Chris Friend is a multidisciplinary artist who is currently channeling his creativity through directing, visual effects, and drawing. He currently has an award winning short film in film festivals around the world, "Geneva Jacuzzi's Casket".
He has done visual effects for Mr. Robot Season 4, Lady Gaga's Joanne World Tour, Nike, and many independent feature films. He has also directed music videos for Dropkick Murphys, Black Deer, and Jason Grier of Human Ear Music. An early childhood of moving around a lot helped foster a sense of curiosity about culture and the impact of art in people's lives. He can be found in Los Angeles, helping directors bring their dreams to life with his company, VisionFriend.
Experienced director, traditional artist, and VFX supervisor with the ability to lead teams of creatives to deliver unique and innovative productions. Results-driven leader with exceptional multitasking and organization skills. Strong background in project management, CGI, editing, and traditional art.
Work Experience
Mr. Robot Season 4, Los Angeles 2019
VFX Artist
Brought in mid-season to assist small, core VFX team.
- Handled large workload of shots
- Precise stabilization of shots using SynthEyes tracking software
TeamWin, Los Angeles 2017 – 2019
Carried shots from start to finish. Trained, coached, and managed VFX juniors.
Senior VFX Artist
- Contributed to VFX for Lady Gaga’s “Joanne” world tour in 2017
- Led VFX on several Black Rifle Coffee commercial spots
- Produced 1:30 minutes of C4D animation for BackBone corporate explainer video.
Coyote Post, Los Angeles 2014 – 2015
Senior VFX Artist
Carried shots from start to finish. Trained, coached, and managed VFX juniors.
- Led VFX team for Nike “feels” campaign with six unique spots, seamlessly integrating 2D animation with 3D real world space.
Dirty Robber, Los Angeles 2010 – 2013
Carried shots from start to finish. Trained, coached, and managed VFX juniors.
Senior VFX Artist, Director
- Directed small budget projects. Led and trained VFX juniors on projects. Oversaw execution of shots from start to finish
- Directed Dropkick Murphys' “Rose Tattoo” official video, 177M views, (band’s most highly viewed video)
- Produced all VFX on the Simon & Schuster "Endless Knight" book trailer directed by Olly Riley-Smith.
Selected Projects
"Geneva Jacuzzi's Casket” official short film:
Director
VFX Supervisor
Lead VFX Artist
"Geneva Jacuzzi's Casket” breakdown videos
(VisionFriend)
(2021) 3:00 min.
3D animation and inital story boards by Chris Friend
This is a series of VFX breakdown videos Chris made for his short film "Geneva Jacuzzi's Casket"
Mr. Robot, Season Four:
Assisted VFX team with extreme workload from mid-season
Lady Gaga, “Joanne World Tour”:
VFX for projection-mapped visuals for five complete songs
Lady Gaga, “Joanne World Tour”
(Team Win)
(2017) 45:00 min.
3D animation and inital story boards by Chris Friend
Team Win director Jarod Shannon worked with Chris to create this 3D explainer video. Chris meticulously storyboarded every shot and brought this piece to life in C4D.
Dropkick Murphys' “Rose Tattoo” official video
177 Million views (band’s most highly viewed video)
Director
Nike “Feels” campaign
Delivered twelve 15-second spots integrating traditional animation into live-action 3D space
Nike FEELS Compilation
(Dirty Robber)
(2018) 1:31 min.
VFX by Chris Friend
Chris worked with animator Marty Cooper (Hombre McSteez) to seamlessly integrate Marty’s animations into the real world for these five whimsical Nike ads.
2016 Hilary Clinton campaign ads
directed by Joss Whedon
Papa Roach’s 2019 tour
Managed all visuals for 12 songs with unique themes
Papa Roach APMA Visuals
(Uprising Creative)
(2016) 13:48 min.
VFX by Chris Friend
Working with Uprising Creative director Darren Craig, Chris was solely responsible for creating these background animations for Papa Roach’s and Machine Gun Kelly’s APMA Awards show performance.
