Evil Eye Pictures

Evil Eye Pictures is an independent visual-effects, real-time animation, virtual-production and immersive-design studio founded in the San Francisco Bay Area in 2004. Established by visual-effects veterans Dan Rosen, Matt McDonald and John Jack after the closure of ESC Entertainment, the company combines feature-film craft with real-time production for games, interactive experiences and live events.

The studio’s early work included environment, compositing and simulation contributions to major films such as The Avengers, Captain America: The First Avenger, Thor, Iron Man 2, Super 8, 2012, Speed Racer and Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End. It also contributed visual effects to The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and Cirque du Soleil: Worlds Away.

Real-time production and immersive work

Since 2015, Evil Eye Pictures has focused increasingly on real-time rendering, virtual reality and interactive storytelling. Its work with Google Spotlight Stories included animation and supervision for Pearl, On Ice and Age of Sail. The studio later shifted its principal pipeline to Unreal Engine, collaborating with Epic Games, Warner Bros. and The Coalition on The Matrix Awakens: An Unreal Engine 5 Experience.

Its real-time practice includes cinematic reveals, animated shorts, game trailers, in-game live events, previs, layout, in-engine lighting and look development. The company is also a creative partner on Fortnite, Rocket League and Rocket Racing cinematics, trailers and live experiences, and developed an interactive Fortnite Hub World for The Game Awards 2025 with Nighttimes.

Virtual production capabilities

Evil Eye Pictures develops proprietary remote-production tools alongside client work. Its FUTURE.STAGE platform supports cloud-based real-time remote performance capture and animation, while STAGE.KIT is an iOS facial-capture application designed to stream collaborative performance data into Unreal Engine. The studio’s services also span feature-film and commercial VFX, photorealistic digital environments, compositing, matte painting, simulation, interactive broadcast visuals and immersive XR experiences.

Operating as a virtual studio, Evil Eye Pictures brings together artists, supervisors and technologists for real-time game cinematics, sports visualizations and interactive entertainment.