» Posts Tagged ‘vfx’
From Microscopic to Cosmic: The Fittingly Organic VFX of 'The Fountain' & 'The Tree of Life'
Other than their deep meditation on mortality — and the associated motif of a sacred source of life — Darren Aronofsky’s The Fountain (2006) and Terrence Malick’s The Tree of Life (2011) couldn’t be more different. That is, aside from the way in which the films achieve much of their strikingly beautiful cosmic imagery. In an era of filmmaking in which CGI and space-bound science fiction are far from strangers, these two films opt for a more naturalistic alternative — such as macrophotography and high-speed microscopy — to visualize their explorations of life in the universe. What could be more appropriate effects for films so occupied with the organic? Click through for some details on how VFX allowed the microscopic to ‘double’ for the cosmos. More »
If you like your music videos light of tone and populated by dancing girls gyrating through candy coloured tones, then you’ll probably want to skip Ross Anderson’s extreme make over promo for SBTRKT’s Trials of the Past. In fact, even if you do prefer films of a darker tone, I’d say this one’s not for the faint of heart or something you want to pop on in the office and certainly not in the company of anyone you wouldn’t take into an R-rated movie. If you’re feeling brave, have a watch after the jump: More »
VFX Solidarity: Is the Future of the Visual Effects Industry at Stake?
Wonder why all your production friends on Facebook have changed their profile pictures to a familiar shade of green? News of Rhythm & Hues Studios going bankrupt, the studio behind the recent Oscar-winning Life of Pi, has acted as a catalyst for awareness. A recent letter written by Phillip Broste has been making the rounds via outlets like VFX Solidarity International, stirring up the visual effects community in a call-to-action. More info and an interview with independent VFX artist Jeff Foster after the jump. More »
'Before VFX' Blog Gives Us a Glimpse of Blockbuster Movies Without the Visual Effects
If you’ve ever heard someone play an electric guitar totally unplugged, tasted raw cookie dough, or planted a seed, you know the feeling. There is potential there, but something is clearly missing. This is the exact feeling you get scrolling through the Tumblr blog ‘Before VFX.’ The title just about says it all, along with its brief self-description: “Blockbuster movies without visual effects.” The core or basic element of a shot is there, for certain, but in each case, it’s obvious there’s plenty of additional magic and ingredients that must go into the shot before it can be called complete. Check out a few examples from Before VFX below. More »
How ILM Built a Digital NYC for Marvel's 'Avengers' (Just to Blow It Up with VFX)
ILM has been at the cutting edge of visual effects in cinema since George Lucas founded it back in 1975. Constructing some of Hollywood’s most memorable moments is an impressive feat, so it’s only natural that Joss Whedon and company tapped the FX house for the much-anticipated The Avengers. Marvel’s recent efforts in film (Iron Man, Thor) built quite the lead-up for Avengers to deliver upon, and needless to say, the film brought the spectacle in spades. Check below to see how ILM built a massive digital ‘stunt’ version of New York City, just to rough a whole bunch of it up — plus some more from ILM on other VFX in The Avengers. More »
Is the First 'Instant' 3D Modeling and Motion Capture Camera the Future of CG Animation?
In creating computer generated imagery, reference photographs of real-life objects may assist modeling, texturing, and animating a 3D object. In animation, this practice translates into something called motion capture, or ‘performance capture’ when facial expressions are the focus (see: Avatar). Fixed reference points on an object or surface help artists recreate something virtually, but Microsoft XBox 360′s Kinect technology is actually able to recognize shape and motion on its own, turning you into a full-body video game controller in real-time. The new Lynx A Camera looks to take this a step further. Meet the world’s first ‘point-and-shoot’ camera that can model and capture the geometry, texture, and motion of anything you aim it at, right before your eyes. More »
Another DIY Bullet-Time GoPro Rig (This One's Handheld!)
