I’m Jason Pethtel, a senior cg generalist, 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.
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.
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.
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).
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