Steve Aplin is a British animation director at Industrial Light & Magic (ILM). Educated at Bournemouth & Poole College of Art & Design, he began his professional career at ILM in 1996 as a modeller. His early work included digital modeling and model development on Men in Black, Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace, Sleepy Hollow, The Mummy Returns, A.I. Artificial Intelligence, the 2002 Special Edition of E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, and Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
Aplin joined Double Negative in London in 2009 as an Animation Supervisor before becoming Creative Head of Animation in 2011. During his time at the studio, he supervised animation on John Carter (2012), Jupiter Ascending (2015), and Captain America: Civil War (2016).
In 2016, Aplin returned to Industrial Light & Magic, joining the company's London studio as Animation Director.
As part of the visual effects team for Star Wars: The Last Jedi, he was nominated for the BAFTA Award for Best Achievement in Special Visual Effects alongside Neal Scanlan, Chris Corbould, and Ben Morris. His work on ABBA Voyage earned him the Visual Effects Society Award for Outstanding Visual Effects in a Special Venue Project, shared with Ben Morris, Edward Randolph, and Ian Comley. For Jurassic World: Rebirth, he received nominations for the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects, the Visual Effects Society Award for Outstanding Visual Effects in a Photoreal Feature, the Hawaii Film Critics Society Award for Best Visual Effects, and the Astra Creative Arts Award for Best Visual Effects.