We recently featured several practical but effective techniques for creating the (by now) famous Matrix-esque ‘bullet-time’ effect — accomplished, in more than one case, by using an evenly spaced array of GoPros and some post-processing elbow grease. Clearly, the availability and portability of such cameras is catching on beyond conventional ‘action cam’ uses, and inspiring creatives of nearly any budget to create shots only A-budget Hollywood productions used to be able to pull off. GoPros make sense for such arrays, because they are forgivingly frameable (and decently affordable as far as rentals go). Now, another project has demonstrated what’s possible with these simple but adaptable cameras — in this case, built into a rig that can also be handheld. More »
Ever seen a period film shot entirely with backgrounds made from historical photographs? No? Well, me neither, but Salvador Litvak has done just that for his film Saving Lincoln, and he’s now looking to distribute this independent film with the help of Kickstarter. He’s taken to the crowdfunding website to sell the movie and help take it on a theatrical release, and today we’ve got a post explaining exactly what’s so special about Saving Lincoln and the process his team went through to accomplish this monumental task.
This is a guest post from Salvador Litvak. More »
Get 40% Off All Red Giant Software for the Next 24 Hours
They hinted at it when they introduced their new short Tempo, but Red Giant (thanks RED for always making me want to capitalize anytime I see the word red) is now offering a giant sale (couldn’t help myself) on all of their products. Each and every piece of software in the store is now 40% off for the next day or so (less than 24 hours as of this writing). Click through to check out the details and some of the major deals. More »
It may seem so obvious that it generally skips the mind, but the shape of the frame is one of the most basic qualities governing visuals. Traditionally speaking, we’re locked into this pretty successful sort of rectangular thing (no complaints), with some variability brought to us by the likes of format spec limits and the option of shooting anamorphic. Rarely do we have a reason to even want to break out of this box — but as visual creators, the power to do so is there should we require it. The yearly Fête des Lumières (or Festival of Lights) in Lyon, France has recently provided one such opportunity for a group of art Masters students — given that their animation would be projected on the side of a building, they chose quite the interesting shape for the frame of their vibrant and charming CG short. More »
Time Warp as a Weapon in Red Giant Short 'Tempo,' Plus a Super Secret Sale (Soon)
No one’s doubting the impact that time-play can have in motion pictures. This, you’d think, would generally refer to things like time-lapse or slow-motion — but what if some scientific breakthrough could invoke slow-motion upon real life objects, like some kind of time-warp weapon? Post-plugin powerhouse Red Giant has just released an original sci-fi/action short called Tempo that explores this possibility, and then some. It’s exciting whenever a hard-concept type of film sets its premise, proceeds to meet each and every hopeful expectation you might have given that premise, and then goes even further than you could hope for. This is the case with Tempo — check it out below. (Also, a Secret Sale soon-to-be… Shh, secret!) More »
The cinema of 4K is happening. And why not? I always say, the sooner we hit the ceiling of detail resolvable by the human eye on a display of x size at y distance, the better, right? Storage and hardware are getting cheaper and more powerful by the moment, acquisition options are already in place (and expanding), 4K home media is on the horizon — and with all this comes more and more tools for producing content at that level. Mike Gentilini, founder of multi-faceted video resource VidMuze, has recently brought one such offering to the 4K table — in this case, aimed at those heavy visual effects creators and enthusiasts. If you don’t have the budget to stage and shoot Michael Bay-style eye-poppery, war scenes, or any other combustible sort of excitement, you’ll want to give VidMuze’s Damage Pack a look. More »
Elijah Wood's Bio-Mechanical Arm in Flying Lotus 'Tiny Tortures' Music Video, Plus VFX Breakdown
