AI production studio Asteria hires VFX veteran and ‘Star Wars’ alum Benjamin Lock

For animation studio Asteria, the hiring of a top visual effects master is now a lock.

The emergence of artificial intelligence in film production is taking concrete form with Asteria, a generative AI film and animation studio founded in fall 2024 by Bryn Mooser. The studio combines traditional film expertise with AI technology development, aiming to reshape how movies and TV shows are produced.

Latest Development: Visual effects veteran Benjamin Lock joins Asteria to spearhead AI-driven workflow development and contribute to the company’s proprietary AI model development.

• Lock brings over two decades of experience from prestigious studios including Framestore, Aardman, and Lucasfilm/ILM
• His notable work includes major films like “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” and “Ready Player One”
• Lock previously won a BAFTA children’s award for the stop-motion program “Purple and Brown”

Company Background: Asteria emerged from the acquisition of AI studio Late Night Labs by documentary studio XTR, creating a unique hybrid of traditional and AI-powered film production capabilities.

• The company operates streaming platform DOCUMENTARY+, reaching over 120 million American households
• Asteria focuses on both fiction and nonfiction content production using its AI technology
• The studio recently added AI innovator Don Allen Stevenson III, formerly of DreamWorks Animation, as creative AI pipeline director

Strategic Vision: Founder Bryn Mooser emphasizes Lock’s role in advancing Asteria’s mission to develop cutting-edge AI tools for artists.

• Lock will focus on integrating AI technology with traditional visual effects and animation workflows
• The hire signals Asteria’s commitment to combining established film industry expertise with AI innovation
• Lock expressed enthusiasm about exploring the intersection of AI with animation and VFX, describing it as “one of the most exciting areas in filmmaking”

Looking Forward: As traditional film studios cautiously explore AI integration, Asteria’s aggressive hiring of industry veterans suggests a strategic approach to bridging the gap between conventional filmmaking and AI-powered production techniques, though questions remain about how this will impact traditional VFX and animation workflows.