Pacific Rim LEGOs Need To Happen Immediately

(via)

Hot damn. It's been a minute since we've gotten a chance to post something Pacific Rim related, but luckily Japanese LEGO modeler MOKO has brought this to the table. After creating the 3-foot EVA 01 masterpiece last year, MOKO has been on a roll with other projects including the four main Jaegers from Pacific Rim. Mark 4, Mark 3, Mark 5, and Mark 1 have all been modeled in their full mecha-glory and it's pretty damn impressive.

Each of the four Jaegers are completely poseable, adding a second layer to their already awesome awesomeness. Mark 3 even includes it's freighter ship from the film, adding to the cool factor. After the jump you can check out each of the Jaegers in their full glory and wish that LEGO would back a future project as cool as this (not that Back to the Future and The Simpsons aren't already radical).

Behind The Magic - ILM's Visual Effects of "Pacific Rim"

Too you long enough ILM! 6 months after the premiere of Pacific Rim, looks like the Lucas Arts VFX division has finally released a nice juicy reel featuring all the work that they contributed to Del Toro's Kaiju fest. It looks like they played a big role in creating one of the movies highlight battles, Gipsy Danger versus the Category IV 'Otachi' Kaiju in Hong Kong, which was absolutely amazing to watch on an Imax screen when it came out.

For more Pacific Rim making of goodies, check out Studio Mirada's VFX Reel as well as Studio Rodeo's contributions to capturing the interiors of the Jaegers in the film. And of course, let's not forget about our rather viral Pacific Rim - Japanese fanart edition post.

The Art Of Pacific Rim - Japanese Fanart Edition

(Via)

I'd always been pretty curious about how Japan, especially their creative community would react to Pacific Rim, a movie that was a whole-hearted ode to various pop culture genres like Kaiju films and various 'Tokusatsu' (Special effects) genres that their cinema scene popularized with internationally acclaimed franchises like Godzilla.

Just recently we set out to see if Japanese artists had taken a liking to the various Jaegers, especially after stumbling into box office figures for overseas sales of the film, which did pretty amazing in Asian markets. What we found was a plethora of amazing tribute pieces executed in a variety of styles and interpretations of both the Kaiju and Jaegers alike, showing that the movie had definitely found it's place with artists abroad. Check out a ton more Pacific Rim fanart pieces of the break!

Pacific Rim - VFX Breakdown By Rodeo

It's incredible to think about how many VFX companies come together to work on feature films, taking care of various aspects of production depending on their specialty. We initially posted a Pacific Rim VFX reel from the relatively new studio called 'Mirada' back in September, but there's been a steady trickle of other VFX reels as of late that worked on Guillermo's triumphant tribute to Kaiju and Mecha genres.

Rodeo's contributions to Pacific Rim included extensive amounts of environmental compositing work and 3D matte painting, as well as simulation work on creatures and vehicles. As well, ILM handed them the task of creating all the different Jaeger cockpit interior shots, and designing the various control rigs that would be used by the pilots. The end result was a perfect marriage of practical FX and CG, which made those battles so damn satisfying to watch.

Pacific Rim Before & After - A Visual FX Reel

Released by a relatively new VFX studio called Mirada, one of the key studios that Guillermo Del Toro collaborated with to bring the Kaiju-ravaged world of Pacific Rim to life, this VFX reel offers a compelling look at all the work that went into creating the visuals. From environments, creatures, compositing, animation and more, this reel offers a bite sized taste of just how many thousands of hours of work went into the feature. Kickass.

Over the three years of Pacific Rim’s production, Mirada assembled a unique VFX pipeline to handle some of the most demanding effects to date in a large-scale blockbuster, creating visuals that would stand alongside ILM’s impressive work on the picture. Likewise, throughout the nearly three year process, Mirada vigorously and continuously refined its pipeline to meet the film’s needs – all while forging new ground to meet the challenge of future productions.

Pacific Rim Trailer - The Toho Godzilla Version

Created by Youtube user Honda Brigit as an earnest attempt to 'pray for the success of Pacific Rim in Asia,' this awesomely grindhouse-y trailer for Guillermo Del Toro's greatest film yet combines the classic Godzilla style trailer with the modern Kaiju battle film in an old meets new fashion. In regards to the timing of this Toho trailer, Pacific Rim will be hitting some of it's potentially huge markets later this week with a release in China on the 31st of July and Japan on August 9th.

While the movie under performed in the US with an $80,000,000 gross against it's $190,000,000 budget, it's fared much better in the worldwide market with $140,000,000 in revenue and counting. Here's to hoping that the movie blows up when it hits it's last batch of markets in the next few weeks.

Behind The Scenes Of Pacific Rim With Legacy Effects

Love it or hate it, you can't deny that Pacific Rim delivered a visual spectacle unlike anything we've seen before, offering us a take on a genre untapped here in the west (Excluding b-movies). The fine folks at Legacy Effects, a special effects studio specializing in animatronics, specialty suits, prosthetic make up and creature design put together a series of behind the scenes mini-featurettes focusing on the work they put into Guillermo Del Toro's Pacific Rim. Focusing on the pilot suits, different iterations of helmets and a few key components of the pretty awe inspiring animatronic command set (Which we featured right before the release of the film), the attention to detail and passion is definitely palpable.

