Reach for the Sky: MPC goes full circle
Scenes of Monument Valley, NYC, the English countryside, a distant space station & a vast icescape were brought to life as a continuous shot by MPC in a recent stereo spot for Sky Movies. We chat to MPC’s 3D supervisor Duncan McWilliam about shooting the 360 degree pan in stereo, creating worlds and then stitching it altogether.
Highlights from the Oscars
Congratulations to all the Oscar winners from the 83rd Annual Academy Awards. Here are some of the highlights from the awards ceremony.
Capturing the Guardians
Vicon House of Moves recently helped bring to life 30 animated superheroes for an NHL and Stan Lee venture known as The Guardian Project. We find out how they used mo-cap and the Epic Games Unreal Engine to make it possible.
Lumen-escent: the VFX of I Am Number Four
Visual effects supervisor Greg McMurry oversaw 800 shots for I Am Number Four, the story of an alien fugitive on the run from other-worldly pursuers. We take a look at some of the key effects scenes from the film.
Union’s 350 shots for 127 Hours
Danny Boyle’s 127 Hours tells the story of mountain climber Aron Ralston (James Franco) who becomes trapped beneath a boulder in Utah. We talk to VFX supe Adam Gascoyne from Union Visual Effects about how his studio helped tell this real-life tale of survival.
Framestore goes under seige
A stand-out commercial airing during this year’s Super Bowl was Coca-Cola’s ‘Seige’, featuring a group of evil fire-warriors invading the village of a band of furry, friendly creatures. The Wieden + Kennedy spot was directed by Nexus’ Fx&Mat, with CGI and animation work by Framestore. We talk to Framestore’s visual effects supervisor Diarmid Harrison-Murray.
Glassworks goes big for MINI
‘MINI vs Monster’, a stereoscopic spot directed by Robert Jitzmark, features digital crowds and other VFX by Glassworks. Lead 2D and 3D artists Morten Vinther and Markus Lauterbach from the studio’s Amsterdam office break down the work. Included is a making of VFX clip.
Super vfx for the Super Bowl – part 2
In part two of our Super Bowl spot coverage, we put the VFX spotlight on some of the other outstanding commercials that aired during the game.
Super vfx for the Super Bowl – part 1
In part one of our Super Bowl XLV commercials coverage, we look at Method Studios’ ‘Carma’ spot for Bridgestone Tires and The Mill’s Cars.com ‘Reviews Are In’ ad. And check out episode #101 of fxguidetv for an in-depth look at Animal Logic’s ‘One Epic Ride’ spot.
Building a Boardwalk Empire
We talk to Brainstorm Digital visual effects producer Richard Friedlander about his studio’s work for HBO series Boardwalk Empire. This week Richard received, along with Robert Stromberg, Dave Taritero and Paul Graff, a VES Award for Outstanding Supporting Visual Effects in a Broadcast Program for the show.
ShapeShifting with Charlex
A dark car speeding through the night bursts suddenly into a thousand pieces, forming brilliant metallic creatures on the surface of an alien planet. Such is the action in ShapeShifter, a short film entirely conceived and created by New York studio Charlex. We take a look at how the film, directed by Charlex founder Alex Weil and narrated by Gabriel Byrne, came to be.
Psyop’s toy story cleans up
A roomful of anxious toys face the dangers of domestic dust in ‘Something’s Lurking’, a Psyop spot for LG’s Kompressor Elite vacuum cleaner. We spoke to lead 2D artist Nick Tanner to get an in-depth look at how the spot came together.
The VFX 2011 Oscar nominees reactions
fxguide would like to congratulate all of the VFX artists who worked on the 2010 Oscar-nominated films, and especially the nominees themselves. We spoke to a few of the nominees today to get their first reactions, but we will also be continuing our series of Tech behind the major facilities, so keep an eye out […]
Ben Snow: the evolution of ILM’s lighting tools
In this written version of the fxpodcast: we continue our series of stories on the technical tools behind the big effects companies, we talk to Ben Snow of ILM about his career & the development of the energy conservation lighting, as recently used on Iron Man 2.
Gondry-fying The Green Hornet
Michel Gondry’s signature filmmaking touches are ever-abundant in The Green Hornet, the director’s take on the masked vigilante made famous in radio serials and comics. VFX supervisor Jamie Dixon guides us through some of the the film’s key 650 effects shots.