Elijah Wood must be best known for his starring role in The Lord of the Rings trilogy, and less so for some of his darker work (Sin City, Eternal Sunshine, and my personal favorite alien-takeover teen-angst movie, The Faculty). His work in FX’sWilfred rounds it all out, proving that he’s an artist capable of a wide range of roles, in pieces of any tone. Recently, experimental electronic/hip-hop artist Flying Lotus released a music video for his new album Until the Quiet Comes featuring a special effects-amputated Mr. Wood — as well as a found-item prosthetic arm that engenders itself around him. Read on to check out the video as well as an effects breakdown posted by director David Lewandowski. More »
We live in a world, or very close to it, where our every moment can be documented and archived for future posterity. When you go to a show, long gone are the days when a sea of lighters would be held aloft, now you can be sure that the band will instead be captured from every conceivable angle and uploaded so you don’t miss a thing. Francois Ferracci’s melancholic short Lost Memories questions what we might be missing in the now, while we’re obsessively preserving the moment for the future: More »
Sam and Niko at Corridor Digital love visual effects, magical things, violence, and video games — and as such, their YouTube channel is a heck of a lot of fun. A lot of their work is inspired by gaming, often to hilarious effect — make no mistake though, these guys are true filmmakers (and of the DIY species). They’ve also brought us a lot of great behind-the-scenes material, particularly focused on their homegrown (and very effective) CG effects. To boot, their most recent short made me laugh harder than I can remember doing for at least several weeks — and also involves visual effects (heavily), magical things (even more heavily), and violence (magical, that is). Read on to check it out, plus a great VFX breakdown. More »
What is it about rhyming couplets that make them perfectly suited for delivering dark tales of things that go bump in the night? We saw their effective use in Bloody Cuts’ bedtime yarn Suckablood and now, in time for the night where ghosts and ghouls invade cities across the world comes The Green Ruby Pumpkin, a passion project from senior visual effects artists Miguel Ortega and Tran Ma: More »
It’s becoming increasingly more practical for indie filmmakers to bring the impossible into the realm of possibility, even in terms of visual effects. This has allowed low-budget productions with small or skeleton crews to make high-concept films with great production value (see Monsters). A recent short called Monster Roll fits into this categorization, but puts a bit of a twist on the formula. It has the effects, it has the style, it has that fantastical element — except it’s about sushi chefs battling gigantic sea-monsters, and the creators made Monster Roll with the hope of demonstrating its potential for a feature. Click through to check out the movie (if it doesn’t put a smile of pure joy on your face, I don’t know what will). More »
Aliens, Spaceships, and Google Earth: a Behind-the-Scenes Look at the VFX of 'Prometheus'
Even if you haven’t yet caught one of this past year’s most hyped science fiction films, you’re probably still somewhat familiar (thanks to nearly inescapable tv spots) with the stark visual presence found in Ridley Scott’s Prometheus (just released on Blu-ray). Scott’s no stranger to vividly-realized landscapes, and after a brief (ahem, 30 year) hiatus from the realm of sci-fi, he’s once again brought us that flavor of striking imagery — but not without the help of some seriously special effects teams. More »
With the advancement of computer generated animation, many effects are no longer done on set where safety and cost are priorities (though it seems CGI ends up costing just as much, if not more). I personally have always been a fan of real effects, and it’s one of the reasons a movie like Star Wars, made back in the late 70s, still looks as good as it does today. A recent example is the practical effects used in the movie The Fountain, where organic fluid effects were filmed on a microscopic level to help make the film feel timeless. A new PBS Digital show created by Joe Schenkenberg (also known as Joey Shanks) gives some practical examples of visual effects that anyone can create at home on a budget. More »
Why Do We Let Creative Pursuits Take Over Our Lives? A Lesson in Perspective from Linds Redding
I once edited for an entire weekend. I’m not exaggerating — I went into the media lab on a Friday afternoon, and left on a Sunday night after my girlfriend and some friends dragged me out. I was obsessing about the latest episode of our sketch comedy show, and completely missed one of the best homecomings my college had seen. When I came to my senses, this caused a sense of regret. It was an important lesson on getting out, having a life, and generally not letting creative pursuits ruin my life. More »
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