This new wave of prop building is a pretty amazing look into some of the new techniques being used, especially high end 3D printing to create entire suits from templates modeled in software packages like Maya. If the company name doesn't ring a bell, Legacy Effects is comprised of multi-decade Stan Winston Studio veterans that went on to found their own house following the passing of the special effects visionary back in 2008. They've contributed to high profile projects including The Avengers, Iron Man 3, The Life Of Pi as well as the upcoming Robocop and Xmen: Days Of Future Past. Check out the mini-featurettes for the helmets and the custom built command module after the break.

Atlantic Rim - Not Quite Guillermo Del Toro

Amidst all the noise generated by the Asylum's other release this week, the Syfy sleeper hit Sharknado got all the attention, starring the likes of Tara Reid and John Heard battling a tornado full of sharks and irony. Their other straight to DVD knockoff got lost in the midst, a cheekily titled low budget film predating the release of Guillermo Del Toro's love letter to giant robots and massive Kaiju, Pacific Rim.

Released on July 9 (2 days before Pacific Rim), Atlantic Rim has been chalked up as another 'coincidental' release by the company also featuring giant monsters vs. machines, created to rake up sales by fooling gullible folks into buying them in stores. It really begs the question, if you were completely fooled at the sight of 3 pilots wearing wet suits and the discernible lack of any effort in the acting and VFX department, you can't really blame the folks at the Asylum for this very obvious knockoff. Originally titled as 'Attack From Beneath,' I'm guessing that the folks at Asylum simply said, 'Eh, f*** it' before choosing to walk the lawsuit tightrope for a few extra dollars. Here's to shameless knockoffs, and the Syfy channel for continuing to give these cinematic savants a reason to exist.

The Pacific Rim Ending Credit Sequence

As the smoke clears from the epic battle, we venture through a panoply of monsters, machines, and their monumental feats in this ending sequence created for Guillermo Del Toro's triumphant kaiju spectacle, Pacific Rim. If you haven't had a chance to watch it just yet, let me break it down to this: If you've ever watched Evangelion or any other noteworthy mecha anime, or longed for a proper Godzilla adaptation worthy of western screens, this is the best of both worlds. Be sure to check it out this weekend, as I could only sum it up as one of the funnest, most spectacular movie experiences I've had in years now.

Director Miguel Lee of the Imaginary Forces collective and his team worked with Guillermo Del Toro to present some of the colossal creations in the movie in a highly stylized fashion, using a mix of macro photography and stereoscopic 3D processing for movie audiences. No spoiler worthy content present.

Yoji Shinkawa and Guillermo del Toro's Pacific Rim Collaboration

(Via)

Well folks, the Holy Grail of Pacific Rim swag is upon us, the only issue is there isn't a confirmation on whether this beauty will ever hit the printer. In celebration for Guillermo del Toro's upcoming Pacific Rim (aka: badass Kaiju action), famed Metal Gear Solid artist, Yoji Shinkawa (Also known for the mechs in Zone of the Enders) has created this amazing piece for the movie's 3D release. While no announcement has been made as to where this limited edition piece will be made available, I'm already throwing a lot of money at the screen for one of these to show up at my house.

In case you missed it, Hideo Kojima is absolutely in love (literally) with Pacific Rim, which hasn't helped in terms of building up even more hype for the movie than I previously imagined. I'm having issues waiting for this Friday's release, but I'll make do until then, although I don't know how long I can go on living without having this poster in my home.

Update: Yoji Shinkawa's posters Pacific Rim will be offered to anyone attending opening night screenings of RealD 3D at Regal theaters while supplies last!

Pacific Rim's Exclusive Limited Edition Posters

The hype continues to grow as Guillermo Del Toro's Kaiju/Mecha rock 'em sock 'em feature premiere draws nearer, the promotional, limited edition posters have begun to emerge with two amazing prints being premiered for IMAX theaters and Odd City Entertainment. The above poster is by LA artist Sergio Grisanti, which will be offered in select theaters to people who attend first showings of Pacific Rim in IMAX 3D. Check out this official list here to see if your local theater is participating in the promotion when the movie comes out July 12th.

The second poster is my preferred one for it's understated tone and retro monster flick sensibilities, created by Grzegorz Domaradzki (Gabz) for the collectors club Odd City (Similar to Mondo), which will be premiering July 2nd as part of a limited release of standard, wood, metal and gold foil variant prints. 

This is actually the first time I had an opportunity to work on something this big, so I was both excited and slightly overwhelmed at the beginning. Until now, I had worked on movies with plenty of references to be found on the Internet. In this case, I was mainly limited to the first teaser trailer that came out (pretty mind blowing by the way). 

I focused on Gipsy Danger, but instead of putting him in some type of massive sea battle, which was quite tempting, I proposed something inspired by World War 2 propaganda posters; something where the giant robot symbolizes the last stand of humanity. To better show the scale of the threat, I added a glimpse of the giant Kaiju hidden in the skyline. I’m pleased with the outcome and particularly with my version of the poster title, clearly inspired by Japanese apocalyptic cinema posters.”

Pacific Rim - Robot Sets Featurette

Presented by Guillermo Del Toro, this little featurette is rather enlightening and incredibly encouraging, featuring his philosophies on using practical effects to give his performances a certain set of believability. The main focus is on the actual robot cockpits and his state of the art approach to creating a fully functional simulator to put his actors in the midst of a proper Kaiju battle.

This feature also ends up revealing a previously unseen aspect of the movie, each of the national mechs:  Gypsy Danger (USA), Crimson Typhoon (China), Cherno Alpha (Russia), Coyote Tango (Japan) and Striker Eureka (Australia) are piloted by squadrons of two, which should result in some very interesting dynamics during battles. Can't wait for July 12.