CG VFX Pioneer Ron Thornton has Died

We’re very sorry to hear that CG VFX pioneer Ron Thornton has died after a long illness. Known throughout the industry, Ron famously worked as VFX designer and producer on Star Trek: Voyager, Star Trek: Enterprise and Babylon 5. He joined the Anderson family in 2005 joining New Captain Scarlet as CGI line producer.

Much of Ron Thornton’s early visual effects career was spent working with miniatures and motion control technology, on British television series such as Doctor Who, Blake’s 7 and The Tripods, prior to his move to America, where he initially worked on Warner Bros. Television’s Babylon 5, adopting CGI techniques that he later brought to Star Trek.

Ron co-founded Foundation Imaging – a CGI visual effects studio, computer animation studio, and post-production editing facility with Paul Beigle-Bryant. The company pioneered digital imaging for television programming using Newtek’s LightWave 3D on Commodore Amiga-based Video Toaster workstations.

Ron’s involvement in New Captain Scarlet was absolutely crucial, and we’re very proud that he was involved with the reinvention of the classic Gerry Anderson series.

We send our condolences to Ron’s family, friends and colleagues.