Biography

Chad Finnerty is a veteran visual effects artist, VFX supervisor, and studio owner with more than two decades of experience spanning feature films, television, animation, motion capture, and holographic entertainment.

Early in his career, Chad worked at Digital Domain, where he served in roles including Crowd Simulation Lead, Animation Lead, and Motion Capture Lead. His feature film credits from this period include Clint Eastwood's Flags of Our Fathers and Letters from Iwo Jima, Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor, and Roland Emmerich's 2012. He was also part of the visual effects team behind Happy Feet, which won the 2006 Academy Award for Best Animated Feature.

Chad later joined Pixomondo as an Animation Supervisor, contributing to Star Trek Into Darkness and After Earth. In 2013, he co-founded Los Angeles-based visual effects studio Digital Frontier FX, where he serves as Co-Owner and VFX Supervisor.

Through Digital Frontier FX, Chad expanded his work into holographic entertainment, supervising the digital resurrection of legendary musicians Ronnie James Dio and Frank Zappa. The Dio holographic performance debuted at Germany's Wacken Open Air festival in 2016, while The Bizarre World of Frank Zappa brought Zappa back to the stage as the centerpiece of a live concert tour launched in 2019. Chad also supervised the creation of the Ronald Reagan holographic experiences unveiled in 2018 and permanently installed at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California.

As VFX Supervisor at Digital Frontier FX, Chad's film and television credits include Marvel Studios' The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, Masters of the Air, The Flash, Fear the Walking Dead, Resident Evil, High Desert, Fire Country, and White Men Can't Jump. Drawing on his early background in crowd simulation, Chad has continued to apply that expertise to large-scale visual effects work, including Digital Frontier FX's crowd work on Fear the Walking Dead and Resident Evil.

Animation has remained a through line throughout Chad's career. Nearly two decades after contributing to the Academy Award-winning Happy Feet, Chad and the Digital Frontier FX team contributed to Ne Zha 2, which became the highest-grossing animated film of all time worldwide.

Today, Chad leads the creative and technical direction of Digital Frontier FX, working with filmmakers and production teams to develop visual effects solutions from early concept and previsualization through final delivery.
- IMDb mini biography by: Jaimie Lee Jota-Finnerty