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.
VFX supervisor Sean Konrad helped deliver over 3,000 ‘giant’ shots on the highly acclaimed Apple TV+ series with the ‘monstrously’ talented artists on his in-house team and at Rising Sun Pictures, Rodeo FX, Framestore, FuseFX, Outpost VFX, Crafty Apes, Wētā FX, MPC, Storm Studios, Vitality VFX, BOT VFX, Mr. Wolf, Scarab Digital, The Third Floor, Proof, and MPC Visualization.
VFX supervisor Luc-Ewen Martin-Fenouillet and his team jumped headfirst into the famous battles of Toulon and Waterloo, delivering warring armies of French and British soldiers, their encampments and tents, the smoke from their muskets and cannons, as well as the iconic moment when the infamous general’s horse gets shredded by a cannonball.
ILM, led by Simone Coco and Jeff Sutherland, delivered between 1,100-1,200 shots on the Christopher McQuarrie spy thriller, including a gunfight in an Abu Dhabi desert sandstorm, a Rome car chase, and fight atop a speeding train, and star Tom Cruise’s famed motorbike cliff jump.
VFX supervisor Simone Coco’s team took on the French general’s famous Battle of Austerlitz, stitching together three different locations, as well as creating thousands of unique, accurately outfitted CG soldiers and horses.
VFX supervisor Greg Behrens discusses the production of otherworldly visuals on Kelly Marcel and Apple TV+’s supernatural thriller about a book dealer searching for his missing wife and son in the Big Apple.
VFX supervisor Alex Wang talks the Infected, Bloaters, massive Bloaters, a giraffe, and a crashing airliner as he breaks down the production of 3,000 visual effects shots created by DNEG, Wētā FX, Distillery VFX, Zero VFX, Important Looking Pirates, beloFX, Storm Studios, Wylie Co., RVX, Assembly, Crafty Apes, UPP, RISE, Framestore, Digital Domain and MAS on HBO’s critically acclaimed and wildly popular series.
For Simon Hughes and his Union VFX team, Yorgos Langthimos’ dark comedy, a stunningly designed visual maelstrom, required something completely different from a typical VFX project, including odd, surgically created hybrid animals using as much actual footage as possible, integration of plates shot with 3 different film stocks, 11 enormous wrap-around LED screens, 50s style painted backdrops, and some really crazy colored skies.
The director and his VFX Supervisor, Jay Cooper, explain how they completely reversed the standard production process for his sci-fi epic, employing spontaneous live-action shoots that looked cool, not controlled, with 3D environments, digital matte paintings, and many other elements on the 1,600 visual effects shots designed afterwards, not before.
VFX Producer Brian Shows and Post Producer David Frew helped Framestore, MPC, Outpost VFX and beloFX deliver 2,600 visual effects shots across 8 episodes of the Prime Video show, conjuring up a host of magical visuals depicting different aspects – earth, water, fire, air, and spirit - of the One Power.
Produced in partnership with ILM and narrated by Morgan Freeman, Netflix’s new documentary series uses the latest technology and science to resurrect creatures long extinct as it follows life’s epic battle to conquer and survive on planet earth.
The VFX supervisor on Greta Gerwig’s hit film sheds light on the various ways the famed Mattel doll and her world came to life across 1,300 shots involving various digital filmmaking tools, including virtual production, previs, postvis, CG set augmentation, and more than 20 fully CG shots, produced by Framestore, Chicken Bone FX, FuseFX, UPP, and Lola VFX.
The studio delivers 590 shots across 20 sequences, including the prehistoric opening, the final battle, and loads of creature work on a T. rex, giant octopus, snappers, and megalodon triumvirate of Apex, Haiqui, and Bob, in Jason Stathom and Warner Bros.’ ‘The Meg’ sequel.
