"Why Do Practical Effects Get Replaced With CGI?" - An Appeal From The Practical VFX Industry

If you haven't heard of Amalgamated Dynamics (ADI), you ought to get educated - An offshoot of Stan Winston Studios that was born in 1989, the studio has specialized in delivering the highest quality practical effects to at least a few dozen movies you've probably watched, including this year's Godzilla, Xmen - First Class, the Aliens Franchise and many more over the years.

Celebrating their 25th year in business, they've created a new video to explain some of the challenges that practical effects studios are facing in this day and age, when producers and studio execs seek to up the visual ante by over relying on CGI. The most famous example of this is probably 2011's The Thing prequel, which was supposed to be entirely shot with practical effects as a throwback to John Carpenter's original 1982 feature. In a move that soured many fans, studio execs opted to apply a CGI treatment towards the end of production, overriding even the directors wishes.

In the case of that movie, what made the original The Thing so frightening was the fact that the practical effects were so grounded, and 'real' that it instilled a deeper fear in audiences than what a computer could accomplish. That choice had quite the opposite effect, drawing audiences out of the movie when the afflicted researchers turned into rubbery, overly motion blurred CGI monsters that had a loose grounding in that reality. As one artist we heard from put it best, the best VFX is a balanced marriage of practical and CGI - There's a reason movies like Jurassic Park and Starship Troopers still look so good today. Think about it.

The founders of ADI offer a compelling case as to how things have gone a little too slanted in the favor of CGI as of late, and I kind of have to agree...An overabundance of CGI in any film, no matter how well it's done has a nasty tendency to distract rather than immerse. For an idea of just how far animatronic technology has come since the 80's, I'd like to invite you guys to check out the mind blowing work that Gustav Hoegen did for Prometheus's engineers. 100% Practical.

Sci-fi Weapons - Aftereffects Tinkering At It's Best

If this doesn't make you want to pick up a copy and tinker with After Effects, I don't know what will. Created by Andrew Kramer, the entire showcase was created using a nerf gun, some black matte spray paint, a green screen, post processing and a healthy sound effect library. The result? A nearly endless showcase of scifi firing modes. Andrew Kramer is part of Video Copilot, which is a really cool resource of Aftereffects tutorials and 3D materials.

The Grand Budapest Hotel VFX Breakdown

Wes Anderson teamed up with Look Effects to give his critically acclaimed latest work, The Grand Budapest hotel it's stylized, retro 60's look. Using a mixture of miniatures, stop motion, matte paintings and excellent compositing, the VFX house was able to capture the distinct visual charm that Wes Anderson movies have come to be well known for.

The addition of stop motion characters and the amount of miniature work during some of the scenes was a nice callback to Fantastic Mr Fox. Haven't seen the movie just yet, but I've heard nothing but good things about it. It's also the first Wes Anderson film to ever break $100 million on a limited release.

A Look At The Original Predator Costume With Stan Winston Studios

For all you VFX and behind the scenes aficionados out there, this was just too good not to share. Presented by Stan Winston studios, we're given a glance at an early version of the Predator that would have featured Jean Claude Van Damne as the bounty hunter alien in the movie. Upon realizing though that he would simply be a guy running around in a rubber suit, he realized that this gig was not what he expected and left the production.

Compounded by some serious doubts about the original design (Which looked pretty damn goofy), his departure ultimately prompted a complete redesign that gave us the iconic Predator that's come to be loved in modern pop culture. VFX innovator Steve Johnson (Ghostbusters, Species, Blade 2) shares his inside story on what went wrong with the original design. I can't even imagine how the movie would have turned out had they stuck with the original pitch.

The Tiny Worlds Trilogy

Rushes is an award winning international VFX Company based in the heart of Soho, London. As part of a fun mini project to show off their chops in compositing, 3D and 2D animation, Rush used public sidewalks as their stage to bring their tiny worlds to life. We witness a tiny submarine emerging from a dirty puddle to take care of some business, a miniature logging truck and a bulldozer doing their part to clean up a little corner. It's a cute little project that will ultimately serve the purpose of attracting clients to Rush.

The CG team at Rushes has brought to life the everyday urban world around our feet. The Tiny Worlds trilogy of short films shows a humorous take on what might happen to the litter and rubbish on London's streets when we're not looking.

As a way to flex the Rushes CG team's creative muscles we decided to embark on an idea for a project suggested by the team themselves. We started with an initial concept, designed the vehicles, shot the plates, and went through the CG production process, before finishing it off by collaborating with Mcasso for sound design.

