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Visual effects and animation journalist Ian Failes

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Recent Posts

  • Announcing ‘befores & afters’
  • A new VR animation tool, for first-timers
  • LEGO Movie 2 at 3D Artist
  • Inside the fx of Bird Box
  • New 3D World has Alita, DNEG and more

Retro VFX: The tech of Terminator 2

An oral history with ILMers behind the CGI.

The social (VFX) lives of Hollywood

Behind the scenes vfx pics posted by the stars

Retro VFX: Contact

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

Retro VFX: Men in Black

‘Men in Black’ and its crazy collection of real and CG creatures

Retro VFX: Batman & Robin

The forgotten freeze-frame moments from the film

Retro VFX: Predator

Optical compositing, thermal cameras and *that* red suit

Retro VFX: The Mummy

Re-visit the digital make-up, mocap and other VFX innovations from the 1999 film

RETRO VFX: The Lost World

Animation director Randal M. Dutra reflects on those early days of the digital age

Retro VFX: The Fifth Element

Multi pass and motion control: re-visiting the VFX of 'The Fifth Element'

Retro VFX: Terminator 2

Full liquid metal, now in 3D: re-visiting the freakin’ T-1000 walking out of the fiery truck crash
Full liquid metal, now in 3D: re-visiting the freakin’ T-1000 walking out of the fiery truck crash

Retro VFX: Dante’s Peak

The race to finish Dante’s Peak...20 years ago

Retro VFX: CG Jabba

You’re a wonderful human being: re-visiting CG Jabba 20 years later

Retro VFX: Mars Attacks!

Behind the ILM Mars Attacks! tests that convinced Tim Burton to go CG

Retro VFX: Twister

It’s been 20 years since ‘Twister’ brought us that flying cow

Archives

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  • January 2017
  • December 2016
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Masters of FX

My book featuring 16 of the world's best vfx supervisors is available at Amazon.com

Category: Freelance

Outlaw King’s invisible fx

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For VFX Voice, a chat with the team behind the visual effects of Outlaw King.

Posted on January 23, 2019Categories FreelanceTags vfxvoice

A seriously fantastic beast

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A look at Framestore’s work for The Crimes of Grindelwald, at VFX Voice.

 

Posted on January 16, 2019Categories FreelanceTags vfxvoice

Marwen’s digital dolls (which still utilised live action)

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For Cartoon Brew, I broke down how Atomic Fiction (now Method Studios) made the digital doll scenes for Welcome to Marwen by still relying on some great live action and virtual production techniques.

Posted on January 13, 2019Categories FreelanceTags CartoonBrew

Isle of Dogs and VFX

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Every single frame of Isle of Dogs was touched by VFX, making for a great combination between hand-animated stop-motion, sets, and digital artistry. Read more in my VFX Voice story.

Posted on January 9, 2019Categories FreelanceTags vfxvoice

Dive deep into the visdev on animated shorts

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For Cartoon Brew, I asked production designers and filmmakers behind a number of the animated shorts up for Oscar consideration about their process. Lots of great concepts and artwork to check out.

Posted on January 8, 2019Categories FreelanceTags CartoonBrew

Industrial Light and Transformer Magic

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I am still obsessed with Transformer transformations. So I talked to ILM about Bumblebee for Cartoon Brew.

Posted on January 7, 2019Categories FreelanceTags CartoonBrew

The CG hair of Aquaman, a surprisingly tough effect

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I talked to ILM’s Jeff White about Aquaman’s CG hair requirements – a major challenge for the VFX studios on the film. Read it at Cartoon Brew.

Posted on December 30, 2018Categories FreelanceTags CartoonBrew

A whole new 3D World

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The latest 3D World mag has a couple of my features in it: Weta Digital’s work on Mortal Engines, DNEG’s approach to animation, and more Stephan Fleet vfx diary insights.

Posted on December 29, 2018Categories FreelanceTags 3dworld

How to animate a city

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Here’s how Weta Digital did it for Mortal Engines.

Posted on December 20, 2018Categories FreelanceTags CartoonBrew

3D Artist and breaking the Internet

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For 3D Artist magazine, I talked to Disney Animation about Ralph Breaks the Internet. And they did a stunning special cover for the issue.

Posted on December 18, 2018Categories FreelanceTags 3DArtist

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