Disney's Cinderella

Intent

About 95% of my work on Cinderella was lighting the mice. These tiny CG creatures needed to feel real enough to share the frame with live-action actors, but also carry that Disney warmth — furry, expressive, loveable. The lighting had to sell both the physical reality of the fur and the emotional beats of their performances.

Challenge

Fifteen-plus rounds of director notes on CG mice that had to integrate seamlessly with live-action plates. Fur is unforgiving under harsh light, and any mismatch in color temperature or shadow direction would break the illusion. This was also my first real experience with deep compositing — learning to think about lighting as part of a larger pipeline, not just pretty pictures.

Approach

Built modular lighting rigs in Katana with Renderman handling the fur rendering. The deep compositing workflow through Nuke was a revelation — being able to finesse integration at the end without re-rendering changed how I thought about flexibility in lighting. But the biggest lesson wasn't technical. It was learning the value of being on a team of VFX artists who genuinely had each other's backs.

Reference

The original animated Cinderella mice, honestly. Gus and Jaq have this specific charm — round, soft, warm. Our lighting needed to honor that while making them feel physically present in a live-action world. Also studying how Roger Deakins motivates light even in fantastical situations.