Who We Are
Chicken Bone FX (CBFX) is a virtual VFX studio founded in 2011 and headquartered in El Segundo, California, with production presence in New York, New Jersey, and Toronto, and a global artist network expanding to the UK. CBFX delivers bespoke visual effects for Tier 1 feature films, prestige television, and streaming originals — with clients including Netflix, Apple TV+, HBO, Warner Bros., Amazon Studios, and Disney.
With over 15 years of operation and hundreds of successful engagements, CBFX has built a Tier 1 credit list through a model that combines the creative investment and personal attention of a small studio with the infrastructure and scaling capacity of a much larger one. Being virtual by design — with TPN-certified infrastructure operational since 2014 — means CBFX can mobilize a global network of 100+ senior artists rapidly, without the overhead or institutional lag of a traditional facility.
CBFX operates across two service lines: Chicken Bone FX, a fully managed full-service traditional VFX vendor solution for feature film and high-end television; and The Chicken Wing, a leaner direct-to-artist platform for independent productions and projects requiring speed, flexibility, and streamlined delivery. Both service lines draw from the same global network of senior artists and the same standards of craft and communication.
CBFX is guided by three values: clear communication, trust, and creative focus. The studio culture is intentionally drama-free and collaboration-forward — no backup teams, no unnecessary layers, just top-tier artists working with intention and partnership. The result speaks for itself: every client who has taken a chance on CBFX has come back with a bigger, more ambitious project.
Recent Credits
The Devil Wears Prada 2 | Feature Film
DMP, Compositing, Plate Reconstruction, Digital Makeup
Washington Black | Season 1
Environments, DMP, Foliage, Compositing, Plate Reconstruction
Dexter Original Sin | Season 1
Environments, DMP, Compositing, Digital Makeup, Plate Reconstruction
Dexter – Resurrection | Season 1
Environments, DMP, Compositing, Digital Makeup, Plate Reconstruction
Dumb Money | Feature Film
DMP, Compositing, Weatherize/De-Weatherize, Foliage, Digital Makeup, Plate Reconstruction
Severance | Season 2
Environments, Weatherize, DMP, Compositing, Plate Reconstruction, Motion Design
Harlan Coban’s Shelter | Limited Series
Compositing, Plate Reconstruction
OBX | Season 4
Compositing, Cleanup
Eanie Meanie | Feature Film
DMP, Compositing, Foliage, Digital Makeup, Plate Reconstruction
Nonnas | Feature Film
DMP, Compositing, Hard Surfaces, Digital Makeup, Plate Reconstruction
P-Valley | Season 3
Compositing, Digital Makeup, Cleanup
The Savant | Limited Series
Compositing, Plate Reconstruction, Digital Makeup
Rebel Ridge | Season 1
Compositing, Plate Reconstruction, Digital Makeup
Day of the Fight | Feature Film
Compositing, Plate Reconstruction, Digital Makeup
Good Omens | Season 2
CG Environments, CG Set Extensions, Hard Surfaces, Vehicle Construction & Animation, DMP, Compositing, Plate Reconstruction, Etc
Barbie | Feature Film
DMP, Compositing, Plate Reconstruction, Digital Makeup
What We Do
CBFX operates as a fully managed, full-service VFX studio — a complete creative partner from pre-production through final delivery. The studio is structured to absorb complex, high-volume scopes while maintaining the craft and communication standards of a tightly run team. CBFX does not staff backup teams or pad rosters — every artist working on a CBFX project is senior, intentional, and fully invested.
Core capabilities span both 2D and 3D disciplines, with a 70/30 team composition that reflects the studio’s heritage in compositing and environments. CBFX brings the right team and the right tools to each project — no generic solutions, no unnecessary overhead.
Environments & Set Extensions
CBFX’s signature capability. Expert-level digital matte painting and 3D environment creation — from organic environments including foliage, terrain, and atmospheric depth, to full period, crowds, vehicles, animation and sci-fi location builds. The studio has delivered environment and set extension work at feature film visual quality for major streaming episodics, including large-volume throughput under tight schedules. Set extensions are frequently derived from on-set scans, ensuring seamless integration with practical photography. CBFX’s technical prowess sets them apart.
