Category: vfxblog
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‘Predator’: VFX supe Joel Hynek recalls the days of optical compositing, thermal cameras and *that* red suit
John McTiernan’s Predator is perhaps most fondly remembered for Arnold Schwarzenegger’s line, ‘Get to the chopper!’ But it also featured some incredibly memorable optical effects, crafted by R/Greenberg Associates and overseen by visual effects supervisor Joel Hynek. These included a distinctive camouflage effect wielded by the alien Predator creature (appearing also in a monster suit…
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Before you see Tom Cruise’s ‘The Mummy’, re-visit the digital make-up, mocap and other VFX innovations from the 1999 film
You’ve got a character that needs to be desiccated and completely non-human in its position but has to be believably human in the way that it moves. Well, that’s motion capture in a nutshell. – John Berton Jr., ILM visual effects supervisor, The Mummy In 1999, director Stephen Sommers’ The Mummy burst onto cinema screens…
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‘The Lost World’ turns 20: Animation director Randal M. Dutra reflects on those early days of the digital age
How Steven Spielberg came to adopt CGI dinosaurs for 1993’s Jurassic Park is an often-told story, including in several interviews I’ve done recently. Ultimately, the move from stop-motion to digital dinos paved the way for an explosion in CG characters in blockbuster movies. That included Jurassic Park’s sequel, The Lost World: Jurassic Park, released 20 years…
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Multi pass and motion control: re-visiting the VFX of ‘The Fifth Element’
On the 20th anniversary of The Fifth Element, a look back with vfx supervisor Mark Stetson on the miniatures and CG work in the film.
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Full liquid metal, now in 3D: re-visiting the freakin’ T-1000 walking out of the fiery truck crash
If you’ve never seen James Cameron’s Terminator 2: Judgment Day – either on the big or small screen – now’s the time to embrace this wonder of filmmaking and effects. The movie has been digitally re-mastered and received the ‘full liquid metal 3D’ stereo conversion treatment by Stereo D. The new release just premiered at the…
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The race to finish Dante’s Peak…20 years ago
Today, many of the visual effects in the 1997 disaster flick Dante’s Peak would probably be done completely digitally. Pyroclastic flows, exploding buildings, bridges and cars being swept away by a torrent of ashen river – these are things that can be done with complex effects simulations, CG elements and masterful compositing. But two decades ago, the…
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You’re a wonderful human being: re-visiting CG Jabba 20 years later
You might have seen former ILM visual effects and animation supervisor Steve ‘Spaz’ Williams pop up on vfxblog quite a lot recently. That’s because he was involved in a number of seminal VFX films celebrating their various anniversaries of late, including Terminator 2: Judgment Day and Jurassic Park. Williams was also involved in another landmark…
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When miniatures and CGI met in the sky: the vfx of Turbulence
Remember Turbulence? It was a much-hyped disaster flick set on a passenger 747 starring Lauren Holly and Ray Liotta, and released 20 years ago. The film may not by one for the history books, but its visual effects – a hybrid of miniatures and digital techniques – came right at a time where film VFX…
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Behind the ILM Mars Attacks! tests that convinced Tim Burton to go CG
1996 was a break-out year for digital visual effects, with advancements in front and centre CG characters (Dragonheart), heavy environments and digital compositing (Independence Day), and photoreal CG simulations (Twister). Another film that took advantage of the the state of VFX was Tim Burton’s Mars Attacks!, a quirky off-shoot of the 1960s Topps trading cards.…
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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…
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