From Hollywood to Your Classroom
Visual Effects. Virtual Production. Real Experience
As Seen in
Work With Mark
Whether you are a film school looking for a visiting practitioner, a production company needing a VFX consultant, or a student wanting to learn hands-on techniques — there is a way to work together.
Whether you are a film school looking for a visiting practitioner, a production company needing a VFX consultant, or a student wanting to learn hands-on techniques — there is a way to work together.
Whether you are a film school looking for a visiting practitioner, a production company needing a VFX consultant, or a student wanting to learn hands-on techniques — there is a way to work together.
Online Teaching — Universities & Film Schools
Mark teaches Visual Effects for Live Action Production, Virtual Production, Stop Motion Animation, and VFX History and Design. He has taught these subjects for over two decades at institutions including UCLA Extension, Chapman University, and the New York Film Academy. He is available for rem
Online Teaching — Universities & Film Schools
Mark teaches Visual Effects for Live Action Production, Virtual Production, Stop Motion Animation, and VFX History and Design. He has taught these subjects for over two decades at institutions including UCLA Extension, Chapman University, and the New York Film Academy. He is available for remote teaching via Zoom in formats ranging from a single guest lecture to a full semester course.
• Guest lectures — single session, tailored to your curriculum
• Short course or masterclass — 3 to 6 sessions, custom topic
• Full semester remote adjunct — available to US institutions
• Curriculum consultation — developing new virtual production programs
Workshops — Schools, Studios & Private Groups
Whether you are a film school looking for a visiting practitioner, a production company needing a VFX consultant, or a student wanting to learn hands-on techniques — there is a way to work together.
Whether you are a film school looking for a visiting practitioner, a production company needing a VFX consultant, or a student wanting to learn hands-on techniques — there is a way to work together.
Mark offers hands-on workshops in virtual production, practical VFX, stop motion animation, and traditional camera tricks. The virtual production workshop requires no special equipment from the host — Mark brings the iPhone, green screen, and software. Students participate in building a tracked composite shot from setup to finished fram
Mark offers hands-on workshops in virtual production, practical VFX, stop motion animation, and traditional camera tricks. The virtual production workshop requires no special equipment from the host — Mark brings the iPhone, green screen, and software. Students participate in building a tracked composite shot from setup to finished frame in a single session.
• Virtual Production Workshop — iPhone + Jetset + Unreal: from zero to tracked composite
• Practical VFX Workshop — forced perspective, mirror shots, miniatures, scale techniques
• Stop Motion Animation Workshop — character creation, armatures, camera, lighting
• Green Screen Compositing Workshop — lighting, keying, integration in After Effects
Workshops can be conducted in English or with translation support. Available in Lisbon in person or remotely via live Zoom. Suitable for university, high school, and professional development contexts.
VFX Consultation — Productions & Studios
Whether you are a film school looking for a visiting practitioner, a production company needing a VFX consultant, or a student wanting to learn hands-on techniques — there is a way to work together.
VFX Consultation — Productions & Studios
With decades of on-set experience across practical effects, optical compositing, digital compositing, and virtual production, Mark is available as a consultant on productions that need experienced VFX guidance. Particularly well suited to independent productions working with green screen, virtual sets, Unreal Engine, or Jetset pipelines.
Art, Books & Video
Original Artwork-Cartoon Sculptures
Mark sculpts original cartoon characters in polymer clay, painted and finished to display quality. Each piece is a one-of-a-kind original created by hand. Prices start at $200. Custom commissions considered.
Virtual Production: Essential Elements on a Budget
Co-authored with Dr. Juniko Moody. Published by Routledge / Taylor & Francis, 2025.
The definitive accessible guide to virtual production for independent filmmakers and students. Covers real-time rendering, camera tracking, LED volumes, game engines, collaborative workflows, and the ethical dimensions of AI in production. Includes a dedi
Co-authored with Dr. Juniko Moody. Published by Routledge / Taylor & Francis, 2025.
The definitive accessible guide to virtual production for independent filmmakers and students. Covers real-time rendering, camera tracking, LED volumes, game engines, collaborative workflows, and the ethical dimensions of AI in production. Includes a dedicated chapter on Lightcraft Jetset — the iPhone-based tracking system that has democratized live camera compositing.
Filming the Fantastic with Virtual Technology
Filming the Fantastic with Virtual Technology
A guide to creating visual effects and virtual environments using modern digital tools, written for the filmmaker who wants to move from traditional to virtual techniques without losing the craft perspective.
Art Books & Publications
Filming the Fantastic - 2nd Edition
Filming the Fantastic - 2nd Edition
Filming the Fantastic - 2nd Edition
The foundational guide to visual effects cinematography that has been used in film schools for over a decade. Covers compositing, green screen, matte work, miniatures, and the optical roots of modern VFX.
