Jim Charmatz

Jim Charmatz (born February 19, 1966, in Suffern, New York) is an American special effects artist, character designer, sculptor and puppeteer. He is best known for his long association with Stan Winston Studio and, later, Legacy Effects.

Charmatz joined Stan Winston Studio in 1994 and spent some fifteen years there as a key artist, concept and character designer, makeup designer and on-set puppeteer. Among his early credits are Interview with the Vampire (1994), Congo (1995), The Island of Dr. Moreau (1996) and The Ghost and the Darkness (1996). On The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997) he contributed character design and puppeteered the animatronic Compsognathus (“Compy”) dinosaurs; he also worked as a key artist and puppeteer on Mousehunt (1997). Further Stan Winston Studio work includes Small Soldiers (1998), Galaxy Quest (1999), Jurassic Park III (2001), Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (2003), War of the Worlds (2005), Constantine (2005) and key character design on James Cameron’s Avatar (2009). He also served as art director and lead designer of the book The Winston Effect: The Art and History of Stan Winston Studio.

After Winston’s death, Charmatz continued with Legacy Effects, the studio formed by former Stan Winston artists. There his credits range from digital sculpting and specialty costumes to practical creature and makeup work on films such as Pacific Rim (2013), The Shape of Water (2017), Pokémon: Detective Pikachu (2019, puppeteer for Pikachu), Avengers: Endgame (2019), Terminator: Dark Fate (2019), Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (2022), Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (2023) and television series including The Mandalorian, Ahsoka, Skeleton Crew, Fallout and Star Trek: Strange New Worlds (makeup designer). He remains active as a puppet designer and performer on later projects.