We’ll miss you, Jeff

Jeff Heusser (1957 – 2018)

With a heavy heart, we announce that our wonderful friend, caring husband, brother, uncle to many, and co-founder of fxguide has passed away after fighting cancer for the last several years. To the very end, Jeff was Jeff: funny, kind, and caring for and about others more than himself. His concern of others and that we were all OK speaks to the kind of man he was.

One of Jeff’s many outstanding qualities was that he embraced change, but this is one change we could surely do without. That being said, we celebrate Jeff’s life, his selflessness, and the impact he had on all of us who knew him and those who he touched all around the world.

Mike and John




Young Jeff



Husband & Family

Jeff and Jenn were married in 1994 at Disney World in Florida. Disney was one of those special places for Jeff and Jenn and family — and apart from his wife and family one of Jeff’s greatest loves along with technology and photography (and the “occasional” margarita).





Work

Jeff started in the industry at public television station WCET in Cincinnati, Ohio where he worked in almost every production job before moving up to producing and directing. His next stop was WLWT where he directed the news and other live and taped shows. He also won several Emmys for his work at WLWT.

He then got into post production, first at Instant Replay (Cincinnati), then at Charlex (New York), Editel (Chicago) and then on to Los Angeles. Spent time in LA at CIS, The Post Group, Sol Designfx, and Digital Domain (among others) working on commercials, feature films and television shows.


 


fxguide

Mike and John connected with Jeff back in the days when he was about the only Flame artist with his own personal web site. As many know, Jeff came up with the name of our site back in 1999 when we launched fxguide.

While on one of our many long international phone calls when we were searching for a name, Jeff looked at his coffee table, saw a copy of TVGuide and suggested fxguide. The site started as a place to share tips and tricks for Flame artists and Jeff was all in to give back to friends in the industry, as he always did. Jeff was just about the most selfless guy you could meet.


 


Photographer

Jeff was an avid photographer with a great eye and a camera bag (and lens) fetish matched by none. If you knew Jeff, you’d see him almost everywhere with a camera in hand. His web site, Jeff Heusser Photography, has a wonderful selection of his shots over the years.


Friends

Jeff was simply a happy guy. He was someone who could be bothered. He could be bothered to research things, try things out and set things up. From scripts for his compositing work to controlling every light in his house with his iPhone (which meant you could never turn on the lights if you stayed the night). That optimistic belief that the world was wonderful, worth exploring and figuring out, was inspirational. He leapt at the chance to make things work and he loved the change technology and life brought daily.






We’ll miss you, friend, and you’ll always be in our hearts.

John and Mike