I’m Jason Pethtel, a compositor and environment artist based in Los Angeles, working across film, animation, games, and virtual production.

My career began in photography and design, which shaped how I approach light, composition, and visual storytelling. I moved into visual effects as a matte painting TD, built upon my career and developed into a Senior Matte Painter, building cinematic environments with both artistic precision and technical control.

Matte painting taught me to think like both an artist and a technician. I learned to blend brushwork with projection, balance detail with scale, and serve the story in every shot.

As the industry shifted toward full CG environments, I adapted. I picked up Houdini for procedural workflows and dove into Unreal Engine for real-time and virtual production.

That transition opened some incredible doors. I worked on The Lion King with Jon Favreau’s team, which directly fed into the virtual production methods later used on The Mandalorian. I went on to work as a senior Houdini generalist, focused on CG environments, at studios like ILM, Scanline VFX, and others, and eventually led the environments team at CoSA VFX.

Alongside film and animation, I’ve also used Unreal in a range of real-time and interactive projects. I helped create environments for Walmart Realm, a virtual storefront experience, and contributed to a Disney Imagineering project exploring new real-time applications. I’ve supported the development of a virtual production studio for Fox Sports, collaborated with worldBLD on procedural tools like cityBLD, and created environments for both indie and mid-sized game studios.

When time allows, I collaborate on select outside projects, especially those involving worldbuilding, real-time pipelines, or creative problem-solving. I utilize Houdini, Unreal, Maya, and Nuke, and I’m experienced in everything from fully rendered cinematic shots to in-engine environments.

I’m a member of the Television Academy, the Art Directors Guild (Local 800), and the Animation Guild (Local 839).

Resume

Visit my LinkedIn page or IMdB for more information.