One of Weta Digital's visual effects supervisors and a loyal fan of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Sean Walker has worked on nearly every MCU film Weta has been involved with.
Walker built his career with Weta Digital and most recently was the VFX supervisor on Shang-Chi and the Legend of The Ten Rings and Black Widow - Shang-Chi has been academy nominated.
Sean Walker Photo: Weta
RNZ's Samuel Rillstone spoke to Walker about working on the first "full-on Asian super hero Marvel film" and what it means to be nominated.
For Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, Walker led his team to create the third act battle, which included hero creatures, significant water simulations, and environment creation and destruction.
If Shang-Chi were to win it would be Weta's seventh academy award.
"It will be an honour, but it will also be a testament to all the insanely talented people that we work with at Weta," Walker says.
Walker's early work in lighting as a technical director on the ground-breaking Avatar (2009), and later as a lead on Planet of the Apes and The Hobbit trilogies, laid the foundation for his art direction skills and established his expertise in photoreal VFX for blockbuster films.
Sean Walker's selected credits
Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (2021)
Destin Daniel Cretton (Marvel)
Black Widow (2021) - Visual Effects Supervisor
Cate Shortland (Marvel)
Avengers: Endgame (2019) - Visual Effects Supervisor
Anthony Russo, Joe Russo (Marvel Studios)
Avengers: Infinity War (2018) - CG Supervisor
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017) - CG Supervisor
