Creature Design for Film: Artist Panel

Jared is a creature and character designer working in the visual effects industry. With over a decade of experience, Jared has designed many iconic characters who have graced the big and small screen, including Jiminy Cricket on ABC’s Once Upon a Time (2011), The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2014), Horus and Set in Gods of Egypt (2014), Elliot the Dragon in Pete’s Dragon (2016), the Crooked Man in James Wan’s The Conjuring 2 (2016), Dart in Stranger Things 2 (2017), and Pennywise the Clown in the blockbuster horror film IT (2017), Mechagodzilla for Ready Player One (2018), and Mechagodzilla for Godzilla vs. Kong (2021). Some of Jared's other projects include Antlers (2021), Black Adam (2022), M3GAN (2022), Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (2023), and the upcoming monster mash Godzilla X Kong (2024).

Originally from Little Rock, Arkansas, Matthew has a passion for all things horror, monsters, and creatures.  He has been working in VFX for over seven years spanning from concept art to full production of screen-ready characters and creatures for film, as well as pursuing physical 3D printings of his creations. His credits include projects such as Renfield, Dungeons and Dragons, Venom, Rampage, Ready Player One, Godzilla vs Kong, Stranger Things, Detective Pikachu, and many more. 

Jerad S. Marantz started his career at an early age interning for Special FX houses. Trying a little of everything enabled him to narrow his focus to creature design, character design, and costume concept art. His acquired skills in sculpture, painting, illustration, 3D Modeling, and Photoshop all aid his unique sense of design. 

Marantz’s many credits span over the Film, Television, and Game industries and include: Avengers: Infinity War and Endgame, Batman vs. Superman, Justice League, Deadpool 2, Shazam, Dr. Strange, Guardians of the Galaxy 1-2, Amazing Spiderman 1-2, X-Men: Apocalypse, X-men: Days of Future Past, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Rise of the Planet of the Apes, Noah, Clash of the Titans (Lead Designer), Sucker Punch (Lead Designer), Transformers: Dark Side of the Moon, Green Lantern, Snow White and the Huntsman, GI Joe: Retaliation, The Amazing Spiderman 1-2, Riddick, American Horror Story, Grimm, Westworld, Gears of War 4, Titan Fall, Infamous 2, etc. 

Ian Joyner has been working in the industry for nearly 20 years on a number of film, commercial, and game projects, as well as teaching and giving lectures around the world. Since 2019 he has been a full-time Visual Development Supervisor at Marvel Studios.

With a focus on delivering production needs, be it for costume, creature design, or helping build new worlds, Ian loves working with a team to help bring a vision to life. Recent credits include Werewolf By Night, Avatar The Way of Water, Doctor Strange and the Multiverse Of Madness, Spider-Man: No Way Home, and many more as well as supervising some upcoming projects he dared not name.

When not working, he enjoys spending time with his wife, Hilary, and their two children, Emily and Alice.