When watching movies, some viewers like to look for errors, such as finding evidence of cameras and crew in the final cut of a film. One situation that should be ripe for spotting mistakes is when a scene includes mirrors and reflections. However, as YouTuber Paul E.T. shows in a pair of videos, filmmakers have incredible tricks to make cameras disappear.
Disney Research Studios has revealed a production-ready face re-aging system for visual effects that can make actors look younger or older easily, accurately, and quickly.
In a series of short videos that went viral on Instagram and YouTube, motion animator Kevin Parry cleverly edits himself turning into a wide variety of random things in a seamless motion, from a banana, to a balloon, to a pile of snow.
People watching the weather report on KFVS News in Missouri got a surprise last week when meteorologist Lisa Michaels floated into the frame on a cloud. She had come up with the perfect Halloween costume for the green screen and TV cameras.
A Russian Instagram influencer's birthday party left three attendees dead and seven in intensive care last Friday after the party's host tried to create "an impressive steam show" by dumping 55lbs (25kg) of dry ice into an indoor swimming pool.
Real-time in-camera VFX might sound like a pipe dream, but Unreal Engine has just published a demo that shows exactly that with Project Spotlight. Using "next-generation virtual production tools," Project Spotlight is able to render and manipulate real-time environments with startling realism, replacing green or blue screens with LED walls.
Filmmaker Kevin McGloughlin and musician Max Cooper just released this new video titled "Resynthesis." For the visuals, McGloughlin explored the ideas of space and time using still photos and real-time footage captured using a Sony a7R II mirrorless camera.
Israeli visual effects artist Eugene Romanovsky wanted to sell his old 1996 Suzuki Vitara SUV, so he created this out-of-this-world 2-minute video to advertise its qualities. The ad shows the car zipping around in ordinary landscapes before appearing in famous movies and on the moon.
Lytro has ditched the world of consumer cameras, and if the Lytro Immerge wasn't proof enough of this decision, their latest announcement should seal it. Yesterday, Lytro debuted "the world’s first Light Field solution for film and television," a 755MP cinema camera monster.
You've probably seen many examples of Photoshop being used to make a portrait subject look younger, but have you seen the same type of age-reduction retouching in real-time video?
Digital artist Rousselos Aravantinos recently did an age-reduction test using the digital compositing software Nuke and Mocha Pro. The 30-second video above shows the results of his experiment.
One of the big Hollywood blockbusters to hit the silver screen this year has been Mad Max: Fury Road, which has gotten rave reviews, with many praising the insane and complex visual design of the film. If you were wondering what some of the shots looked like when they were originally captured on camera, here are some before-and-after comparison images showing those shots next to the final frames after visual effects were applied.
While working on a feature film called The Grind, filmmaker Vashi Nedomansky had to come up with a way to shoot a flashback scene, complete with Humvee, in the desert of Iraq. The only problem? He had neither Iraq, nor a Humvee to work with.
Fortunately, he did have the sand dunes outside of Los Angeles and a 1:18 scale model of a Humvee purchased at Walmart for $23. Combine those things with a bit of creativity and you get some low-budget, professional-looking visual effects.
It's mind-blowing what can be created these days using ordinary DSLRs, a small team of people, and a whole lotta skill with visual effects. The short film above, titled "Grounded", was emailed in to us by its creator Kevin Margo, who works as the visual effects supervisor at Blur Studios. He says that it was inspired by his father, who passed away from cancer. Here's the synopsis:
One astronaut's journey through space and life ends on a hostile exosolar planet. Grounded is a metaphorical account of the experience, inviting unique interpretation and reflection by the viewer. Themes of aging, inheritance, paternal approval, cyclic trajectories, and behaviors passed on through generations are explored against an ethereal backdrop.
It was shot using a Canon 5D Mark II for 24fps footage, a Canon 7D for 60fps footage, and the Canon 24mm, 50mm, and 135mm prime lenses. The software used in post include Vegas, PFtrack, Zbrush/Vray/Max, Fusion, and AE/MagicBullet.
If you want to capture photographs or videos of otherworldly environments without using any computer generated imagery, one way is to create miniature worlds in your garage using a fish tank and salt water (a technique that has been used in numerous Hollywood movies). The video above is a tutorial on this trick by filmmaker and visual effects guru Joey Shanks.
Here’s a mind-blowing demo reel by Stargate Studios that will make you doubt …