Impossible Objects Hires Ruel Smith as Head of VFX and Animation

Impossible Objects, a virtual production company, has announced hiring the multitalented VFX supervisor and commercial director Ruel Smith. Impossible Objects is defining the future of production by embracing next-generation real-time filmmaking, and is bringing Ruel on board to oversee visual effects and animation. He brings more than 15 years of experience in film, television and virtual production and will be based in Los Angeles.

Ruel comes from a more traditional visual effects background, working at some of the most prestigious studios in the industry. He began his career at Digital Domain creating award winning VFX for advertising and film, always with an eye to the next evolution in production. His passion for real-time filmmaking was sparked when he joined the virtual production team for the award-winning Disney’s “Jungle Book,” which is considered a milestone film showcasing the creative potential of real-time. Ruel was also an integral part of the visual effects teams for films such as “Flags of Our Fathers”, “Black Panther”, and “Captain Marvel”.

Ruel will be working alongside IO founders Joe Sill and Jerad Anderson, in his new role where he hopes to build out expanded visual effects and animation teams along with a pipeline and internal infrastructure to support real-time virtual productions workflows using off-the-shelf and internally developed creative tools.

“I’m looking forward to taking the lead on building a team and leaning on best practices from my experience in both traditional visual effects and the rapidly evolving tools methodologies in real-time production and in-camera visual effects. Impossible Objects has an incredible portfolio of work and truly represents the state of the art in virtual production today,” said Ruel.

Joe added, “Ruel is a natural leader and after working with him on an incredibly ambitious project earlier this year, we knew he’d be the perfect fit for developing the visual effects and animation teams for our quickly expanding virtual production company. He is an inspired and powerful manifester, and is fueled by a curiosity that we all share here at Impossible Objects.”

With his own career being dramatically influenced when receiving mentorship early on by some of the VFX industry’s most brilliant minds, Ruel is thrilled about doing the same for a new generation of artists, guiding them into the future of virtual production.

Impossible Objects was founded in 2019 by Joe Sill and Jerad Anderson. A self-described world-building lab, the company is made up of a team of artists and engineers who specialize in building projects that marry the physical and digital worlds to build commercial projects and original IP. Combining expertise in CG visualization and animation, real-time performance capture and navigation of green screen and LED volumes, the company is uniquely positioned to fill a burgeoning demand for virtual production.