John Schratz

John Schratz was an American visual effects artist.

A naturally gifted artist from a young age, John Schratz was very curious and creative in everything he did. His fascination with science fiction and the universe was inspired by the works of Carl Sagan's, Cosmos (book and television series) and the Stars, both Wars and Trek, believing there is much to learn about humanity from his favorite television series, Star Trek: The Next Generation, and most of all, Captain Picard.

From his youth John had a great affinity for British television and old movies, though it was the film Blade Runner (1982), which really ignited his imagination and perhaps a dream of one day working in Hollywood.

As a young man, John attended the Art Institute of Dallas, Texas and focused on his artistic skill, frequently sketching and painting forms he found inspiring including: spaceships, submarines, race cars, robots and superheroes. It's no surprise that in his school years he was offered an opportunity to illustrate for a published comic book, and he received many awards for his poems, prose and artwork.

In the year 2000, he attended SIGGRAPH in New Orleans, the annual convention of digital artists where his interests were fully embraced. New friendships were formed and he moved toward a professional career as a digital artist in Dallas. Shortly thereafter, John joined the Dallas-based non-profit organization, A Bunch Of Short Guys, who mentor aspiring artists in the fields of digital art and animation, an organization John continued to support for the rest of his career. In 2017, he returned to Dallas as a mentor sharing with young artists both technical and general advice as part of the annual event, Industry Giants.

In 2010, John's dream became a reality when he moved to Los Angeles to contribute to telling stories on the screen through his visual effects, a mission he worked toward with great excitement and dedication. John found himself constantly pushing and learning, and discovered his thrill of collaborating with others. Many of his friends and family will tell you, John's thirst for knowledge, paired with his incredible memory, made him not only a wealth of knowledge and the life of any party, but a man who loved being able to help others with his problem-solving nature.

Throughout his career in Hollywood, John was credited for his visual effects contributions in eighteen feature films and nineteen different television series. He worked with visual effects studios such as Industrial Light & Magic, Blur, Pixomondo, Fuse FX, CoSA, Scanline, and others. He also founded his own visual effects company, Active Ingredient Creative, which produced visual effects for numerous productions. Some of John's notable projects include: Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., for which he was at different times a CG Supervisor, Lead VFX Artist and Visual Effects Supervisor; the feature film Hugo, for which John created the memorable scene where papers float around a small room which won an Academy Award for Outstanding Visual Effects; and The Orville television series, in which John was CG Supervisor and deeply passionate about creating the best looking spacecrafts on television. John's proudest career moment was realized earlier this year with the 'full-circle' moment, watching on television his contributions to National Geographic's Cosmos: Possible Worlds.

John Schratz died March 30, 2020, in Playa Del Rey, California. He was 42.