Mathieu Vig

Mathieu Vig is a French animation supervisor at Industrial Light & Magic (ILM). He began his professional journey in visual effects in 2004 at Framestore before joining ILM's London studio in 2014. He studied animation at Gobelins, the French animation school. At ILM, Vig first worked on Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015) and then on Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens (2015), where he developed the face rig for Maz and led animation on the Maz and Snoke sequences. He has since overseen animation on a wide variety of projects, ranging from photoreal creatures in live-action films to stylised character work in fully animated features. For instance, on Eternals (2021), he served as animation supervisor alongside Daniele Bigi and Peter Kyme. Vig has spoken about the creative shift in his work when ILM returned to feature animation, particularly on Ultraman: Rising (2024). In interviews, he described the challenge of transitioning from realistic creature animation to more expressive, performance-driven stylised animation, emphasising emotional storytelling, subtle acting, and grounded character work. Over the course of his career, he has earned significant recognition. He won a Visual Effects Society (VES) Award for his work on the character Dobby in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 (2010). The VES nominated him for his contribution to the animated character "Ryan" in Gravity (2013) and for work on Primeval (2007). As part of the animation team on the "New York Race" sequence in Ready Player One (2018), he shared a VES Award win for Outstanding Virtual Cinematography in a Photoreal Project. For Ultraman: Rising, he was nominated for the 2025 VES Award for Outstanding Visual Effects in an Animated Feature and also won a Hollywood Professional Association (HPA) Award in that category in 2024.