Future threat – X-Men: Days of Future Past
Quicksilver, Sentinels, Beast, Mystique and more – past and present vfx in Days of Future Past.
A twist to the Willis O’Brien tale
Cinefex has uncovered a new side to the revered stop motion and effects ‘pioneer’ Willis O’Brien.
Learning from Godzilla
What director Gareth Edwards learned while making the newest re-imagining of Godzilla.
Titanfall: making the opening movie
How the visual effects supervisor on ‘Moon’ helped craft a gritty opening cinematic for Respawn’s Titanfall.
In-house production: making a TVC
We talk to Dutch studio The Ambassadors about their work from start to finish on a fully CG ‘claymation’ animated television commercial.
The Art of the Ride Film (we visit 6 killer rides)
Immerse yourself in ride films – from Star Tours to Transformers, Harry Potter to King Kong.
UDIM UV mapping
UDIM UV mapping has enormous popularity for texturing in the face of much newer systems such as Ptex (which works very well in its own right). We investigate why & talk to the original author, Richard Addison-Wood at Weta Digital.
Storyboarding the Star Wars universe
A new book presents storyboards and concept art discovered in the Lucasfilm archives from the original Star Wars trilogy.
Super-charged VFX: The Amazing Spider-Man 2
The making of The Amazing Spider-Man 2 – we explore the VFX for Electro, Spider-Man’s suit and the Times Square clash.
The making of Electro
Watch how Sony Pictures Imageworks turned Jamie Foxx into Electro for The Amazing Spider-Man 2.
Captain America: The Winter Soldier – reaching new heights
fxguide’s comprehensive run-down on the visual effects in The Winter Soldier.
FMX 2014: Houdini Engine for Cinema 4D & RealFlow 2014
In our final report from FMX2014, we cover the announcement that Cinema 4D will be supporting the Houdini Engine as well as have a sneak peek at the upcoming RealFlow 2014.
Arnold: used to help in the fight against child exploitation
In a real world operation, ‘Sweetie” was a completely virtual girl rendered in Arnold and driven in realtime by an operator, then used in chat rooms to interact with internet predators.
FMX 2014: day three/four report
We have a variety of sessions in our third recap from FMX. This includes a panel discussion on applying animation pipelines to vfx, the Arnold Renderer workshop, Shotgun, Rush, and Paul Debevec.
FMX 2014: day two report
FMX day two, with a variety of presentations on films, commercials, animation, and more. With some help from Matt Leonard, we recap a few of the day’s offerings including the sneak peek at Dawn of the Planet of the Apes.
FMX 2014: day one report
FMX 2014 got underway in Stuttgart, Germany on Tuesday. Over the years, this has become Europe’s premiere VFX related conference and this year is no exception. We recap some of the highlights from the first day, with help from fxphd prof Matt Leonard.
VFX in TVCs: amazing baby and amazing SUV
Behind the scenes of two recent TVCs for Evian and Nissan with VFX by Mikros Image and Digital Domain.
Divergent’s digi-environments and creatures
In this bonus article for fxinsiders, find out more about the digital environments and CG work in Divergent.
Flame 2015: new features and a new family
Flame 2015 and Smoke 2015 were introduced at NAB this week – here’s fxguide’s rundown of the new releases.
fxinsider bonus videos: more on ILM’s Noah vfx
In these bonus videos for fxinsiders, we talk to ILM’s Grady Cofer & Philippe Rebours about the ‘creation’ sequence in Noah & the Watcher characters. Thanks for being a member.
Art directing effects for inFAMOUS: Second Son
Behind the particle effects in inFAMOUS: Second Son, a new game where the hero conjures up an array of smoke and neon powers.
NUKE STUDIO – Exclusive interview + First Screen shots
We talk to The Foundry’s Jon Wadelton and Philippa Carroll about NUKE STUDIO. PLUS, the first screen shots from the new toolset.
The Winter Soldier: ILM’s Helicarrier crash: Exclusive
See how ILM crashed a Helicarrier in this video on Marvel’s Captain America: The Winter Soldier.
Foundry NAB live stream
fxguide won’t be doing live streaming from NAB this year, but The Foundry will be doing two live streams from the show: an “exclusive announcement” on Monday and four hours of streaming from the booth on Tuesday.
SFX: making rain, 3D printing & blow-up greenscreens
How’d they create the practical water effects for Noah? How is 3D printing used in miniatures? And what are the benefits of inflatable greenscreens? Find out in this feature on special effects.
Adobe video apps – what’s coming
Adobe has announced a suite of updates for its Creative Cloud video apps – Premiere Pro CC, After Effects CC and Adobe Anywhere.
Character Ark: the visual effects of Noah
Find out about the water sims, the Watchers, animals, battlefield effects and timelapse work in ‘Noah’.
NVIDIA GPU Tech Conference: report 2
We recap presentations from MPC, Pixar, Fabric Engine, and Red Giant about how they are exploring and using GPU tech in their facilities or projects.
Divergent: making the mirror room
How Divergent’s mirror room was planned, previs’d, shot and executed…without mirrors.