Jean Claude Van Damme in "Licks of Justice" (NSFW)

Animator Bruce Luce's entry for the JCVD Make My Movie Contest is a blood-drenched, grainy-film Grindhouse re-imagining of the iconic Tootsie Roll commercials of the 60's. I never realized how much I wanted to see Van Damme choke-hold a talking turtle before now. How many hits does it take to kill a man? You'll have to watch the video to find out. And go for vote for his video in the contest if you like it!

"Life After Pi" - An Intimate Look Into The Troubled VFX Industry

Life After Pi is a documentary born out of a deep sense of frustration over a completely broken system in Hollywood, one that's adversely affected over 21 US VFX Studios in the last ten years or so. In an article that we wrote last year, we noted how foreign subsidies were driving VFX studios to bankruptcy by stretching them extremely thin and forcing them to bid lower and lower for movie projects: Ryhtm and Hues was just one of the companies to fall victims to this trend at a most inopportune time back in 2013, going into bankruptcy while winning Oscars for Life of Pi simultaneously. At the time it seemed baffling that such a thing could happen, but troubling rumors started to pop up while last years Oscars were ongoing.

The event that caused a large stir in the VFX industry came about when director Ang Lee and the Cinematographer completely failed to acknowledge the hundreds of (Now jobless) people that poured their life into making their CG heavy movie a success. This unified artists from many different fields to share their disdain for the current state of the movie industry, which has paid no regard to fostering the home grown studios that made dozens of their movies into visually stunning box office hits. Life After Pi goes into what happened at the studio during and after this period, and the type of broken system in Hollywood that has been driving many studios into bankruptcy.

Considering that we've seen little to no acknowledgement of this problem from studios, we'd encourage you as a reader to share this documentary wherever you can to educate people on this issue. Especially with the Oscars around the corner, it wouldn't hurt to see actors or directors acknowledge the hundreds of people working long, unpaid hours in the VFX trenches out of love for their craft. The same could be said about many other creative industries, where figureheads get all the credit for the work of hundreds. There needs to be a change.

"Life After Pi" - The Rise And Fall Of The VFX Industry

The 2013 Oscars marked a dark moment in the VFX Industry, when artists were presented with a very strange moment: The Life Of Pi getting an Oscar while Rythm and Hues, the studio behind it's beautiful visuals went into bankruptcy, just one of many VFX house casualties in that short period. At that ceremony an entire group of people who owed their success to these hundreds of hardworking artists took on a dismissive tone. Ang Lee accepted that Oscar and failed to even thank the hundreds of people who made the heavily CG reliant movie possible, which honestly disgusted us to no end.

As Walt Jones, a CG supervisor best put it: It gelled the entire VFX industry into being horrifically pissed off at the way they were being treated. A new documentary will be released in just two weeks time called Life After Pi which is set to be the first chapter of an upcoming feature-length documentary: Hollywood Ending that delves into the larger, complex challenges facing the current US film industry. This year's Oscars will also feature a march of solidarity for these artists, a second plea to Hollywood to not destroy the American VFX Industry in favor of cheap outsourcing. The film will be released on the 25th.

"Elysium" - Trillions of Surfaces Tech Demo

The San Rafael, California based Whisky Tree VFX house just recently released some breakdowns for their work on Neil Blomkamp's Elysium. The reel shows off how they created, layered and populated the entire landscape of the stunning offworld colony, which was designed by legendary designer Syd Mead.

If there's one thing that movie could have used more of, it was a little more immersion into that beautiful setting they established once the protagonists reached Elysium. We were given a small taste, and then spent the rest of the movie running around corridors. Check out Whisky Tree's 2014 VFX reel after the break, covering more of their digital environment creation skills!

Jurassic Ploof, Kickflip, Sweatness - Les Gobelins FX Animation Exercises (Part 2)

Following our earlier feature of the Gobelins FX exercises, 30 second animations with an emphasis on animated effects in both 2D and 3D, it seems like more groups have released their pieces online. Among them we have Jurassic Ploof, a fun animated short about a Dinosaur themed waterpark with a bad case of the zombies. The Mike Mignola (Hellboy) inspiration is undeniable, but they pulled it off so damn good! This premise deserves to be expanded into something bigger.

After the break we have Kickflip, which has some Jet Grind Radio vibes with a rather abrupt, painful ending. Last but not least there's Sweatness, a cautionary tale of what might happen if you don't take a moment to dry off that buildup of sweat while you workout. As usual, can't wait to see what these students come up with given a few months of production time!

