Month: December 2016

  • The story behind Hook’s innovative projected matte painting – 25 years ago

    Steven Spielberg’s Hook was released 25 years ago this week (it opened on December 11th, 1991) and at the time was one of ILM’s most intensive visual effects projects. VFX supe Eric Brevig oversaw a raft of flying scenes, matte paintings, models and even Go-Motion animation for Tinkerbell’s wings. A major innovation on the show…

  • Checking in on virtual filmmaking with Dreamspace

    While attending FMX in the past few years, I’ve been checking in on the Dreamspace project. It was an European Commission project that brought together several entities in computer graphics, VFX and filmmaking to look at virtual production techniques. These entities included The Foundry, ncam, Stargate Studios, CreW, Saarland University, iMinds and Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg –…

  • The struggles – and successes – of Spawn

    After pioneering the development of CG characters at ILM on The Abyss, Terminator 2: Judgment Day and Jurassic Park, Mark Dippé took on the directing duties for Spawn, based on the comic by Todd McFarlane. He was joined on the production by vfx supervisor and ILM ‘partner-in-crime’ Steve ‘Spaz’ Williams. The New Line film was…

  • Fantastic Beasts found: on Cartoon Brew

    I had a chance to chat to the vfx supes, animation supervisor and other vfx artists on Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. Here’s my breakdown for Cartoon Brew. Sorry but I just love the Niffler so much.

  • An interview with Paul Debevec

    Back in the late 90s I was still at university and I stumbled upon the SIGGRAPH Video Review. One piece I watched was Paul Debevec’s The Campanile Movie where he’d used image-based modeling and rendering techniques to do virtual camera moves on a bell tower at the UC Berkeley campus. It was also an example…