Starting his career in 1980, Rygiel joined Pacific Electric Pictures, one of the earliest companies to employ computer animation for the advertising and film markets. In 1983, Rygiel's work took him to Digital Productions where he began work on _The Last Starfighter and Metrolight. In 1989 Rygiel was asked to form and head a computer animation department at Boss Film Studios. This department of one grew to over 75 animators and 100 support staff within a little more than a year, winning several awards, including a CLIO Award for the Geo Prism automobile commercial. While at Boss, Rygiel supervised many feature films, both as Digital Effects Supervisor and Visual Effects Supervisor. His credits there include Starship Troopers, Species, Outbreak, Air Force One, The Scout, The Last Action Hero, Cliffhanger, Batman Returns, Alien III, and Ghost. After Boss Films closure Rygiel went on to supervise, The Parent Trap, Star Trek: Insurrection, Anna and the King, and 102 Dalmatians. In 2002, Rygiel received the American Film Institute's first AFI Digital Effects Artist of the Year award, the Academy Award and the British Academy of Film and Television Arts award for Best Visual Effects, for his work on The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring. Rygiel is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences as well as the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, and The British Academy of Film and Television Arts.
Jim holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree(University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee) and a Master of Fine Arts degree (Otis Parsons School of Design, Los Angeles, Ca.). He also holds an Honorary Doctorate from (Otis Art Institute), as well as an Honorary Doctorate from the (Academy of Art University) in San Francisco California.
Wellington, New Zealand
Los Angeles, California
I was basically one of those starving-artists stories. My art,transformed itself into the visual-effects world, but I still see,myself doing art.
