John Cherniack
VFX Supervisor :: Creative Director :: CG Generalist
2025 Demo Reel
1923 - A Yellowstone Origin Story
My role was VFX Supervisor for Crafty Apes, a VFX vendor on this show. We did hundreds of shots in a very short timeline. Due to the graphic nature of a lot of our work on this show, most of it is not shown here and is available upon request.
Scenes that we worked on include:
Lion and hyena battle
Violence / gore throughout season
Face replacement
Ocean set extensions
Gun battles
Green/Blue screen work
Changing seasons / snow
Westworld Season 4
My role was VFX Supervisor for Crafty Apes, a VFX vendor on this show.
Scenes that we worked on include:
Future Los Angeles
Spaceships
Set extensions of old city
Set extensions of quarry scene
I was the VFX Supervisor / On Set Supervisor for seasons 5 and 6, along with CG Supervisor for season 4. I worked with the showrunners, directors, and stunts team to concept and develop the visual effects from first script through final delivery. Multiple episodes with $1mil+ budgets, creative directing a team of up to 40 artists at times.
I worked with CoSA, the sole vendor on this show to create all of the visual effects over these seasons. Work that we did included:
Creature work (Father and daughter devils, demon, digital doubles, winged creatures, shark)
Fights and battles, aerial battle
Twins being played by the same actor in battle and dialogue scenes (face replacements, digital doubles)
Explosions, building and character
Large scale environments. Full CG and Matte Paintings. (Los Angeles, Hell, Structures)
Crowd duplication
Green screen work
Effects simulation
Pre visualization
Concept Art
Assisting other departments with concept and design
My role was VFX Supervisor for Crafty Apes, a VFX vendor on this film.
I was the overall VFX Supervisor for this film while at Crafty Apes, the primary vfx vendor. While on set, I worked closely with the director to create a time travel effect with the feeling like it could also be a practical camera effect. I oversaw the vfx on this film starting about a week into production, from concept phase through to final delivery, working in post with the team at Crafty Apes.
More info and set photography to come soon.
I worked with Mirada as a freelance CG Supervisor on this fun one.
We brought many cg characters to life for the Sphere, immersive installations for the event, and several digital marquees on Las Vegas Blvd for the IBM Adobe Summit.
Click the picture to the right to see the work on Mirada’s website.
My role was VFX Supervisor for Crafty Apes, the primary VFX vendor on this film.
Growing up in New England and being a life long Patriots fan, this film was special for me to work on. We worked on several scenes with a variety of shots., and were responsible for putting the group of women at the Super Bowl that happened 5 years in the past.
Using green screen plates of the cast, we made a stadium using a combination of cg and matte painting, along with a cg crowd simulation to put them directly into the action. In some cases, we searched through hours of archival footage from NFL to find just the right clips and angles to composite into some of the shots.
My role was CG Supervisor for Crafty Apes, a VFX vendor on this show for a couple of episodes of season 12.
In episode 5, we were tasked with adding some movement to a prop fish stuck in the filter. We replaced it with an animated cg fish in several shots, matching the look to the practical fish used on set.
My role was VFX Supervisor for Crafty Apes, a VFX vendor on this film.
The scene that our team worked on was the post credits musical scene with dancing in the water. We were responsible for water simulations that matched the simulations done on set, interacting with the 2 actors on the platform, along with extending water surfaces on the ground.
My role was VFX Supervisor for Crafty Apes, a VFX vendor on this show.
More information and trailer to come as it is released.
I worked on 5 episodes as VFX Supervisor while filling in for a coworker while at Crafty Apes, the primary vendor on this show. I was responsible for helping to concept the visual effects in pre production through creative directing a team of artists in post, working directly with the production team and directors.
I traveled to Smithers, a small town in Northern British Columbia, roughly 100 miles from Alaska, to supervise the second unit on set for The Mother.
It was cold, remote, and beautiful. I worked closely with the second unit director and the stunts team to put together some action scenes including:
Snowmobile chase gun battle
Jumping a snowmobile into a cabin
Blowing up that cabin and other explosions
Several fight scenes
Shooting footage to be used in a volume
Set extensions
Scroll down for pictures from set.
I was the VFX Supervisor / On Set Supervisor for season 1. I worked with the entire production team to bring their ideas to life from first script to final delivery. We often shoot a couple of second unit element and vfx days for each episode. Due to the graphic nature of a large portion of our work, it is not shown here and is available upon request.
I worked with CoSA, the sole vendor on this show to create all of the visual effects for this season. Work that we did included:
Medical / Technical animations
Violence / Gore
Set extensions
Camera stitching
The Prom (2020)
I worked on this film while at CoSA. I was responsible for crowd simulation using Massive.
My role on this show was CG Supervisor for season 2 while working with CoSA, the main VFX vendor on this show.
Our work included:
Large scale forest fire
Fire and smoke simulation
CG Helicopters, Sky cranes
CG Radio tower
Digital doubles
Season 2 Episode 17 VFX Breakdown included.
