About Katharine

Katharine Baird is a San Francisco-based digital paint and rotoscope artist and supervisor with over 30 years of experience in the visual effects industry. After studying Theatre & Film Producing at NYU's Tisch School of the Arts, she began her VFX career at Industrial Light + Magic (ILM), where she spent over 25 years working on some of the most iconic films ever made. Her ILM credits include the Star Wars, Pirates of the Caribbean, Transformers, and Jurassic World franchises, along with Saving Private Ryan, Iron Man, Rango, The Avengers, Rogue One, and Spider-Noir; she also supervised paint and roto crews on Galaxy Quest, Pearl Harbor, Men in Black II, Hulk, and Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.

She specializes in shot finishing, paint animation, plate prep, outsource QC, and VFX production. Following her years at ILM, Katharine served as Head of 2D Paint & Roto at PowerHouse VFX, supervising and working as an artist across more than 15 film and television productions, among them Maestro, Dumb Money, Stranger Things, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, The Gilded Age, and Good Omens 2. She continues to freelance, bringing her expertise to projects across the industry.

Alongside her VFX work, Katharine is the founder of Passion Projects SF, a nomadic gallery, shop, and community space celebrating the personal fine art of VFX and post-production artists past and present. Through curated exhibitions, art sales, artist talks, and community events, PPSF brings this work to new audiences and connects the artists behind the effects with the people who love the films and television they help create.

www.passionprojects.art

Katharine is a member of the Visual Effects Society (VES), Bay Area chapter, and previously served as Secretary on the Bay Area Board of Managers.