Jim Rygiel is one of Hollywood's most accomplished visual effects artists. In 2002, he received the American Film Institute's first AFI Digital Effects Artist of the Year award, the Academy Award and the BAFTA award for best visual effects for his work on "The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring." Rygiel began his career with Pacific Electric Pictures, one of the earliest companies to employ computer animation for advertising and film. He later moved to Digital Productions, where he worked on "The Last Starfighter" (1984) and won a prestigious CLIO award for commercial spots introducing the Sony Walkman. Rygiel later headed the computer animation department at Boss Film Studios, where he supervised many feature films, both as digital effects supervisor and visual effects supervisor, including "Starship Troopers," "Outbreak," "Air Force One," "Batman Returns," "Alien III" and "Ghost." He went on to supervise "The Parent Trap," "Star Trek: Insurrection," "Anna and the King" and "102 Dalmatians."

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Better Than Real Life: How Virtual Worlds Are Changing the Movies

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