Bending time with The Green Hornet
Some of the stand-out shots in Michel Gondry’s The Green Hornet occur in the time bending fight sequence effects, seen as the character Kato utilizes his martial arts skills to dispatch the bad guys. We take an in-depth look at how these shots were created by CIS Hollywood.
Re-Award me! guest columnist Liz Foster looks at awards
Recognition in any profession is something we all crave. And there’s nothing better than getting recognition from your peers. The advertising industry is no exception. Guest Columnist and Brand Manager Liz Foster looks at Advertising Awards.
VFX fighting hard to look invisible: The Fighter
For The Fighter, director David O. Russell called on Comen VFX to provide major invisible effects for the boxing film, including processing video for key boxing scenes, crowd replications, other enhancements and even a shot involving a phone number and a bar napkin.
Art of stereo conversion: 2D to 3D
Stereo conversion, or dimensionalization as it is sometimes called, is the process of making stereo images from non-stereo traditional 2D images.
Gulliver’s Travels’ titles ‘Rock it’ in stereo
Rok!t Studio was behind the innovative main titles for Gulliver’s Travels, giving a tilt-shift and time-lapse perspective of New York City. fxinsider takes an in-depth look at the work with Rok!t visual effects supervisor Lee Nelson.
Gulliver’s travelling mattes, green screen & fluid sims
Jack Black travels back to Lilliput in director Rob Letterman’s modern take on Gulliver’s Travels. We take a look at some of the key vfx work by Weta Digital, Hydraulx, Scanline, Method and the main titles by Rok!t Studio.
Director: Deathly Hallows animation
One aspect of HP7 part 1 continuing to receive an incredible amount of praise is the animated ‘Tale of the Three Brothers’ sub-story directed by Ben Hibon and executed by Framestore. fxInsider talks to Hibon how he approached the sequence and making it fit into the Harry Potter universe, in the lead up to the Oscars.
Dneg: Paul Franklin & Nathan McGuinness
Double Negative has worked on 4 of the 7 films in this year’s Oscar Bake Off. Plus is now on John Carter of Mars and Captain America. Also the Singapore office has just appointed former Asylum VFX CEO Nathan McGuinness as that office’s Creative Director. We talk to McGuinness about his new role. Plus we have an fxpodcast with Dneg vfx supe Paul Franklin about the studio’s proprietary software tools.
Bullet open source physics engine
Several of the top visual effects studios and game developers are now adopting the Bullet open source physics engine for collision detection and rigid body dynamics work. We talk exclusively to Bullet’s main author Erwin Coumans about the current implementation of the physics engine and its future development.
Yogi Bear live action CG integration
For Yogi Bear, Rhythm & Hues mixed 3D versions of the beloved Hanna-Barbera characters with live action whilst preserving the popular elements of the 2D cartoons. We talk to visual effects supervisor Betsy Paterson and animation director Joe Ksander about getting the right performances out of a 3D Yogi and Boo Boo.
The VFX Tourist
Visual effects supervisor Ted Rae oversaw nearly 400 shots for The Tourist, a romantic Venetian comedy thriller starring Johnny Depp and Angelina Jolie and directed by Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck. We take a look at how Rae simulated a critical train journey and re-arranged the rooftops of Venice for the film.
Enter the Void made by fx
Director Gaspar Noé’s Enter the Void follows drug dealing teen Oscar who, after being killed in Tokyo, watches over his sister from the otherworld. Images of Oscar’s subjective POV, many based on hallucinations and near death experiences, were created and augmented by Paris studio BUF. Vfx sup. Geoffrey Niquet talks to us about the unique nature of the film.
3D or real: Above Everything Else
When we first saw Alex Roman’s work in ‘Above Everything Else’, a 60″ spot for Silestone kitchen worktops, we were blown away by the 3D realism. So we got in contact with Alex to talk about what was real, what was CG and how the spot was achieved. Beside we figured 1.2 Million views on Vimeo cant be wrong.
TRON: Legacy, Face off
TRON: Legacy expands on Digital Domain’s already incredibly impressive face replacement work in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. We speak in depth to 4 members of the Digital Domain team and plot the exact steps required to pull off the 165 Clu character shots in TRON: Legacy.
Narnia: The Dawn Treader’s VFX Crew
For The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, visual effects supervisor Angus Bickerton led the creation of some 1400 shots in the third film adaptation of C.S. Lewis’ fantasy series. We highlight a number of the key effects by Framestore, MPC, Cinesite, The Senate and The Mill.