‘I like the idea of doing a real place, underwater tank, LED screen, animatronic and CG, and then glueing them all together’
How ‘Emancipation’ VFX supervisor Rob Legato designed the Will Smith vs alligator scene.
Sci-Tech winners announced
Sci-Techs include recognition of rain bar practical FX, renderfarm management, 3D texturing and AI-driven facial veiling technology.
Here’s how Industrial Light & Magic orchestrated Luthen’s ‘lightsaber’ ship in ‘Andor’
Plus, behind the scenes on ship builds to replicate the ‘miniatures look’, Ferrix’s shipyard, and Coruscant’s cityscapes.
How to find befores & afters content online, in audio and video, and in print
A quick round-up of where you can find befores & afters stories, podcasts, videos and social media postings.
NEW to the befores & afters Patreon – LIVE STREAMS!
Sign up for a ton of bonus content, and now introducing, live streams...
The volumetric capture crowd tech behind ‘I Wanna Dance With Somebody’
A step-by-step on how 700 terabytes worth of volumetric capture was crafted for the concert crowds in the Whitney Houston biopic.
The VFX Oscar noms are out!
Congrats to the nominees, and here's how befores & afters covered each project.
How the ‘Pinocchio’ VFX team took the stop-motion further
They crafted environments, water, snow, rain and many other effects for the Guillermo del Toro film.
This VFX studio has made a standalone AI app for de-aging
Vanity AI from MARZ is designed for 2D aging, de-aging, cosmetic, wig, and prosthetic fixes.
New compositing tool Autograph released by Left Angle
It's designed for motion design, visual effects, and 3D compositing.
A CG test for Thing in ‘Wednesday’ involved several tests including animating a short with a dancing appendage
Behind the scenes of the visual effects for Thing in the hit Tim Burton show.
The 21st Annual VES Awards nominees–see them all here
Read the whole list.
The ‘Deadliest Catch’ stock footage in ‘Jurassic World Dominion’, behind the visual effects of ‘Top Gun: Maverick’, and other new things I learned at the VFX Bake-Off
Some extra things shared in breakdowns and discussion at the Academy event. The Academy VFX Branch hosted its Visual Effects Bake-Off on
‘A massive 5 million polygon scan of the actual cave in Thailand was brought to life so we could extend our practical sets’
The underwater, cave builds and invisible visual effects of 'Thirteen Lives'.
The game played in ‘The Adam Project’ was an actual playable piece of real-time content
The story behind how Unity made the game in the film.
Lots of water: inside the VFX of ‘Five Days at Memorial’
How a giant water tank, a bevy of bluescreens and some innovative water sims helped make this Hurricane Katrina story possible.
Here’s how DreamWorks lent a whole new brand of stylized look and feel to ‘Puss in Boots: The Last Wish’
Behind the design and the tools utilized by the studio on the film. If there’s one trend stirring up the feature animated
Industrial Light & Magic put ‘Wakanda Forever’s’ Namor on top of a helicopter simulation to test his different flight speeds
How the VFX studio made the character fly, and how they also helped orchestrate the Talokan attack on Wakanda.
ILM’s Hal Hickel on how nostalgia and CG backlash can affect the perception of VFX
The ILM animation director gave this fantastic talk at VIEW Conference this year.
Why the CG water in ‘The Way of Water’ looks so good
Performance capture that could be done simultaneously above and below water, a new muscle strains system away from blend shapes, and new
‘Titanic’s’ digital paraphernalia supervisor made all the difference
Titanic turns 25, and we are celebrating here at befores & afters.
Mirror gags, mountain extensions and *that* beach scene: the VFX of ‘Decision to Leave’
Go behind the scenes of the invisible effects in the South Korean film everyone is raving about.
‘Imperfectly perfect’
The secrets behind the stop-motion animation of Guillermo del Toro’s ‘Pinocchio’.
How that shocking DC villain splitting scene was made
(It came as somewhat of a surprise to the VFX team behind it, too)
How does cinematography work on a stop-motion film?
‘Pinocchio’ DOP Frank Passingham breaks down his extensive lighting, camera, motion control and lens choices on the Guillermo del Toro movie.
The surprising inspiration for that crazy Warg in ‘The Rings of Power’
Chihuahuas can be scary. But the real reason it served as reference for the Warg was: reality.
Inside the mechanical and 3D printed puppet head process used for Guillermo del Toro’s ‘Pinocchio’
We break down how the puppets were built for the stop-motion feature.
Get my new book in PRINT or on KINDLE.
Issue #66: The visual effects of The Electric State.
Issue #64: The visual effects of Monarch: Legacy of Monsters, s2.
Issue #63: The visual effects of 28 Years Later.
