Rosenbaum began his career invisual effects at the reconstructed Computer Graphics Department ofLucasfilm's effects divisionIndustrial Light & Magic in 1989. The previous members of this department moved to the building next door and formed the companyPixar. This new group of artists received their first chance to make a computer generated character whenJames Cameron asked them to create the Pseudopod water creature forThe Abyss. Cameron followed withTerminator 2: Judgment Day and the group expanded the artist base and created one of the first digital manipulations of a human character. The artists continued to thrive with opportunities to animate and render the seminal dinosaurs inJurassic Park. Rosenbaum then oversaw the digital excision of Lt. Dan's legs, Forrest's mastery of ping pong, and the fanciful feather animations inForrest Gump. These movies help spark the rapid evolution of traditional film-processed visual effects and inspired an industry-wide shift in filmmaking methodologies[6] and commercial digital imagery manipulation.
Rosenbaum spent several years working on various projects atWeta Digital, and in 2007, he began work onAvatar. For two years, Rosenbaum worked with Cameron in Los Angeles duringperformance capture and in New Zealand during live action photography. For the third year of the project he returned to New Zealand to help complete theCGI on the movie.[7]
Since Avatar, Rosenbaum has been immersed in Virtual Production and the persistent drive toward realtime visual effects and more believable digital characters. His focus has been on capturing and faithfully reproducing actor performances of recognized personalities, including famous musicians such asMichael Jackson and the bandABBA.
In 2010, Rosenbaum was hired[8] byDigital Domain to start a character animation development group. He brought together some of the best computer graphics geeks, and they built a modernized approach to creating physically and behaviorally realistic digital humans and creatures. Leveraging the new pipeline, he designed and supervised the giants for the movieJack the Giant Slayer.
In 2014, Rosenbaum directed the creation of a virtualMichael Jackson posthumously performing a previously unreleased songlive at2014 Billboard Music Awards.[9] He then spent the next two years creating the reimaginedKing Kong for the movieKong: Skull Island.
Rosenbaum then partnered with acclaimed music luminarySimon Fuller to recreate the bandABBA as their younger digital selves performing a new song. He established a virtual musician production company of 50 plus, built a cloud-first production pipeline, and in 2018 they completed an eight minute promotional video of the photo-real virtual band members talking and singing.