Steve Angello’s “Wasted Love”
Directed by Lance Drake
VFX Supervisor
Produced all VFX
Dropkick Murphys' “Smash Shit Up” official video
Director
Black Deer “Strike Three” official video
Premiered on Xlr8r.com
4.4K views
Director
VFX Supervisor
Lead VFX Artist
Richie Sambora “Every Road” official lyric video
Director
Rufus Wainwright “Out of the Game” official lyric video
Director
Rufus Wainwright “Out of the Game” official lyric video
Director
“Haunters, the Movie” feature documentary
VFX for opening sequence, titles, end credit sequence
“Guys Reading Poems” feature film
VFX for opening sequence, titles, end credit sequence
“Head Count”, horror feature
On set VFX supervisor
Concept designer for main creature
“Flashout”, sci-fi feature
“Flashout”, sci-fi feature
BackBone, corporate explainer video
Produced 1:30 minutes of C4D animation
Backbone Explainer Video
(Team Win)
(2020) 0:18 min.
3D animation and inital story boards by Chris Friend
Team Win director Jarod Shannon worked with Chris to create this 3D explainer video. Chris meticulously storyboarded every shot and brought this piece to life in C4D.
Simon & Schuster “Demonologist” official book trailer
Director
Fashion film for luxury brand, Cerre
Co-Director
80 card tarot deck hand-drawn for multimedia project for Geneva Jacuzzi
Illustrator
Designer
Writer
Short film “Lenshead”
Storyboard Artist
Prop Designer
75-square foot mural of Welsh dragons
commissioned by Silver Lake patron, Karen Forchione, mother of Oscar-Award winner, Martin Roe
Painter
Zwift
A commerical for the Zwift biking system created by Vaction Theory with VFX by Chris Friend and another artist.
Painter
Zwift
(Vaction Theory)
(2017) 0:30 min.
3D animation, comping, and VFX supervision by Chris Friend
Vaction Theory created this wonderful spot for the Zwift biking system and tasked Chris with being the on-set VFX supervisor, princable 3D-modeler and compositor.
Therapy Dogs Trailer
Chris hand-painted and animated a poster for Therapy Dogs, the Slamdance AGBO Fellowship-winning feature documentary.
Painter
Therapy Dogs trailer
(Ethan Eng)
(2022) 0:30 min.
Painting and 2.5D animation of poster by Chris Friend
Chris animated his poster and cut together this very short trailer for Ethan Eng's film.
Areas of Expertise
Directing
- Geneva Jacuzzi's Casket
- Dropkick Murphy's Rose Tattoo
- Dropkick Murphy's Smash Shit Up
- Black Deer: Strike Three
- Richie Samboa: Long Road Home
- IG Photo One
- Demonologist Book Trailer
Traditional Art:
- Graphic design
- TV Paint: Traditional frame-by-frame animation
- Figure drawing and painting
- Concept design
- Storyboarding
- Character design
- Sculpting
Visual Effects
After Effects:
- Compositing
- rotoscoping
- paint-out
- chroma-keying
- wire removal
- point tracking
- 3D tracking
- motion graphics
- particle systems
- set extensions
- beauty work
- screen replacements
SynthEyes:
- Extremely precise point-tracking
Mocha Pro:
- Planar tracking
- rotoscoping
Photoshop:
- Element paint out
- matte painting
- Separation of 2D image into 3D ready layers
Cinema 4D:
- 3D modeling
- 3D models from camera projection
- character rigging
- character animation
- UV mapping
- lighting
- texturing
Programs Used
- Maxon Cinema 4D
- TV Paint
- ToonBoom
- Adobe After Effects
- Adobe PhotoShop
- Adobe Premiere
- Adobe Dreamweaver
- HTML 5 / CSS
Education
- Life-Drawing
- Classical oil painting
- Fine art
- Advertising
- 2 years of study
- Life-Drawing
- Classical oil painting
- 2 years of study
- Life-Drawing
- Illustration
- Film
- 4 years of study