Compositing
Precision, high-throughput compositing across both 2D and 3D pipelines. CBFX compositors work at a feature film standard regardless of medium — integrating CG elements, matte paintings, and practical plates into seamlessly unified frames. The studio has extensive experience with technically demanding compositing challenges including day-for-night conversion, complex lighting integration, and invisible effects work across high-shot-count episodic schedules.
Hard Surface 3D & CG Assets
Hard surface modeling, texturing, and animation for vehicles, props, architectural elements, and mechanical assets. Integrated cleanly into compositing pipelines for full photorealism across both film and episodic formats.
Digital Makeup, Augmentation & Body Work
Comprehensive digital makeup services including facial enhancement, full body and limb replacement, beauty work, and seamless intimacy coverage. CBFX has delivered character augmentation work across both film and episodic at the highest level of realism and integration — including the seamless replacement of a physical wheelchair with a floating version across numerous shots and environments on Good Omens (Amazon Prime Video).
Fire, Smoke & Simulations
High-end fire and smoke simulations, cloth dynamics, and mid-scale crowd simulation, integrated cleanly into live action photography. CBFX approaches simulation work with a compositing-first sensibility — every simulated element is built to sit correctly in the final frame, not just to look impressive in isolation.
Generative AI Integration
CBFX applies generative AI tools with a transparency-first, artist-empowerment philosophy — accelerating iteration, enhancing plate reconstruction, and augmenting creative throughput while maintaining full ethical and commercial viability standards. The studio’s approach to AI is the same as its approach to every other tool: it serves the frame, not the other way around.
Plate Reconstruction & Cleanup
Meticulous plate reconstruction, rig and wire removal, reflection clean-up, and continuity repair. CBFX specializes in effects that are designed never to be seen — seamless, invisible, and indistinguishable from camera-original footage. This discipline sits at the intersection of technical precision and creative instinct, and it is one of the areas where the studio’s compositing heritage pays off most directly.
Interactive UI / GFX Design & Integration
Development, animation, and refinement of in-world screen content, HUDs, motion graphics, and high-impact graphical effects. CBFX has expertise in Unreal Engine for virtual production environments and gaming environment simulation — including highly realistic dynamic virtual sets and backgrounds.
Set Supervision
On-set VFX supervision to capture the data, plates, and production intelligence that sets up clean, efficient post pipelines. CBFX supervisors work directly with directors and DPs to ensure that what gets shot gives the post team everything it needs — minimizing costly fixes and maximizing creative options downstream.
Named Leadership
John Renzulli — Founder / VFX EP / CEO
John Renzulli is the founder and creative driving force behind Chicken Bone FX. A master-level generalist with a specialization in feature film compositing and high-throughput television VFX, John brings over two decades of industry experience to every project CBFX takes on. He spent the decade before founding CBFX in 2011 building deep expertise across compositing, environments, and effects work at the feature and episodic level — developing the creative instincts and production fluency that now define the studio’s approach.
John leads all creative direction and maintains direct relationships with directors, showrunners, and VFX supervisors on every CBFX project. That access — founder to filmmaker, without layers in between — is one of the studio’s most consistently cited differentiators. He thrives on teamwork, shared ideas, and the kind of creative problem-solving that happens when a trusted team faces hard challenges together.
Arissa Blasingame — Global Head of VFX Production
Arissa Blasingame oversees production operations across CBFX’s global artist network, managing delivery, workflow, and cross-team coordination across all active projects and service lines. She is the operational backbone of every production CBFX runs — ensuring that the studio’s creative ambitions are matched by airtight execution.
Senior Production & Supervision Team
Ruben Rodas — Senior VFX Supervisor, UCAN
Arslan Naqvi — Senior DFX Supervisor, UCAN
Kris Cabrera — Senior CG Supervisor, UCAN
Alana Coddaire — Senior Producer, UCAN West
Ethan LeCuyer — Senior Producer, UCAN East
Advisory & Strategic Support
Darren Frankel — Board Member / Veteran Executive
Jared Sandrew — Chief Innovation Officer, Outsyder / Process Consultant
Craig Cooke — Chief Creative Officer & CEO, Rhythm
Christopher Everett — Principal & Senior Business Advisor, Indigo Anchor
Selma Sebera — Technology Strategist & Technologist
Notable Projects
Severance | Season 2 | Apple TV+
Chicken Bone FX has been a continuous VFX partner on Apple TV+’s Severance across multiple seasons — one of the most critically acclaimed and visually distinctive series in streaming television. CBFX’s scope on Severance has centered on feature-level digital matte painting, with a particular focus on environment augmentation that demanded photorealism at the highest standard: delivering persistent snow and winter conditions throughout the show’s Lumon Industries world across sequences where no practical snow existed on the day. The scale and visual complexity of this work — frame after frame of seamlessly integrated environmental transformation — represents some of the most demanding DMP throughput the studio has delivered. CBFX was integrated continuously and deeply into the show’s core creative pipeline, a reflection of the trust earned through consistent, on-brief delivery across seasons.
