Chris McGowan Snoop Dogg at Astro Project motion capture studio in Santa Monica for his “Crip Ya Enthusiasm” music video utilizing the Vicon system and StretchSense gloves. (Image courtesy of Vicon and Astro Project, LLC) Motion capture, performance capture and volumetric video technologies are rapidly advancing, incorporating AI and ML to a greater extent and focusing on enhancing realism, precision and accessibility. Peter Rabel, Technical Product Manager at Digital Domain, comments, “The trend towards real-time capabilities has become prominent, allowing for immediate feedback and int ..read more

By TREVOR HOGG Images courtesy of Netflix. A major visual effects undertaking was constructing the environment and crowd at Tsinghua University watching the torture of intellectuals during the Chinese Cultural Revolution. A computational conundrum occurs when the motion of three celestial bodies mutually influences each other’s gravitation pull. This serves as the premise for the science fiction series 3 Body Problem by novelist/series writer Liu Cixin, where an alien race living on an environmentally unstable planet caught between a trio of suns sets in motion a plan to invade Earth ..read more

By Trevor Hogg Images courtesy of Pixar Animation Studios. Searit Huluf, Writer and Director of “Self.” With the release of “Self,” a cautionary tale about the desire to please and be accepted by others, Searit Huluf got an opportunity to showcase her filmmaking talents as part of the Pixar SparkShort program. The project was partly inspired by her parents trying to adjust to life in America after immigrating from Ethiopia, which, at the time, was ravaged by civil war. “My mom and dad separated, so it was just my mom looking after me. I had a lot more independence because she was ..read more

By TREVOR HOGG Images courtesy of FX. Actor Hiroyuki Sanada had a key role in making sure that period-accurate Japanese was spoken by the characters. Inspired by the power struggle in feudal Japan that led to the rise of Tokugawa Ieyasu to Shōgun and his relationship with English sailor William Adams, who became a key advisor, James Clavell authored the seminal historical fiction novel Shōgun, adapted into a classic NBC miniseries starring Richard Chamberlain and Toshiro Mifune. Forty-four years later, the story has been revisited by FX and Hulu as a limited 10-episode production un ..read more

By TREVOR HOGG The prevailing question for Aaron Eaton in regard to holograms is how to make something that does not exist look like something that could be captured by a camera, such as this one featured in Avengers: Endgame. (Image courtesy of Cantina Creative and Marvel Studios) When the final credits roll, it becomes quite clear that you literally need an army of talented individuals spanning a wide variety of professions to make a film or television production a reality. To take a more micro perspective, one can look at the visual effects section where hundreds upon hundreds of n ..read more

By CHRIS McGOWAN Toronto-based Herne Hill Media worked on Guillermo del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities soon after the firm opened its doors in Toronto. (Image courtesy of Herne Hill Media and Netflix) Powered by studios in Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal, Canada continues to grow and evolve as a major hub of the global VFX industry. Tax incentives, immigration policy, quality of life, excellent VFX and animation schools and beneficial time zones have all contributed to Canada’s prominence in global VFX. Moreover, a consistent number of Hollywood productions are lensed there, confirming Can ..read more

By OLIVER WEBB Marianne Speight, Chief Business Development Officer and Executive Producer, Milk VFX. (Photo: Simon Wicker) Marianne Speight was born in Stockton-on-Tees in the North East of England but lived in New Zealand for a few years. Besides studying specific university courses, Speight didn’t receive any formal VFX training. “I wasn’t aware of any training availability when I started,” Speight says. “Mainly, it was on the job with artists/supervisors and producers passing on their knowledge to me on a daily basis. The only course I did take was compositing basics at Escape Studios ..read more

By OLIVER WEBB Images courtesy of DNEG and AppleTV+. DNG had to remove all of the windows from the virtual production shoot because there might be a camera behind them or a reflection. VFX needed to roto out everything that needed to be removed, then re-render those shots for the reflection. Created by John Shiban and John Orloff for Apple TV+, Masters of the Air is a World War II miniseries based on Donald L. Miller’s 2007 book Masters of the Air: America’s Bomber Boys Who Fought the Air War Against Nazi Germany. Produced by Tom Hanks, Steven Spielberg and Gary Goetzman – the sam ..read more

By OLIVER WEBB (Image courtesy of Gene Page and AMC) Philadelphia was one of the main locations for the show, with environment work split between Crafty Apes, Framestore and Ghost VFX. (Image courtesy of AMC) The final season of The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live follows Rick Grimes and Michonne Hawthorne in their attempt to find each other in a devastated, zombie-infested world fraught with peril. Charlotta Forssman served as Visual Effects Supervisor on the show, with Ghost VFX, Crafty Apes, Framestore, Mr. Wolf and Ingenuity serving as the main vendors. Ghost VFX originally began ..read more

By TREVOR HOGG Images courtesy of Cinesite and HBO. There was a limit to the lighting range for the opening sequence because it occurs at sunset and gradually becomes darker. Audiences were introduced to what appeared to be a ritualistic murder in the Southern heat of the Louisiana delta for the debut of the HBO anthology series True Detective, then headed to the Far North to encounter a bizarre collection of frozen bodies in Alaska for the fourth season titled True Detective: Night Country, which features a cast of Jodie Foster, Kali Reis, Fiona Shaw, Finn Bennett, Isabella star LaBlanc ..read more