The award-winning director and VFX supervisor started as an animator at a Lahore TV channel, spent almost 20 years building a production company in Dubai, and now makes his own films in the United States.
NEW YORK – When Naseer Haider Siddiqui first sat down at a computer to animate in Lahore, few people in Pakistan had seen 3D animation up close. Today, the Pakistani-born filmmaker, known professionally as Black Bird, is an award-winning director and visual effects supervisor working in the US film industry from Atlanta.
In the early 2000s, he began working in Lahore as a 3D animator at Style Duniya, a fashion television channel, creating animated graphics and 3D architectural presentations, and later produced promos and infographics for a Lahore production studio.
“Those years in Lahore taught me everything about working with limited tools and tight deadlines,” Siddiqui says. “You learned by doing, and every project was a school.”
Two decades in the Gulf
In 2005, he moved to Dubai, where he first worked as an animator at Music Nation TV in Dubai Media City. In 2013, he founded his own production company in the UAE, which today operates as Black Bird Aerial Photography Services.
Over almost two decades in the UAE, the company grew into a full studio offering 3D animation, visual effects, architectural visualisation and aerial drone cinematography for government and private sector clients.
For the Government of Ajman, the studio produced a historical 3D animation film about the emirate’s heritage, which now plays in the main hall of Ajman Museum. For the Dubai Frame, one of the city’s best-known landmarks, it created animation and motion graphics for the visitor experience.
Siddiqui’s aerial teams filmed sequences across the UAE for the BBC natural history documentary HOME Asia, filmed the Burj Khalifa for an Emirates destination campaign, and carried out aerial work for ADNOC and for MBC Group’s drama series Slave Market. In 2025, they provided the live drone broadcast of the Asia Cup cricket final in Dubai.
As early as 2010, he worked as a graphics consultant for the United Nations World Food Programme office in Dubai.
Architectural visualisation was also a core part of the business for more than 15 years, with 3D walkthroughs and renders for property developers across the UAE, alongside exhibition design for major brands at events such as GITEX.
A new chapter in America
Even while based in Dubai, Siddiqui was already working for clients in the United States and Europe. In 2024, he moved to Atlanta, Georgia, one of the busiest film production centres in the United States, and founded Black Bird Motion Media. There, he moved fully into film and television work and began writing, directing, and producing his own films.
He recently served as Visual Effects Producer on the feature thriller Mirror Mirror and as VFX On-Set Supervisor on House of Aradia, which won Best Visual Effects at the Buried Alive Film Festival Sinema Challenge in Atlanta. He is a member of the Visual Effects Society (VES) and SMPTE, and in January 2026 he sat on the jury for the 24th Annual VES Awards.
His own short film Exfil, which he wrote, directed, shot and edited, has won awards at international festivals, including Best Director at the Majestic King International Film Festival, Best First Time Director at the Triloka International Filmfare Awards, the Jury Award for Director at the Travancore International Film Awards and a Special Jury Award at the Mumbai International Film Awards.
A message for young Pakistani artists
Siddiqui believes Pakistan’s young animators and editors can reach the same stage. “The tools are now in everyone’s hands,” he says. “What matters is patience, good work and building trust with clients. A career that starts in Lahore can go anywhere.”
He is currently developing new film projects while continuing his visual effects work in Atlanta.
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