Westworld | Season 1, 2, 3 | HBO
CBFX was selected for Westworld — one of HBO’s most technically ambitious productions — over larger competing studios, chosen for creative vision and the quality of alignment with the show’s exacting visual standards. The engagement included a significant scope expansion that CBFX successfully absorbed mid-production, reinforcing the studio’s capacity for rapid scaling without compromising quality or schedule. Westworld remains one of the clearest examples of CBFX being chosen not because of size, but because of creative instinct.
Foundation | Season 1, 2 | Apple TV+
Foundation is among the most visually ambitious series in Apple TV+’s slate — an adaptation of Isaac Asimov’s landmark science fiction epic, demanding environments and VFX work at a cinematic scale across multiple seasons. CBFX’s contribution to Foundation reflects the studio’s ability to operate at the highest level of prestige episodic production, delivering work that holds up against the largest VFX houses in the world.
Good Omens | Season 2 | Amazon Prime Video
Good Omens put CBFX’s reliability and creative depth on record in the most direct way possible: when another VFX vendor had to exit the project mid-production, CBFX was the call. The studio absorbed a significantly expanded scope — including an extensive slate of 3D set extensions, large-volume digital matte painting, and one of the production’s most creatively demanding challenges: replacing a physical wheelchair with a seamlessly integrated floating version across numerous shots and environments. Every asset, every shot, every delivery landed on time. The Good Omens engagement is the clearest single-project demonstration of what CBFX delivers when the stakes are highest and the margin for error is zero.
Barbie | Feature Film | Warner Bros Pictures
On Greta Gerwig’s Barbie — one of the highest-grossing films of 2023 — CBFX contributed digital matte painting, creative plate reconstruction, and digital makeup work. Working on a film of this cultural scale and aesthetic specificity required precision and complete creative alignment with an exacting production vision. CBFX’s performance on scope and schedule on Barbie is consistent with the studio’s broader track record: initial engagements that grow into deeper, longer-term partnerships because the work lands exactly where it needs to.
See | Season 2 | Apple TV+
See Season 2 on Apple TV+ represents one of the broadest single-project capability demonstrations in CBFX’s portfolio. The studio’s scope spanned the full range of what high-end episodic VFX demands at a cinematic scale: 3D set extensions derived from on-set scans, large-scale 3D environments, digital matte painting, fire and smoke simulations, crowd simulations, and some of the most technically demanding compositing work the studio has taken on — including day-for-night conversion across complex outdoor sequences. The breadth of this engagement reflects exactly what CBFX is built for: a production that needs one trusted partner across a wide, interlocking scope rather than multiple vendors managing disconnected pieces. Every discipline delivered, every sequence integrated cleanly, on a show where the visual bar left no room for anything less.
The Queen’s Gambit | Limited Series | Netflix
The Queen’s Gambit represents one of CBFX’s most significant creative achievements — and the project that most clearly illustrates what the studio is capable of. Chosen over larger VFX facilities for the depth and originality of its visual approach, CBFX delivered an unusually high volume of environment builds, digital matte paintings, and compositing work across the entire limited series. While the chess sequences drew the most public attention — with CBFX’s visualization work recognized as a standout creative achievement of the production — the broader scope encompassed period-accurate international locations, interior environments, and the seamless throughput of a high-shot-count episodic schedule. The Queen’s Gambit also marked a defining moment in CBFX’s growth: the production’s scope expanded significantly mid-pandemic, and CBFX absorbed that expansion without breaking stride, delivering everything on time. The relationship and reputation that followed became a direct driver of subsequent Tier 1 engagements.
Chicken Bone FX | El Segundo, CA | chicken-bone.com | johnny@chicken-bone.com | 310-341-3244
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