Cinematic Design

From concept to final frame

Our Cinematic Design Team has worked with some of the biggest names in the business on shows like Alien: Romulus, Ant-Man: Quantumania, and Obi-Wan Kenobi. Whether your project is early in pre-production, solving challenges during the shoot, or in need of post-viz, we can assist you in developing your visual story with storyboards, concepts and art direction, and executing film shots both with virtual production techniques and post production VFX.

Meet our team

Alex Nice

Studio Art Director

Carlos Fueyo

Real-Time Filmmaker

Cedric Tomacruz

Real-Time Matte Painter

Matt Conway

Real-Time Matte Painter

Zach Mandt

Real-Time Designer

Storyboards & Concept Development

Turn your ideas into dramatic visuals with help from our expert storyboard artists and concept illustrators. Using both traditional art and cutting edge real-time tools, our team crafts a unique visual language for each project that elevates the visual storytelling.

Concept illustrations from the portfolios of Alex Nice and Cedric Tomacruz

Artist-Driven Exploration

Groundbreaking processes lead to groundbreaking results. Our artists use real-time tools and AI-assisted workflows to iterate concepts rapidly, and create artwork that fully captures the intent of the final shot. Let us empower you to confidently make decisions early in the process, saving time and money later on.

Real-Time Previs & Tech Vis

Our artists bring your storyboards to life with dynamic, real-time previs using digital characters and virtual environments. Previs allows filmmakers to experiment and design key sequences early in the process. Tech vis closes the gap even further by bringing real-world production equipment into the virtual world and creating animated schematics. This process is especially useful when planning complex shots that affect multiple departments.

Virtual Art Department

Our virtual art department helps filmmakers explore creative ideas and implement real-time changes in lighting, design, and cameras. We collaborate through virtual scouting sessions to discuss shot compositions and story narratives. Virtual camera blocking sessions allow us to plan shots in a virtual space before filming, while virtual pre-light sessions define the look and lighting of digital sets.

Virtual Sets & Volume Integration

We specialize in creating meticulously detailed virtual sets optimized for in-camera VFX (ICVFX), ensuring they are camera-ready and capable of flawless integration. Whether it's enhancing practical sets with digital extensions or creating entirely virtual environments, we're dedicated to providing solutions that meet the demands of modern filmmaking. Our team can also support stage operations, guaranteeing smooth coordination between physical and virtual elements throughout the production process.

Real-Time Filmmaking

Realtime filmmaking represents the future-proof evolution of virtual production and VFX workflows, seamlessly integrating these processes to create content with complete flexibility and immediacy. Harnessing the power of cutting-edge graphics engines, we create stunning final pixels for feature films, short films, and game cinematics in real-time. Elevate your storytelling with dynamic visuals that push the boundaries of what's possible in cinematic production.

“I never want to do another film without NEXODUS. Their creativity, flexibility, and ability to provide quick post-vis AND refined final shots are hard to beat. We initially hired them as our in-house team, but they quickly became one of our most trusted vendors at all complexity levels. I cannot recommend the NEXODUS team highly enough.”

Sean Devereaux

VFX Supervisor

VFX Supervisor, Fly Me To The Moon

“I was excited to have NEXODUS join us on Avatar: The Last Airbender and their team of artists came through once again with creative solutions to the various artistic and technical challenges we threw at them.”

Jabbar Raisani

Director & Executive Producer

Director & Executive Producer, Avatar: The Last Airbender

“Over the years I have found myself chasing artists over companies which is exactly where NEXODUS excels. I can take comfort in knowing the work will be done right because of the people doing the work. NEXODUS had a key role in helping us work out various looks for Season 1 of Avatar: The Last Airbender, including the Avatar state and the look of the spirit world. It was a very collaborative experience working with NEXODUS; they felt like they were part of our team beyond the normal vendor/client relationship.”

Adam Chazen

VFX Producer

VFX Producer, Avatar: The Last Airbender

“I loved working with everyone at NEXODUS. They were all incredibly talented and practical and excellent communicators. They consistently over delivered while never overpromising. Deadlines were always met and better ideas on how to do stuff were always presented. Just don’t have enough good things to say about the entire team.”

Brit McAdams

Writer/Director

Writer/Director, Paint

“I’m honestly still amazed at how awesome, big and movie-quality the Ghost Girl shots are every time I watch the music video! I was asking for ‘Predator’ and ‘The Abyss’ on a tiny fraction of the budget, time and tools, and what Ryan and the NEXODUS Team delivered is astonishing!”

Michael B. Chait

Director

Director, Big Time Rush “Weekends”

“We really appreciated all the hustle from NEXODUS. They turned around a lot of VFX in a short time, and our client was really happy with the results.”

Corwin Carroll

Managing Director at ArtClass Content

Managing Director at ArtClass Content,

“The movie looks beautiful and everyone is happy! We cannot thank NEXODUS enough for helping us with the enormous amount of shots that came our way over the last few months, and the madness of the last week that had us add another shot just hours before delivery. What an incredible achievement, we could not have done this without our NEXODUS team.”

Claudia Dehmel

VFX Producer

VFX Producer, The Woman King

“NEXODUS bridged a pivotal gap between a full scale vendor and dedicated in-house team. Their flexibility and skill allowed us to constantly hit the shifting demands of a project with a too-tight budget and equally too-wide scope. Moreover, NEXODUS’ ability to spin-up 3D capabilities when 2D efforts failed meant our producers stayed happy and overages were averted. Thank you, team NEXODUS -- can’t wait to work with you again.”

David Entin

VFX Producer

VFX Producer, Breathe

"Testamonial Quote"

John Johnson

Company