Prime Focus World Presents - 3 Years Of VFX Breakdowns

Hot damn! Looks like the folks at Prime Focus World finally got around to updating their website with a few reels, and by that I mean a few years worth of work. Over the last few days they've uploaded personalized reels and VFX breakdowns showcasing work from feature films spanning 2012-2014. Showreels show off the final product and individual shots that the company helped bring to life, while the breakdowns show of all the steps taken to get to the final product (Modeling, compositing, particle systems, etc).

If you're as into behind the scenes stuff as I am, you can consider this Christmas come early with the sheer amount of eye candy and processes displayed. After the break check out a major dump of VFX breakdowns and showreels for features including Judge Dredd,, The Great Gatsby,  Total Recall, White House Down, Men In Black 3 and World War Z.

"Star Trek - Into Darkness" Making Of By Pixomondo

Last year's Star Trek Into Darkness was a bit of a JJ Abram's misstep following the solid reboot of the franchise for a new generation, perhaps suffering from a little too much pandering with the awkwardly retooled Khan storyline that most assumed wouldn't repeat itself in this installment.

Opinions aside, the movie was a visually stunning piece of film relying on the talents of the international Pixomondo FX company. Over the course of 11 months an international team worked on 343 shots spanning their Euopean, American and Asian divisions. We finally get a glance into the making of, as presented by a making of (Above) and studio showreel (After the break). Enjoy the eye candy.

"Wolf Of Wall Street" VFX Highlights - More CG Than We Ever Imagined

Of all the movies to expect a VFX reel from, Martin Scorsese's The Wolf of Wall Street was not one we were expecting. Turns out that the folks at Brainstorm Digital spent quite a bit of time tackling a variety of challenging compositing shots on a variety of scenes that I actually thought were on location in the various countries the movie takes place in. They did an amazing job (Had us all fooled), but it kind of begs the question if it was that necessary.

I mean, the amount of work that went into just that prison tennis court scene is just sheer overkill compared to how long it probably would have taken to simply shoot. On the flipside though, this might have to do with the fact that Scorcese has always had a knack for being very meticulous with his visuals and shots, and perhaps some of these scenes and particular locations could only be created in CG. Nonetheless, one of the most interesting VFX reels we've seen in a while, especially considering how visually grounded the movie was.

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.

Thor: The Dark World VFX Breakdown

Thor: The Dark World was an interesting, and very strange movie- while it was better than the first movie, the incredibly heavy handed use of CG brought back memories of Episode 1's Green screen-itis, with protagonists not reacting in a believable manner to the unbelievable settings and events unfolding around them.

Opinions aside, Blur was tasked with crafting one of the best scenes in the film- a taste of an epic conflict between Dark Elves and Asgardian troops. After realizing that Blur was tasked with this scene while the rest of the movie was handed off to other studios, it now makes sense why there was such a disconnect between this amazing opening scene and the rest of the film, which really felt visually inconsistent in regards to the CG quality.

Beans

Beans, also known as 'animation and director with a lot of extra time on their hands' is a hilarious short film that might just make your day. Animated by Alvise Avati and produced by animation director Eamonn Butler, the short was created to raise awareness about their Soho, London based VFX company called Cinesite.

The company has been around for nearly twenty years and contributed to projects including Harry Potter, World War Z, Pirates of the Carribean, Skyfall and many other features. Nice to know that some companies still have a sense of humor. Check out Cinesite's full portfolio of movies over on their website.

"Gravity" Compositing Breakdown

In this artist breakdown by Prime Focus World starring Creative Director Richard Baker and Production artist Matthew Bristowe featuring a scene from Alfonso Cuaron's Gravity, we get an in depth breakdown of the compositing process and VFX integration in just one shot. The main point of the video is in regards to doing stereo conversion (Converting the film from 2D to 3D ) during production rather than after the fact to deliver the best 3D experience possible. A little on the technical side, but an interesting behind the scenes nonetheless.

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.

Ender's Game User Interface Design by Ash Thorp

(Via)

Ash Thorp is a multi-disciplined visual artist whose body of work sits at the crossroads of illustration, motion graphic design, and concept art. We've already shown mad love for the guy's work in the past. With an eclectic repertoire of design consultation for such major films as Marvel's Thor, The Amazing Spiderman, Sherlock Holmes, and Total Recall, he's certainly not in a lack of a demand for his skills.

Thorp's latest endeavor has finally been made known through the elaborate UI design for Gavin Hood's Ender's Game. Having seen the film this past weekend, I can confidently say that the holographic interfaces were some of the major highlights of the film and it comes as no surprise that he was involved. Nested spirals of cosmic calculation spool out at the whim of a young boy-turned-war commander. It was awesome. Check out more after the cut, I'll try to wean the more spoiler-rific ones from the crop.

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.