Jay Redd joined Sony Pictures Imageworks in August 1996 to work on the Robert Zemeckis film “Contact." As an amateur astronomer with a longstanding interest in the project, he was the perfect person to create the film's opening shot, a 4710 frame, 3 minute and 19 second journey from the earth to the end of the known universe. The opening shot was the first digital animation to be nominated for an Annie Award.

He next helped to create the title character for “Stuart Little." “Our goal was not to create a realistic character, but a real character," Jay said.

Jay went on to be Digital Effects Supervisor on the sequel “Stuart Little 2," refining the title character and adding two photoreal bird characters. “Birds present a much more difficult task than Stuart because of their feathers, patterns, and complex movement," Jay said. “The feathers have to slide past each other and not through each other. Everyone on the team knew the challenge was to make these birds be as real as Stuart. But just as Stuart was real, Imageworks once again breaks new ground with new technology and artistry." “Stuart Little 2" was honored with the VES Award (Visual Effects Society) for Best Character Animation in an Animated Film.

In 2003, Jay was the visual effects supervisor on Disney's “The Haunted Mansion" working once again with director Rob Minkoff (“Stuart Little 2"). The film required extensive and elaborate motion control and bluescreen photography, with elements often times filmed weeks apart. Special inks were used in costumes that made them glow, and Jay led a team of effects artist in creating new transformation effects and ghostly plasma. Jay had the task of bringing to life cultural icons from the Disneyland rides and adding new and updated twists using progressive CG techniques. Jay and his team produced hundreds of shots that involved bluescreen, CG characters, matte paintings, CG sets and environments, and extensive use of particle systems in creating supernatural phenomena.

Prior to Jay's arrival at Imageworks, he spent four years at Rhythm & Hues where he worked as a CG supervisor on numerous commercials, theme park rides and feature films such as the Academy Award®-winning “Babe" and “Waterworld." Jay began his visual effects career in his native Salt Lake City where he worked in a post-production facility doing digital photographic retouching, typography and graphic design. In 1993, he decided to continue his career in computer graphics in Los Angeles. He ventured to California for the SIGGRAPH 93 conference where his flair for photography led to his first job at Rhythm & Hues as a Technical Lighting Director.

Jay has traveled in the US and around the world to speak and lecture at Visual Effects Society, UCLA, 3D Festival, 3December, London Effects and Animation Festival, FMX, Australian Effects and Animation Festival, SIGGRAPH and many others. He has often times written extensive materials and books for these courses and has been interviewed for numerous magazine articles. At SIGGRAPH 2002 in San Antonio, Jay, visual effects supervisor Jerome Chen and others presented “Let the Feathers Fly," a sold out full day course on Stuart Little 2,. Jay, who was born and raised in Utah and who has also worked with computers since the age of twelve, studied photography, music and Japanese at the University of Utah. His study of photography and photographic and digital lighting techniques continues to play a significant role in his career.