Chris Evans (visual effects specialist)

Christopher "Chris" Leith Evans is a motion picture visual effects artist, specialized as matte painter, who has contributed to four . As a member of Industrial Light & Magic's (ILM) matte department, Evans worked as matte painting artist on and , and as matte painting supervisor on . While at Matte World he worked as chief digital matte artist on .
A remarkable contribution Evans made, was the very first digital matte painting for the Star Trek franchise, having used one of the earliest paint computer programs that had been developed in-house in 1981 by Thomas Porter at ILM. It was the completed planet surface view, seen in the closing pull-away sequence of the "Genesis Demo" in The Wrath of Khan. (American Cinematographer, October 1982, p. 1050)
Evans graduated from Bay Shore High School in 1972 and moved to Santa Monica, California, where he attended the University of California, Los Angeles, graduating with a major in Arts. Before joining ILM, Evans was eking out a living as portraits and landscapes painter. In 1980 he was hired at the company and has specialized there as a matte painter. While employed at ILM he has worked as matte artist on (1981), , The Dark Crystal (both 1982), (1983), , , (winning him a 1985 Primetime Emmy Award, shared with among others Michael Pangrazio), (those 1984), , , (those 1985), (1986), (1987), with (1988, earning him an Academy Award nomination) and (1990) as his last work for ILM.
Around 1992 Evans followed former ILM colleagues Craig Barron and Michael Pangrazio (together with Effects Producer Krys Demkowicz), in order to join their company, Matte World, where he would stay until that company's demise in 2012. It was there that Evans made the backdrop matte painting of the forest backdrop where the landed, as seen in Star Trek: First Contact. Apart from this he worked upon a slew of other productions the company was involved with, including such features as Avalon (1990), (1991), , , (1992), (1993), (1994), (1995), Diabolique, , (1996), (1997), , Great Expectations (1998), (1999), (2000), , , The Mummy Returns, Antitrust, (2001), The Ring (2002), Down with Love (2003), , The Alamo (2004), The Golden Compass, (earning him a Visual Effects Society Award nomination shared with among others Craig Barron), Invincible, Greece: Secrets of the Past (2006-2007), The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008), (2010), (2009), and (2009).
== External links ==
* – official website
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Evans, Chris
Evans, Chris