Joao Sita (Jan 1, 1970)

Biography

João Sita is a visual effects supervisor at Framestore. Born in São Paulo, Brazil, he began his career in advertising before relocating to Canada around 2006, where he transitioned into feature films. Over the years, he has worked at several major VFX houses, including Hybride, Rodeo FX, Image Engine, and, since 2019, Framestore. Sita’s early film work includes contributions to 300 (2006), directed by Zack Snyder, which marked his big-screen debut. He later worked on Avatar (2009), The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2 (2012) as a digital compositor, Ender’s Game, The Amazing Spider-Man 2, and Assassin’s Creed (2016). At Image Engine, he played a key role in Jurassic World (2015), supervising compositing and integrating CG dinosaurs, such as the raptors, into live-action sequences using NUKE. Transitioning into television, Sita served as visual effects supervisor for the first season of Netflix’s Lost in Space (2018), during which his team delivered 266 VFX shots, including forest fire scenes and alien creatures. He later joined Framestore’s Montreal studio, where he oversaw the creation of iconic creatures for Amazon’s Fallout (2024), designing mutated beasts like the Yao Guai and Gulper in collaboration with concept art and other departments. Sita’s approach to creature design often draws on real-world animal references: for Yao Guai, he combined bear and gorilla traits to reflect the creature’s wild, muscular structure, while Gulper’s amphibian-human hybrid form evolved from game concepts but was reimagined for the series’ narrative. He also pays close attention to technical rigging and simulation, for example, in the gulping motion of Gulper’s jaw and fingers. In recognition of his work, Sita has earned several high-profile nominations. He was a Primetime Emmy Award nominee for Lost in Space (2018) for Outstanding Special Visual Effects Television Academy, and again for Fallout (2024) in the same category. He has also been honoured by the Visual Effects Society, winning their award for Outstanding Visual Effects in a Photoreal Episode for Lost in Space (Episode “Danger, Will Robinson”) and earning nominations for Project Power (2020) and Jurassic World (2015). Sita is known for his hands-on, collaborative leadership: he defines clear roles early in production. He fosters creativity by soliciting ideas from across the VFX team.