Billed as a ‘journey beyond the threshold of sanity’ featuring Hap, a mad scientist and his cat Mello, the new animated short from Burnt Toast and his company Doodles brings together the music of stars like Pharrell Williams and Lil Wayne with hand-drawn and CG animation that required all new pipelines, processes, and the tightest of schedules.
From previs, techvis, and postvis to a 5,000-frame street fight ‘oner,’ 3rd act Time Ripper disintegration, and our villain’s hand rummaging around a person’s head – think pinkie out the nose – VFX supervisor Matt Twyford, senior visualisation supervisor Kaya Jabar, and their teams delivered some of the most impressive visual effects seen of late on Shawn Levy’s hilarious and bloody new Marvel blockbuster.
Led by VFX supervisor J.P. Jaramillo, the company delivers 256 shots on Kevin Costner’s epic Western, including river, canyon, and town environments, digital horses and insects, and lots of fire, smoke, and rain.
VFX supervisor Dan Bethell helped the studio deliver 880 shots on famed director George Miller’s latest post-apocalyptic romp, including work on the Citadel Battle, the Bullet Farm ambush, the Stowaway to Nowhere, and the titular character’s mechanical arm.
Visual Effects Supervisor Stephan Fleet oversaw the delivery of 1,600 shots on Prime Video’s Emmy Award winning series, including lots of exploding heads, flesh eating flying sheep, an amorous octopus, and a man, Splinter, whose superpower was to rip his body in two while generating new clones.
Visual Effects Supervisor Matt Sloan, handling as much in-camera as possible so digital effects didn’t overshadow the tremendous stunt work, helped deliver 1,400 VFX shots working with Framestore, Cinesite, Rising Sun Pictures and Crafty Apes, as well as extensive postvis by OPSIS, on David Leitch’s behind-the-scenes ode to stuntmen, starring Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt.
Herne Hill VFX supervisor Ben King describes how his studio delivered almost 200 visual effects shots, all grounded in a 1970s cinematic style, including extensive layering of practical and digital fire, along with a jackal-inspired demon, in Arkasha Stevenson’s chilling prequel to the classic 1976 film.
VFX supervisor Chris MacLean talks about the stunning visuals – 3,215 shots in all - that depict the worlds, characters, ships, and creatures of the hit sci-fi series, based on Isaac Asimov’s famed Hugo Award-winning sci-fi trilogy about Dr. Hari Seldon’s mathematical ‘psychohistory’ predictions; now streaming on Apple TV+.
Creators and co-showrunners Geneva Robertson-Dworet and Graham Wagner, and VFX supervisor Jay Worth, discuss how they integrated 50’s B-Movie Sci-Fi, Spaghetti Western, and Future War tones and designs into their darkly satirical hit series adaptation of Bethesda’s best-selling video game, now streaming on Prime Video.
The leading VFX and animation studio partnered with Dimension Studio on an end-to-end virtual production and visual effects effort on more than 1,600 shots and 200 assets for Apple TV+’s harrowing miniseries that follows the exploits of the 100th Bomb Group flying daytime missions over Nazi Germany during the darkest days of World War II.
In his disturbing feature film debut that dares you to turn your back on creepy little puppet characters while making a stop-motion film, the director discusses his live-action / animation mix, different cinematic tools for ratcheting up the suspense, and removing ‘easy answers’ amidst the ordered chaos of editorial.
Bryan Lee O’Malley, BenDavid Grabinski, Abel Góngora and Masamichi Ishiyama discuss their decision-making on everything from line width and hair color to backgrounds and minimal 3D use on Netflix’s 8-episode series, now streaming, based on the ‘Scott Pilgrim’ graphic novels, feature film and video game.
Led by VFX supervisor Mathieu Dupuis, the studio’s visual effects work brings audiences back to medieval times, with a touch of faerie tale and fantasy elements, including unique castles, enchanting countryside, and the spikey Stone Mountain cave where the titular character, played by Millie Bobby Brown, meets a fire-breathing dragon.
Co-creators and EPs Justin Marks and Rachel Kondo, along with their production team on FX and Hulu’s 10-episode limited series - based on James Clavell’s famous 1975 novel - always strove for authenticity in their depiction of Japan in 1600, from its ships to the city of Osaka, even the oil lamps and wicks used to light rooms.
VFX supervisor, director, and executive producer Jabbar Raisani led a monumental effort to deliver almost 3,400 visual effects shots on the live-action adaptation of Nickelodeon’s famed animated series, recreating the magical world of benders, who control the natural elements of fire, water, wind, and earth, and the mediator known as the Avatar.
VFX supervisor Sue Land discusses how the studio reimagined the legendary story, based on Bernard Cornwell’s ‘The Warlord Chronicles,’ aligning fantastical elements with plausible 6th century realism to visualize Sub-Roman Britain on the 10-episode MGM+ and ITVX fictionalized historical series.
SFX Supervisor Jeremy Hays and VFX Producer Whitney Richman discuss the challenges of conceptualizing and creating scenes involving astral projection, underwater characters that aren’t actually underwater, and the lead character, Cassandra Webb, falling off a bridge during a motor vehicle rescue, on S.J. Clarkson and Sony Pictures’ suspense thriller.
VFX supervisor Bob Winter and his teams created the Bennu, a mythical winged, griffin-like creature based on animals including an eagle and lion, the Harmada/Nemesis fight, and the epic 20-minute third act Gondival battle, delivering 580 shots on the first installment of Zack Snyder’s two-part science-fantasy, now streaming on Netflix.
Take a deeper look at ‘The Creator,’ ‘Godzilla Minus One,’ ‘Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3,’ ‘Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One,’ and ‘Napoleon,’ all vying for the Best Visual Effects Oscar at the 96th Academy Awards coming March 10, 2024.
Shirogumi VFX supervisor Kiyoko Shibuya helped deliver 620 shots, including the giant beast crushing the heavy cruiser Takao, all on a shoestring budget, in Takashi Yamazaki’s hit sci-fi thriller, nominated for a best VFX Oscar at this year’s Academy Awards.
