About Me

Richard Rivera was born in a small and unassuming town called Hagerman, New Mexico. Raised as a highly athletic and traditionally artistic young man, little did he know that his true talent was in the postproduction field of film. He began the journey into the film world in 2005, when he began attending The Art Institute of Phoenix for Animation.

A year into training in both 2D animation and 3D animation, Richard stumbled upon their Visual Effects program and was hooked. Switching majors, he flourished as a frequent team leader and noted artist among his peers. While still attending college, Richard began work for the Phoenix Emmy-awarded company, Spectrum Video and Film.

Essentially working as a production engineer, asset manager, graphic artist,
photographer, editor, and visual effects artist, Richard again distinguished himself within the local film and television industry as a jack-of-all-trades. After graduating with Best Portfolio of his class at AI in 2008, Richard decided that it was time for a change. It had been over 2 years since he began working for Spectrum, and he sought out a new challenge in his career profile. For 2 years Richard worked as an independent artist, consulting for various independent films and working as a commercial film and video consultant and contractor. Among his clientele at that time, Richard worked with HiPods, Penasco Valley Telecommunications, Three Horizon Films, Square Pictures, Media House HD, and many more.

In 2010 Richard moved to California to pursue his passion for film. While there, Richard acquired Mark Victor Hansen (best selling author and cofounder of Chicken Soup for the Soul) and his wife, Crystal Dwyer (noted author and hypnotherapist) as regular clients of his artistic services. Mark and Crystal generously connected Richard to Bill Gladstone, noted Hollywood producer. Eventually this led Richard to meeting and connecting with Bill's son, Cyrus Gladstone. Cyrus had been working and rising in the ranks of the company Legend 3D, a quickly scaling stereoscopic 3D film conversion company located in San Diego. Eventually Cyrus suggested that Richard join the Legend 3D team as a prep-compositor, and Richard jumped right in!

Richard started in the Legend 3D training division as a compositor in training, and within a few months had advanced to a Stereographer, Rotoscoper, and Compositing Lead. Over that time, Richard had made notable contributions to films such as The Green Hornet, Smurfs, Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, and much more. When the opportunity arose for Richard to join the team in compositing Transformers 3: The Dark Side of the Moon, he was more than eager to begin. To his surprise, Richard had once again distinguished himself among his peers, and was asked to act as a Stereographer Rotoscoping/Paint Lead over a team of 50 artists for the Transformers 3 project. His leadership skills resulted in his first on-screen credit.

Due to the volatility of the San Diego film industry, Richard made the hard decision to exit from Legend 3D. Around this time Richard was expecting his first son, and worked as an independent artist in San Diego.

At the end of 2011, Richard moved back to Phoenix, Arizona, from San Diego,
California, to pursue independent clients. Since coming back to the Grand Canyon State, Richard has worked with notables such as Advision Media, Chesworth Films, WinQuest World Wide (the mental performance trainers of several Olympic athletes), and debuting author Rico Racosky.

At the moment Richard is relocating to New Mexico, to pursue new film
opportunities.

I have been in the industry since 2007.