• Thanks to Fox Renderfarm for sponsoring vfxblog

    My thanks to Fox Renderfarm for coming on board as a new sponsor of vfxblog.com. I’m grateful to them for helping me continue publishing a whole bunch of original content here, including retro VFX pieces. Many VFX and animation studios already rely on Fox Renderfarm for cloud rendering, and they are one of the leaders…

  • Dark City at 20: a conversation with colorist Peter Doyle

    Filmed in Sydney and released 20 years ago this week in 1998, Alex Proyas’ Dark City surprised many by instantly becoming a neo-noir sci-fi classic. Fans of Proyas’ earlier works, including The Crow, were perhaps not surprised at the director’s adept skills in crafting a film around a dark sun-less world run by a mysterious group…

  • That car chase in Black Panther

    This has got to be one of the coolest scenes in Black Panther. Find out how Luma Pictures pulled it off at Cartoon Brew.  

  • A whole bunch of Blade Runner 2049 VFX breakdowns in one place

    Over the past few months, I’ve seen some incredible – incredible – VFX breakdowns posted by the various studios behind the effects in Blade Runner 2049 (overall supervisor John Nelson). So here’s a whole bunch of them in one place at vfxblog. I’m sorry if I’ve missed any of the major work, please let me…

  • Tips from the VFX Oscar nominated supes for working with directors

    Joe Letteri. Chris Townsend. John Nelson. Stephen Rosenbaum. Ben Morris. They all weigh-in in this piece for Cartoon Brew on how they worked with their director. An amazing part of this piece is that I was able to speak to three of these visual effects supervisors (John Nelson, Joe Letteri and Chris Townsend) at VIEW…

  • Aaron Sims on the secrets of crafting compelling characters

    The creatures and characters you see in some of the biggest films and television shows are the result of countless hours of design, research, re-design and skilled artistry. Among the most prolific of creature and characters designers is the team at Aaron Sims Creative, headed up by design veteran Aaron Sims. In recent times, ASC…

  • Digital humans are here

    For 3D Artist I looked back at a year that featured some insane digital human work by MPC, Image Engine and Lola VFX. I bet you can guess which projects…

  • ‘We tried a million things’ – the oral history of Sphere’s sphere

    Barry Levinson’s 1998 film Sphere, which is celebrating its 20th anniversary this week, brought with it a diverse array of visual effects straddling both the practical and digital worlds. Its central ‘character’, the sphere itself, was a CG creation by Cinesite, and proved to be one of the toughest design challenges on the movie. Overall…

  • A candid chat with the director of Peter Rabbit

    “We did a lot of planning and then I threw it all out, and then I planned it again, and then I threw it all out.” I had a really frank discussion with Will Gluck, the director of Peter Rabbit about working on the hybrid cg-live action feature, with VFX by Animal Logic. Check it…

  • Industry news: Iloura merges with Method Studios, and the lost Pirates 3 interview

    Sister visual effects studios Iloura and Method, both owned by Deluxe, are combining under a single brand – Method Studios. Iloura, an Australian VFX studio with a 30 year history in Melbourne and Sydney, had in particular been knocking it out of the park recently with killer work on projects such as Game of Thrones, Fury…