Filming the Fantastic
Filming the Fantastic - 2nd Edition
Filming the Fantastic - 2nd Edition
This full-color step-by step guide to visual effects cinematography empowers you to plan out and execute visual effects shots on a budget, without falling into the common pitfall of using high-end computer graphics to "fix it in post. Learn how to effectively photograph foreground miniatures, matte paintings, green screen set ups, min
This full-color step-by step guide to visual effects cinematography empowers you to plan out and execute visual effects shots on a budget, without falling into the common pitfall of using high-end computer graphics to "fix it in post. Learn how to effectively photograph foreground miniatures, matte paintings, green screen set ups, miniatures, crowd replication, explosions, and so much more to create elements that will composite together flawlessly.
Filming the Fantastic focuses on the art and craft of visual effects using real case scenarios from a visual effects cameraman. These lessons from the front line will give you ideas and insight so you can translate your skills into any situation, no matter what camera or software package you are using and no matter if you are using film or digital technology. Learn how to film your fantastic visual effects with this book!
Stop Motion Character Performance
How to create a stop motion Terminator performance using a blend of traditional and digital techniques.
Mirror Magic
Creating Visual Effects using Reflections. Demonstration of Pepper's ghost, Soft mirror splits and Schufftan shots.
The Pipeline
The virtual production pipeline Mark teaches uses three tools that fit in a bag and run on a laptop:
• Unreal Engine — the real-time 3D environment, free to use
• Jetset by Lightcraft — iPhone-based live camera tracking, available by subscription
• Adobe After Effects — final compositing and refinement
An actor stands in front of a green screen. The iPhone tracks every movement of the camera in 3D space. Unreal renders the virtual environment from the camera's exact perspective in real time. The composite is visible on the iPhone screen during the shoot. After photography, the background is rendered at full resolution and composited with the live action in After Effects.
The result is indistinguishable from a production with access to a multi-million dollar LED volume stage — at a fraction of the cost and with equipment you can carry on a plane.
Gaussian Splat Environments
A Gaussian Splat is a photorealistic 3D environment captured from a real space using a camera and processed by AI. Unlike traditional 3D models, a Gaussian Splat captures real lighting, real materials, and real spatial complexity in a single unified file. Mark is actively researching the use of Gaussian Splats as virtual production backgrounds — scanning real spaces and loading them directly into the Jetset pipeline.
Teaching and Workshops
Mark has been teaching visual effects to film students for over 25 years. His approach is grounded in the practitioner's perspective - every technique he teaches is one he has used professionally, and every limitation he warns about is one he has discovered the hard way.
Current Teaching
- Chapman University, Dodge College - Visual Effects for Live Action Production (adjunct faculty)
- Available for remote adjunct, guest lecture, and workshop engagements worldwide.
Past Teaching
- UCLA Extension, Entertainment Studies-VFX Cinematography (1990-2010 twenty years)
- New York Film Academy, Burbank-Animation & VFX Department Chair and Faculty (2005-2022)
What Students Say
Upcoming
upcoming
Upcoming
Workshop Topics Available
All workshops can be adapted to beginner, intermediate, or advanced levels. Duration from two hours to a full day. Available in person in Lisbon live till Jan 2027 or via Zoom worldwide.
Virtual Production with Jetset
A complete hands-on introduction to iPhone-based live camera tracking and compositing. Participants shoot and composite a tracked shot in a single session. No host equipment required other than a display monitor.
Duration: Half day or full day
Practical VFX Techniques
The camera tricks that built Hollywood-forced perspective, mirror shots, miniatures, and in-camera compositing. Applicable to any budget level.
Duration: Half day or full day
Stop Motion Animation
Camera setup, lighting and digital capture. Participants learn to animate objects and themselves with Pixilation to create their own short sequence.
Duration: Full day
Green Screen Technique
Lighting for green, blue and red screen. Keying in After Effects, garbage mattes, color matching, perspective matching. From raw footage to finished composite.
Duration: Full day
For Film Schools & Universities
Mark is available for guest lectures, short courses, curriculum consultation, and semester-long remote adjunct positions. He has taught at every level from introductory undergraduate to MFA, and is comfortable developing new curriculum in consultation with faculty.
As an athor with five published books on the subject, Mark can also providee recommended reading lists, course frameworks, and syllabus templates for institutions building new virtual production programs. Mark typically responds within 48 hours. For workshop and teaching enquiries, please include the date, location or format, audience size, and topic area in your first message - it helps him respond with something useful right away.
