into the exploration and advancement in the arts and technology of filmmaking and storytelling. And like the others, it will be entered into the global film Festival market. I hope whoever sees it loves it as it’s a buddy film with a simple ole message, “ all the glitters isn’t gold”.

It’s gonna be good, and hopefully lead us over the next horizon!

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