Awesome Vfx

YouTuber Pouff turns an otherwise mundane footage of a grocery run into a mind-melting collage of animals. He used samim23’s Deep Dream Animator, which applies Google’s photo manipulating software to videos.

The duo behind Corridor Digital present their take on the basic principles and techniques behind action scenes. Usually, a great action scene answers two questions clearly: how the scene is unfolding and why it needs to exist.

Corridor Digital goes back to their roots with their latest video, which does a great job replicating the look of an FPS, only this time, they’ve got an arsenal consisting of some of the best video game weapons ever. Forkstab ftw!

Filmmaker Eric Demeusy’s amazing teaser for a non-existent Star Wars film, which sees the bounty hunter escape from the Sarlacc’s guts and fight alongside the Resistance to form a New Republic. Top notch production, camera work and score. (Thanks Nick!)

Visual effects artist Aaron Benitez lives with his pet cat Prince Michael. Here he shares some of the challenges of having a feline for a roommate. Michael’s mostly the same as a human roommate. Down to his eyeballs.

“You are the sum of all your training.” NBA MVP Steph Curry, pioneer ballerina Misty Copeland and Masters winner Jordan Spieth star in this impressive ad made by Droga5 for Under Armour.

It’s super smash sisters time as the surprisingly hot-headed royalties of the Mushroom Kingdom and Hyrule have a no holds barred battle. Can Zelda’s fiery arrows and martial arts skills beat Peach, Perry and, uhm, vegetables?

VFX and action wizards Corridor Digital envision a new game that combines the best of Mario Kart with a little Trials, and just a touch of Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater. The Boosted electric longboard was the real star of the video.

…or should we say Dragon Baaaall Sheep. YouTuber Hoolopee recreated Vegeta and Goku’s battle using sheep and lots of bright colors. Unfortunately he didn’t include the part where Vegeta transforms into a giant ape.

RocketJump Film School has a great counterpoint to the video about how CGI is ruining movies. The fact is, many movies and shows use CGI. If you think a particular example is bad, don’t blame the tool, blame the one who wields it.

Surf gear maker O’Neill challenged filmmakers to create surfing videos with a twist. Here’s Stefan Nadelman’s contribution, an eye-popping visualization of waves in a variety of different contexts. Wave is love. Wave is life.

The video wizards at Corridor Digital have fun simulating what it would be like to be inside of a superball, as it bounces away from its buyer, and won’t stop for anything. Watch how they shot the clip here. It’s much simpler than you might think.

Visual effects artist Rousselos Aravantinos used NUKE and mocha Pro to turn back the hands of time and digitally recreate actress’ Michele Valley’s younger face. In the future we’ll just projection map youth back to our skin.

(Gore, Spoilers) Get your fill of zombie kills in this collection of the some of the most memorable action and effects sequences from The Walking Dead, courtesy of the fine folks at VFX house Stargate Studios. These guys have the best job.

Memo Akten used Google’s DeepDream to create this trippy video. In very simple terms, DeepDream is cloud watching: it spots something that’s not in a source image, then remakes the source to realize what it’s imagining, and so on.

(Spoilers) Spain’s El Ranchito Imagen Digital shows off some the digital effects work that went into the creation of the massive crowds, dramatic setting, and intense action of the Hardhome sequence from Season 5 of Game of Thrones.

We best enjoy movies that meld reality, practical effects, and limited CGI. Too much CGI feels consequence-free to us. Here, Story Brain explains “The WETA Effect,” which kicked off an era of unreal and unrelatable action sequences.

This Is Productions presents their take on the title sequence for the upcoming live-action Doctor Strange movie, starring Benedict Cumberbatch. They juxtaposed Strange’s old Marvel comics with The Flaming Lips’ W.A.N.D.

(PG-13 Language) Nope, this is not footage from a video game. Director Claudio Voicu and a group of freerunners wonderfully recreated a time trial stage from the upcoming prequel Mirror’s Edge: Catalyst. Behind the scenes here.

(Gore) Corridor Digital mimicked the camera angles, the casual chaos and the swaggy Terminator walking animation of Grand Theft Auto V to turn Los Angeles into Los Santos. Behind the scenes here.

Simeon Duncombe’s short film features a clever combination of live-action and visual effects as skkateboarder Jack Fagan is subjected to a series of difficult obstacles and trials that he must negotiate before his trick meter runs out.

Erick Solis and Ricardo Trevino aka Playback Collective edited clips of the sublime Mad Max: Fury Road to make an ’80s-style trailer for the flick. Or at least a music video for Power Glove’s badass song Vengeance.

(PG-13 Language) All hell breaks loose when a bunch of PlayStation fanboys invoke the wrath of Master Chief. YouTuber RackaRacka and his crew wreck a house in yet another ridiculously over the top geeky battle.