My role was CG Supervisor for CoSA, a VFX vendor on this series. I worked on seasons 6 and 7.
We worked on a variety of work including:
Concept design
Dynamics and particle simulation
Graphics elements
Creature work (Humanoid cyborg)
Gun battles
Blue / green screen work
My role was VFX Supervisor at Crafty Apes, the primary vfx vendor for this film. Most of the work that we did was invisible vfx and included:
New York matte paintings
Set extensions
Time freezing
Split screens
Green screen work
My role on this show was CG Lead for 2 episodes of season 2 while working with CoSA, a VFX vendor on this show.
In addition to being a lead, I was also responsible for crowd simulation using Massive.
My role on this show was CG Supervisor for season 6 while working with CoSA, a VFX vendor on this show.
We worked mostly on designing and creating the energy effect and integrating it into each scene over 3 episodes.
My role on this show was CG Supervisor while working with CoSA, the main VFX vendor on this show.
We were responsible for the burning body effect on the vampires.
My role on this show was CG Lead for 2 episodes of season 6 while working with A52, a VFX vendor on this show.
We were responsible for drone footage explosions of a bombing, and a camera stitch going from interior to exterior where the president’s plane flew through the aurora borealis, which was created in cg.
I worked as a VFX Artist on the Surrogates while at Brickyard VFX, a vfx vendor for this film.
Ford F-150: Power Hungry, Truck Laws, Brainiac, QB.
Studio: Big Block
Role: VFX Supervisor
For individual credits, please click on the Vimeo link.
Studio: A52
Role: CG Supervisor
For individual credits, please click on the Vimeo link.
Studio: A52
Role: CG Supervisor
For individual credits, please click on the Vimeo link.
Studio: A52
Role: CG Supervisor
For individual credits, please click on the Vimeo link.
I worked as VFX Supervisor and CG Generalist during my time at Big Block on these 3 spots. We used previously shot commercials and updated the cars to have the newest trim and details from a new facelift.
We shot references of the new cars, cleaned up CAD data, and went on a mission to locate where each spot was previously shot to shoot our own reference footage, hdri, and running footage for reflections.
Studio: Big Block
Role: VFX Supervisor
For individual credits, please click on the Vimeo link.
Studio: Big Block
Role: VFX Supervisor
For individual credits, please click on the Vimeo link.
Studio: Flavor
Role: 3D Artist
For individual credits, please click on the Vimeo link.
Studio: Big Block
Role: VFX Supervisor / FX Artist
For individual credits, please click on the Vimeo link.
Studio: A52
Role: 3D Artist, Crowd Simulation
For individual credits, please click on the Vimeo link.
Studio: A52
Role: CG Supervisor
For individual credits, please click on the Vimeo link.
Studio: A52
Role: CG Supervisor
For individual credits, please click on the Vimeo link.
Studio: A52
Role: CG Supervisor
Studio: A52
Role: 3D Artist
For individual credits, please click on the Vimeo link.
Studio: A52
Role: CG Supervisor
For individual credits, please click on the Vimeo link.
Studio: Big Block
Role: VFX Supervisor
Awards: PromaxBDA Gold
For individual credits, please click on the Vimeo link.
Studio: We Are Royale
Role: VFX Supervisor
For individual credits, please click on the Vimeo link.
Studio: Moving Picture Company
Role: 3D Artist
For individual credits, please click on the Vimeo link.
Studio: Moving Picture Company
Role: CG Supervisor
For individual credits, please click on the Vimeo link.
Studio: Moving Picture Company
Role: CG Lead
For individual credits, please click on the Vimeo link.
Studio: Moving Picture Company
Role: CG Lead
For individual credits, please click on the Vimeo link.
Studio: Moving Picture Company
Role: 3D Artist
For individual credits, please click on the Vimeo link.
Studio: Moving Picture Company
Role: 3D Artist
For individual credits, please click on the Vimeo link.
Studio: Moving Picture Company
Role: 3D Artist
For individual credits, please click on the Vimeo link.
Studio: Moving Picture Company
Role: CG Supervisor
For individual credits, please click on the Vimeo link.
Studio: Moving Picture Company
Role: CG Lead
For individual credits, please click on the Vimeo link.
Studio: Moving Picture Company
Role: CG Lead
Credits:
PRODUCTION COMPANY: Pony Show Entertainment
Director: Spike Lee
Telecine: Mark Gethin
VFX Supervisor/2D Lead: Jake Montgomery
2D Team: Jake Montgomery, David Hernandez, Lisa Ryan, Katarina Arroyo
3D Lead: John Cherniack
3D Artists: William Schilthuis, Nikki Mull. Ian Wilson
Executive Producer: Asher Edwards
Producer: Juliet Tierney
Studio: Big Block
Role: VFX Supervisor
For individual credits, please click on the Vimeo link.
Studio: Moving Picture Company
Role: 3D Artist
For individual credits, please click on the Vimeo link.
Studio: Psyop
Role: 3D Artist
For individual credits, please click on the Vimeo link.
