Four Aggies Nominated for Visual Effects Society Awards
Four Texas A&M graduates from the Visualization program are among the nominees in the 21st annual Visual Effects Society Awards, which honor visual effects in movies, television, commercials and video games.
The program is part of the university’s School of Performance, Visualization & Fine Arts.
Bill Sheffler, who earned an environmental design degree in 1996 and a master’s degree in visual science in 1998, was nominated for outstanding character in an animated feature. Sheffler was honored alongside Disney-Pixar colleagues for the Panda Mei character in “Turning Red.” Sheffler was also nominated as part of the team in the emerging technology category for the “profile mover” rigging technology used on “Turning Red.”
Sheffler won a Visual Effects Society Award in 2005 for his work on “The Incredibles.”
Chris Chapman, a computer engineering and computer science graduate in 1996 who earned a master’s degree in visual science in 1998, was nominated as part of the Disney-Pixar team for outstanding effects simulations in an animated feature for “Lightyear.”
Chapman won a Visual Effects Society Award in 2013 for his work on “Brave,” and was nominated for “Finding Dory” in 2017 and “The Peanuts Movie” in 2016.
Keith Klohn is also a part of the Disney-Pixar team alongside Chapman for the “Lightyear” nomination. Klohn earned a civil engineering degree in 1994 and was in the Visualization master’s program from 1997 to 2000.
Klohn won Visual Effects Society Awards for “Wall-E” in 2009, for “Coco” in 2018 and for “Soul” in 2021. He was nominated for “Toy Story of Terror” in 2014.
Michael Losure, who earned a visual science master’s degree in 2008, was nominated as part of the DreamWorks Animation team for outstanding effects simulations in an animated feature for “Puss in Boots: The Last Wish.”
Losure has also received nominations for his work on “Abominable” in 2020, “Kung Fu Panda: The Emperor’s Quest” in 2019, “Home” in 2016 and “The Croods” in 2014.
The awards ceremony is Feb. 15 at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Los Angeles.
