• ‘Thor: Ragnarok’s’ Sakaar chase scene was also a courtship dance

    Stuck on Sakaar but looking to get back to Asgard, Thor, Valkeryie and Banner steal one of the Grandmaster’s ships, the Commodore. In a high octane chase scene through the city, they escape Sakaar fighters and exit through a wormhole. Digital Domain crafted visual effects for the Thor: Ragnarok sequence, overseen by overall visual effects…

  • Korg. That is all.

    I couldn’t get enough of Korg in Thor: Ragnarok. Here’s my story at Cartoon Brew about how the character was made.

  • What went into those cool title and UI designs in ‘Thor: Ragnarok’?

    The explosion in visual effects work in comic book films is perhaps only matched by the explosion in design work also seen in those movies – everything from logo reveals, to main-on-end titles, screen UIs and other designs. One of the studios behind much of this work is Perception, based in New York. It recently…

  • Behind the scenes of that super-cool Bifrost scene in ‘Thor: Ragnarok’

    One of the scenes, as brief as it is, that really caught my eye in Thor: Ragnarok, was the Bifrost journey taken by Thor, Loki and an uninvited Hela. A mid-journey fight ensues, which ultimately sends Thor and Loki to the planet Sakaar. We’ve seen the Bifrost before, but this time visual effects supervisor Jake…

  • 3D Artist cover

    3D Artist’s latest cover story is a piece I wrote on Blender’s Agent 327, an awesome short designed to showcase the 3D tool and collaborative workflow.

  • Pixar previews their real-time graphics talk at SIGGRAPH Asia

    One of the featured sessions at SIGGRAPH Asia in Bangkok (27-30 November) is How Real-Time Graphics Helps Pixar Make Feature Films, being presented by senior graphics software engineers David Yu and Pol Jeremias-Vila. I got the chance to ask them a few quick questions about what real-time graphics and effects initiatives are in use at…

  • A visual journey through the screen graphics of ‘Blade Runner 2049’

    Territory Studio is behind some of the coolest UI and screen graphics you’ve seen in recent films, from Prometheus to Ghost in the Shell and now Blade Runner 2049. What better way to see what they did for the Denis Villeneuve film than just let them show off their visuals. Here’s a look at designs…

  • In every age, there is a cause worth fighting for…

    That line begins the 1997 trailer for Starship Troopers. When I first saw that trailer I was spellbound. When I first saw the film, and realised there was A LOT more going on in the Paul Verhoeven film than people realised, I was hooked. It’s got to be one of the best satires made, and…

  • The new bullet time?

    A flashback to Valkyrie’s battle against Hela in Thor: Ragnarok is shown in deep slow-mo – it’s one of the coolest scenes in the film, and new in-camera lighting tech on a rig reminiscent of bullet time from Satellite Lab and VFX by Rising Sun Pictures helped make it possible. Find out more at SYFY…

  • Crafting the insane action behind ‘Thor: Ragnorak’s’ end battle

    WARNING: Contains some plot spoilers. Amongst the many and complex visual effects sequences in Taika Waititi’s Thor: Ragnarok, the final battle on Asgard is perhaps the most epic. Here, the evil Hela (Cate Blanchett), her d-guards and massive dog Fenris take on Thor (Chris Hemsworth), Hulk (Mark Ruffalo), Valkyrie (Tessa Thompson), Loki (Tom Hiddleston) and…