• The book I wish was around when I got into VFX

    ‘Visual effects’ is so many things. It’s art and it’s science, and it covers an incredible range of disciplines, including illustration, photography, lighting, modeling, animation, rendering, compositing, coding…in fact, the list goes on and on. I think it can be hard as a new filmmaker or film enthusiast to just get your head around VFX…

  • The household characters of ‘Beauty and the Beast’ – a conversation with Framestore

    Bill Condon’s Beauty and the Beast is a major, major hit. The film has won over audiences by staying true to the classic Disney tale but also bringing something new to the world. Helping to make the ‘live action’ film possible was, of course, an incredible amount of visual effects work, including the household characters.…

  • VR is here, but what have animators in VR learnt so far?

    It still feels like a nascent technology, but already animators have racked up significant time working in VR. So I asked some of them about what they’d learnt so far – people from ILM, Framestore, Wevr, ReelFX and an incredible artist behind some of the work on Dear Angelica. Check it out at Cartoon Brew.

  • Behind the scenes of the Smurf critters in ‘The Lost Village’

    In this video exclusive to vfxblog, Sony Pictures Imageworks visual effects supervisor Mike Ford narrates a behind the scenes look at the creatures and critters in Smurfs: The Lost Village. For more of the film, check out my coverage over at Cartoon Brew.

  • Director interview: Rupert Sanders on ‘Ghost in the Shell’

    For the premiere issue of the Visual Effects Society’s new print magazine, VFX Voice, I set out to cover the effects of Ghost in the Shell. I was lucky enough to speak to visual effects supervisors Guillaume Rocheron and John Dykstra, and a whole bunch of artists from Weta Workshop. I was also able to…

  • Sony’s Smurfs are back

    Sony Imageworks and Sony Animation are very familiar with CG Smurfs, but in the newest Lost Village fully animated feature, they had to go back to the Peyo roots. Here’s a look at Cartoon Brew.

  • The VFX industry is always changing

    Nothing really ever stays the same, but one of the fun things about visual effects is how much the technology, artistry and the business changes. There’s also often new ways of hearing or learning about VFX – over the years I’ve got my information from books, magazines, online articles, podcasts, DVD featurettes, tutorials, seminars and of…

  • Quirky and Unity

    Mr. Carton is a really fun animated series made with Unity. It’s the kind of out-there show that you have to watch to get a handle on. Check out my story on Cartoon Brew.

  • Live action / CG hybrid characters are growing up

    …and there’s some incredible ones in Ghost in the Shell. At least, that’s what I’m describing them as. Just like Ava in Ex Machina, or Vision from Avengers, Kuze and The Major in Ghost in the Shell are real-life actors with incredible CG augmentations. Here’s my report on Cartoon Brew.

  • The Boss Baby director put up with my crazy niece and nephews

    Recently I got a chance to do a phone interview with director Tom McGrath, whose newest film is DreamWorks’ The Boss Baby. I was in Tasmania when I did the call, babysitting my amazing niece and nephews. But just because of the time I did the call, I had to ask the kids if they would be quiet…