My name is Jonathan Symmonds. I was born in Durban, South Africa, I moved to Zimbabwe in 1987 and went to college there until in 2001 when I decided it was time to use some of my skills and passion for animation and drawing in the media industry.

I moved to England in 2002 and put myself through university. I graduated from the “University of hertfordshire” and shortly after that i started working for an Oscar winning visual effects company called “Framestore” in central London.

When that contract ended I moved into Freelancing and worked with a company called “Passion Pictures” in central London. This was great fun, as I got to work on three commercials as a CG Generalist and then I was selected to work on the feature film “The Nutcracker.”

After “Nutcracker” ended I was called back to work on the 3rd series of “Primeval” at Framestore. Since then i have worked on some major tiles such as James Camerons’ “AVATAR”, “Where the Wild things Are” directed by Spike Jones, pre-visualisation on “Prince of Persia,” “Your Highness,” and “Nanny Mcphee.” I then decided i needed a change of scenery and went to work as the lead on a film called “Trollhunter,” in Norway. I brought my knowledge from previous experience in and changed and adapted a new rigging system to help benefit future animated projects. I also worked at a company called Qvisten Animation and worked on a film called “Kerten 2,” doing a lot of lipsync.

I was an online instructor and have now taught over 3000 students. I was also nominated three times for a VES award for my work on the animation of the Dragons on season 5,6,7 & 8 of the Game of Thrones. I worked as the Lead Animator during the Game of Thrones Season at Pixomondo in Germany.

I now have my own VFX studio SOPHORIA and we have our own Online Academy. Be sure to check them out!

Thank you all for visiting my portfolio.
Jonathan Symmonds.