Stas began his career in the video game industry, but was lured away by the bright fluorescents of computer animation, and spent over 7 years at Pixar Animation Studios developing technical solutions ranging from geometry deformers to stereoscopic 3D. At the end of his tenure he created a motion capture software framework that allowed use of such devices as gear heads, follow focus, shoulder-mounted camera rigs, and motion capture volumes within Pixar's proprietary animation suite. This system was first used on the Oscar-winning film Inside Out, and has become a staple of Pixar’s production process since.

Yearning for an adventure beyond Christmas bonuses and partially subsidized on-site massages, Stas accepted a cinematography fellowship at the American Film Institute, graduating in 2016. Since then he has continued to explore his interests that lie at the cross-section of art and technology by working as a cinematographer and camera operator, applying his technical expertise in the role of a VFX supervisor, directing his first narrative films, and entirely neglecting this web site. His directorial debut, Saeada, has played at numerous international film festivals, and he is currently in post-production on his second short, Isle of Devils.

Stas regularly returns to AFI as a guest lecturer to teach a class on the digital imaging pipeline. Betraying a promise to himself to never write another line of software code, he released a mobile app that calculates fractional difference in exposure parameter values mostly to win an argument. He later created a web version of the app in nomogram form because obviously.

You can find his cinematography reel, his moribund Instagram page, and his contact information below.