Category: Uncategorized

  • Who ya gonna call (to do vfx)?

    Paul Feig’s Ghostbusters is out this weekend and takes the franchise to a whole new level. The original films were masterclasses in using visual effects to help tell the story – and telling jokes too. For my book, Masters of FX, I got to talk to both Richard Edlund, the original film’s visual effects supervisor…

  • John Knoll’s Death Star hobby project because, well, he’s John Knoll

    “…a fun hobby project that may or may not see use in an upcoming film…” If you were lucky enough to be at the Star Wars Celebration Europe 2016 event in London on Friday or watching the livestream, then hopefully you saw what I think was one of the most insightful panel presentations that’s ever…

  • Shark!

    The Shallows has some amazing CG shark visuals, but you’d expect that with Important Looking Pirates on board, as well as VFX supervisor Scott E Anderson. I talked to Scott for this new piece on One Perfect Shot.

  • Blender Blender Blender

    I never really knew much about the Blender community before writing this piece for 3DArtist on 65 Blender hacks. It sounds like such a great tool. Hope you pick up the mag and enjoy the read.

  • An ape film with no mocap?

    Have to admit I was surprised no mocap was used for the apes in The Legend of Tarzan. That didn’t mean gray tracking suits weren’t used for reference, but none of this was for traditional performance capture data. Find out more in this interview with Framestore for One Perfect Shot.

  • What happens when it all ends?

    According to director Sam Southward: the above. A new article for Cartoon Brew and the online premiere of the short.

  • ‘Resurgence’ visions

    In vfxblog’s recent chat with Independence Day: Resurgence’s visual effects supervisor Volker Engel, he mentioned the importance of ‘selling’ the scope of the film to the studio before receiving the greenlight. Visual effects studio TRIXTER was crucial in this process, with its art department contributing key concept art for some of the film’s big scenes.…

  • Explosion-time

    Big explosions are fun to watch in films but do you think about how much work went on behind the scenes to make them?  Now you don’t have to as I rounded up some of the best for Thrillist.

  • VFX supes talk ‘Resurgence’

    Over at One Perfect Shot, I’ve published a piece with a number of vfx supes behind the work in Independence Day: Resurgence, plus a number of breakdown pics.

  • Matzo crackers and cereal

    Here’s my in-depth Cartoon Brew story on 4Ward’s visual effects for the amazing nuclear nightmare sequence in Terminator 2, which is now 25 years old. Talking to Robert Skotak was such a great experience.