Juan-Luis Sanchez
From Wookieepedia, the Star Wars wiki.
Juan-Luis Sanchez, or Juan Luis Sanchez, is a digital artist who worked for Industrial Light & Magic between 2001 and 2006. In that time he worked on Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones and Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith.
Before working for ILM, Sanchez worked for Rhythm and Hues, working as technical pipeline supervisor and later digital effects animator in movies such as Mousehunt (1997, Gore Verbinski), Babe: Pig in the City (1998, George Miller) and Mystery Men (1999, Kinka Usher). He also worked for Digital Domain as effects artist in The Grinch (2000, Ron Howard).
Sanchez began working for ILM in 2001. Under the tutelage of creature supervisor James Tooley, he helped lead the creature simulation team on Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones (2002, George Lucas, setting up the costume for an all-digital Yoda. He was also filmed as a Temple Jedi but he was not seen in the final shot. However, he did double for Christopher Lee as Count Dooku for several establishing shots in the film. Due to his work, he can be seen in documentary From Puppets to Pixels: Digital Characters in Star Wars Episode II (2002).
He went on to lead the cloth setup for Dobby The House Elf in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002, Chris Columbus).
He has since worked for ILM as lead simulation artist in successes such as Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003, Gore Verbinski) and its sequel Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (2006, Gore Verbinski), Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (2003, Jonathan Mostow), Van Helsing (2004, Stephen Sommers) or The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (2005, Andrew Adamson). He returned to the Star Wars saga for Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith (2005, George Lucas) as digital clothing supervisor.
As an extra, double or motion-capture performer, he has performed uncredited work in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002, Chris Columbus) as a Quidditch official, Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (2003, Jonathan Mostow) as a Skynet scientist. He has performed motion capture for both Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003, Gore Verbinski) as a pirate during the Moonlight Serenade sequence of that film and also in the sequel Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (2006, Gore Verbinski) in the dice game sequence. His motions were captured as the basis for a crowd of clones in The Island (2005, Michael Bay), and he was one of many extras in War of the Worlds (2005, Steven Spielberg). He also reprised his role as Christopher Lee's double as Count Dooku for one brief shot of Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith (2005, George Lucas) in which Dooku's hands are sliced off by Anakin (who was played in that shot by John Knoll).
Concluding his work on Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (2006, Gore Verbinski) in June of 2006, he left ILM to focus on personal photography projects. In September of 2006 he joined Lucasfilm Animation, based at Skywalker Ranch, to work on an as-yet untitled George Lucas project. In early 2007 he moved back to his native England to work in London at visual effects company Double Negative on Harry Potter and The Order Of The Phoenix (2007, David Yates), and Inkheart (2008, Iain Softley).
In print, he has contributed to Dressing a Galaxy: The Costumes of Star Wars. His personal diaries were featured in Star Wars Insider, and he recently contributed to the book Special Effects: The History and Technique by Richard Rickitt and Ray Harryhausen.
Additionally, he is an amateur photographer and has started a website to highlight his photography, juanluis.com, a blog, and many of his personal photographs can be seen on his flickr page.
