Month: July 2017

  • From capture to creature: Weta Digital

    For Cartoon Brew, I ran down how Weta Digital takes the on-set performance capture and pushes it through different departments to produce ape animation. It’s an incredible, artistic and technical process. Hope you enjoy the read.

  • Randal M. Dutra on ‘RoboCop’ and the stop-motion ED-209

    Recently on vfxblog, I was able to speak to former ILM animation supervisor Randal M. Dutra about his work on The Lost World: Jurassic Park for that’s film’s 20th anniversary. I invited Dutra back to talk about his stop-motion contributions to RoboCop, which this week celebrates 30 years since its release. On that film, Dutra…

  • Plane crazy

    Imageworks took on the visual effects for the final third act in Spider-Man: Homecoming, from the factory battle, to the plane fight and the beach confrontation. Here’s a look at how they did it, at Spark CG Society.

  • Scott Farrar on the legacy of ‘Transformers’

    I talked to ILM’s Scott Farrar about the history of the Transformers franchise, what some of the initial challenges were (their first bot designs didn’t work), and how that has changed leading up to Transformers: The Last Knight. Check it out at VFX Voice.

  • Visiting Weta Digital

    I had a chance to pop over to Wellington recently to chat to the team at Weta Digital on the new, and incredible, War for the Planet of the Apes. You’ll see some coverage coming out over the next few days, but here’s a hint at the first piece, for 3D Artist magazine. It has lots…

  • Quickshots: How one of the coolest shots in ‘Baby Driver’ was pulled off

    Last night in Sydney I got to watch Edgar Wright’s Baby Driver for a second time, and see a post-film Q&A hosted by director George Miller. The Q&A was fantastic, diving into Wright’s directing choices, musical influences and juicy details about how some of the big driving stunts and shots in the film were captured.…

  • How the beach scene in ‘Contact’ went down to the wire

    Yesterday I posted an interview with Contact’s visual effects supervisor Ken Ralston about his work on the film, which is now 20 years old. This included the incredible mirror shot, and for that high speed compositing supervisor Sheena Duggal also weighed-in on how that shot was made at Imageworks. Well, Sheena has now also provided…

  • Behind the scenes of ‘Okja’

    I talked to Method Studios visual effects supervisor Erik De Boer about Okja – and how the team gave a personality to the CG super-pig. Check it out at Cartoon Brew.

  • The famous mirror shot in ‘Contact’ was almost something else entirely

    Visual effects artists and aficionados are often asked which movie or shot was their biggest influence, a question that regularly evokes a response about films like Star Wars, Blade Runner or Jurassic Park. Those films, of course, are all milestones in the VFX world. But in recent years, if that kind of question has come up…

  • Get ready for more ‘Game of Thrones’

    The July 2017 issue of VFX Voice from the Visual Effects Society is out, and it includes a bunch of articles I am proud to have contributed. I’ll link to them here at vfxblog over the next few days. First piece is a retrospective on Game of Thrones, with the new season just around the…