Dan Smiczek Joins Ring of Fire
Dan Smiczek has joined Ring of Fire as Head of CGI/Visual Effects Supervisor. He will be working in collaboration with owners and partners Creative Director Jerry Spivack, Executive Producer John Myers and their producing team, overseeing and supervising 3D, animation and visual effects.
Smiczek is joining Ring of Fire from London where he is wrapping up his work for Framestore as the Effects Supervisor on the animated feature film THE TALE OF DESPEREAUX. On this project he oversaw a large team of artists while supervising the VFX portion of the film, creating naturalistic and magical effects as well as crowds of CGI rats and humans.
Previous to Framestore, Smiczek worked at several other well known visual effects companies in the U.S. and New Zealand serving in various roles. Some of these companies include Rhythm & Hues, Weta Digital and Asylum Visual Effects. Smiczek is well known as a Massive expert and has been on and led visual effects teams for numerous commercials and feature films including an Academy Award win for Best Visual Effects in LORD OF THE RINGS: THE TWO TOWERS. Other credits include THE FAST AND THE FURIOUS: TOKYO DRIFT, X2: X-MEN UNITED, and THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA: THE LION, THE WITCH AND THE WARDROBE.
At Asylum Visual Effects, Smiczek led the setup and implementation of effects and animation on Propel STRESS MONSTER, a spot that was highly lauded and garnered a 2007 Bronze Clio for Animation. Additional credits include high profile Nike spots featuring current NFL stars in THE PLAN and LEAVE NOTHING.
Ring of Fire, now located in Santa Monica, has been in business since 1996. RoF's focus is commercial work, although they have worked on several features and television shows including SPIDER-MAN 2 (Academy Award for Best Visual Effects). Most recent credits include visual effects on Epoch Films director Matt Aselton's feature GIGANTIC and the television series IT'S ALWAYS SUNNY IN PHILADELPHIA for the FX Channel.
Notable recent commercial work are spots for Old Spice and Nike out of W + K Portland, Geico and UPS out of The Martin Agency, Richmond and Getty out of M+C Saatchi L.A.