You may not know his name, but you’ve definitely seen pioneer Visual Effects Artist Ed Kramer’s work. As a Senior Technical Director and Sequence Supervisor for George Lucas’ company, Industrial Light + Magic, Ed’s CGI effects appeared in STAR WARS Episodes I, II and III, (1999, 2002, 2005) and OSCAR-winner Pirates of the Caribbean II: Dead Man’s Chest (2006), as well as many other influential visual effects movies in recent history.
He led the teams creating the Scarab Beetle shots in The Mummy (1999), the Rock Monster shots in Galaxy Quest (1999), the jungle getting sucked into the pyramid for The Mummy Returns (2001) and the Droid Factory and End Battle shots in Star Wars II: Attack of the Clones (2002). He also contributed to such classics as Stargate (1994), Jumanji (1995), Twister (1996), 101 Dalmatians (1996), Jurassic Park: The Lost World (1997), Deep Impact (1998), The Perfect Storm (2000), Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002), Herbie Fully Loaded (2005), Van Helsing (2004), and many other seminal visual effects blockbusters from 1992 through 2006. (For more details, click on the Films link.)
He has worked with such visual effects luminaries as Douglas Trumbull, Dennis Muren and John Knoll, and Directors like George Lucas, Steven Spielberg and Michael Bay. Perhaps the most recognizable creation from Ed’s more than 30 years as a CGI professional is the iconic Columbia Pictures “Lady with a Torch” logo, which he helped create for visual effects icons Joel Hynek and Jeff Kleiser.
Ed made the difficult decision to leave the movie life in 2006, when, after twelve years and twenty-four feature films, he was part of a Senior-level round of layoffs. Moving his wife and young kids to Denver in 2006, Ed knew that when you make movies, the movie always must come first, and being present as a dad while his kids were growing up was a more important priority.
His freelance work in Denver has included clients like The STARZ Network, Lockheed-Martin, the Discovery Channel, and even a Platinum Pixie Award-winning logo for an event coordinated by Colorado Governor and Presidential candidate John Hickenlooper. He has also created CGI work for futuristic medical simulators used to train surgeons virtually on complex new procedures.
Ed is an authority on the history of computer graphics, and has spoken at conferences world-wide, including SIGGRAPH and the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB), and Colorado venues Mile Hi Con, StarFest, and the Colorado Springs and Denver Comic Cons. In addition to his freelance work created under the company name edk/3d, Ed found satisfaction as a full-time professor at the Art Institute of Colorado, teaching the next generation of CGI artists his professional approach to advanced modeling, lighting, and dynamics techniques. When that school closed in 2018, he continued his teaching career at the Rocky Mountain College of Art and Design (RMCAD).
Kramer is also producing a documentary film, titled WIZARDS of HOLLYWOOD: Movie Magic Secrets from the Artists who Invented CGI. He has selected movies significant in CGI history, including Star Wars (1977), Jurassic Park (1993), Toy Story (1995), Twister (1996), The Mummy (1998), Shrek (2001) and many other pioneering films, and is interviewing many of the world’s leading original computer graphics artists to reveal the untold backstory of some of the most famous CGI shots in movie history!
Ed Instagrams at edkramer_wizard: https://www.instagram.com/edkramer_wizard
On YouTube he has Ed Kramer‘s CGI History Channel:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCa2OzKEXQfIqAHlXOjJ8seA/playlists
and to follow progress on the book and documentary, text “wizard” to 555888 or log on to www.wizardsofhollywood.com.