Habib Zargarpour | |
|---|---|
| Born | (1964-03-09)9 March 1964 (age 61) Tehran, Iran |
| Education | University of British Columbia ArtCenter College of Design |
| Occupation(s) | VFX supervisor virtual production supervisor Art director Creative director |
| Years active | 1990–present |
| Website | habibzargarpour |
Habib Zargarpour (born 9 March 1964) is an American visual effects supervisor, virtual production supervisor, art director and creative director.
Zargarpour worked on the filmsTwister (1996) andThe Perfect Storm (2000), for which he was nominated for twoAcademy Awards and won twoBAFTA Awards.
Habib Zargarpour has had almost three decades of experience in visual effect for film. He had worked as a graphic artist and fine arts illustrator since 1981, and began his career in visual effects for film in 1990 when he spent a few years working on digital effects forIMAX films in Los Angeles. He graduated with distinction inIndustrial Design from theArt Center College of Design in Pasadena in 1992 and discovered his passion for design in film.
He spent 9 years atIndustrial Light & Magic (ILM) where he first joined the team ofThe Mask in 1993 as aTechnical Director. Subsequent projects included the development of such effects as the particle tornadoes inTwister, the digital oceans and stormy seas inThe Perfect Storm,Spawn’s cape, and the pod race simulations and crashes inStar Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace.
While at ILM, he was nominated for twoAcademy Awards inVisual Effects forTwister andThe Perfect Storm and garnered two British Academy Awards for those films working withvisual effects supervisorStefen Fangmeier. He worked as a Digital Effects Supervisor withJohn Knoll on the pod race sequences inStar Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace and on two Star Trek films:Star Trek Generations andStar Trek: First Contact, working on the never before seen space anomalies and the Phoenix rocket launch sequence. Other creative projects at ILM included all digital underwater shots ofMatt Damon inThe Bourne Identity, and the alien creatures inSigns.
Zargarpour continues to value the CG industry as the perfect mix of technical and artistic realms. Since 2003, Habib has worked as a Senior Art Director at Electronic Arts on driving and racing titles. His projects includedNeed for Speed: Underground andJames Bond 007: Everything or Nothing. In 2006, he received a VES (Visual Effects Society) Award for his work as Art Director onNeed for Speed: Most Wanted.
As of May 2010[update], Zargarpour was a creative director ofMicrosoft Game Studios until 2016. He was the consulting Art Director for the Xbox One Launch titleRyse: Son of Rome collaborating with theCrytek team in Frankfurt. In 2014 he became Director of Visuals forMicrosoft Studios Global Publishing.
In 2017 he was a Consulting Visual Effects Supervisor on the filmBlade Runner 2049 (2017) working with Visual Effects Supervisor John Nelson. In 2023 he was the Visual Effects Supervisor on the Marvel filmAnt-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania (2023) for BASE-FX working with the team on several key visual effects scenes.
Zargarpour is an active member ofAcademy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) andBritish Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA), and a founding member of theVisual Effects Society (VES).