Category: vfxblog

  • ‘You can’t wipe them off, they’re holograms.’ Well………

    How closely were you watching that game of Dejarik in Solo? Now’s the time to take another look… Pretty much every Star Wars film has fun Easter Eggs. But Ron Howard’s Solo has one of the coolest ‘inside visual effects’ hidden gem played out so far. And it’s to do with the game of Dejarik –…

  • Jurassic Week: mocap’ing dinos

    vfxblog’s Jurassic Week coverage continues with this look at a few innovations introduced by ILM in Jurassic World; an iPad app for visualising the dinos during on-set photography, and a workflow for motion capturing raptors and the scariest dinosaur so far. Check it out below. https://atomic-temporary-105830471.wpcomstaging.com/jurassicmocap/

  • Jurassic Week: JP3 shines

    Jurassic Week continues with this in-depth look at the several tech breakthroughs made by ILM in Jurassic Park III, including with ambient occlusion, virtual sets, flesh sims and simulated plants. Read the dedicated page, below. https://atomic-temporary-105830471.wpcomstaging.com/jurassicpark3/

  • Deadpool 2’s what the…!? scene and how it was made

    A lot of crazy stuff happens in Deadpool 2. A lot. But perhaps nothing quite matches the ‘baby legs’ moment. It’s when Wade Wilson aka Deadpool (Ryan Reynolds) is stuck on the couch of his elderly blind roommate Blind Al (Leslie Uggams) while his legs re-generate, having been earlier torn in half by Juggernaut (oh…

  • Jurassic Week: the Dinosaur Input Device

    Next up in vfxblog’s Jurassic Week is a brand new oral history on the making of the Dinosaur Input Device. It was this dinosaur-shaped stop-motion armature fitted with special encoders that kept Tippett Studio in the game during the making of Jurassic Park, after its original stop-motion dinos were scrapped in favour of ILM’s CG.…

  • Jurassic Week: the history of Viewpaint

    This week vfxblog is celebrating Jurassic Week, a whole week of Jurassic Park-inspired articles to celebrate the imminent 25th anniversary of Jurassic Park and the upcoming release of Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom. First up, a look at ILM’s secret weapon in bringing its photoreal dinosaurs to life: Viewpaint, a 3D texturing tool that let artists…

  • James Cameron on the state of 3D, his plans for immersive filmmaking, how he approached Avatar creature design, why machines won’t like being slaves, and his promise to do a commentary track for The Terminator

    I was lucky enough to score a ticket last night to see James Cameron speak in Sydney. It was at a Vivid event, a festival here famous for lighting up city landmarks and for presentations on culture, new ideas and art and technology. Cameron shared his journey on all sorts of things, mostly related to…

  • Retro vfx: Godzilla is 20!

    In vfxblog’s ‘Man-in-suit, miniatures, mechanics and modern CG: looking back at 20 years since Godzilla’, we chat to visual effects supervisor Volker Engel about this massive 1998 release and its use of practical, miniature, animatronics, puppet and CGI effects – all at once. The Q&A has some fun new facts about the teaser trailer for…

  • Submit your film to VIEW Conference!

    Are you a filmmaker? The 2018 VIEW Conference is now accepting submissions for its 2018 film competitions. There’s a €2,000 first prize – the VIEW Award – for short animated film, and the ITALIANMIX award for Italian short films. Here’s some more info on how to enter: – The VIEW AWARD is open to professionals…

  • Remembering this killer ILM shot from Deep Impact, now 20 years old

    20 years ago, the first of 1998’s asteroid films, Deep Impact, was released. In some ways it used visual effects rather sparingly to showcase the result of a partial meteor hit on the Earth. Massive waves hitting New York were a feature of the film, and these were realised as CG water sims by ILM.…