Awesome Vfx

Practical VFX artist Joey Shanks shows us how to create cool UFO like effects using an off-the-shelf DJI Phantom 3 quadcopter as his instrument of choice. The trick is all about making sure your lights don’t weigh down the drone too much or throw off its balance.

Nukazooka (the new name of YouTuber AndrewMFilms) used visual effects to make a bunch of animal stock footage more exciting. Check out a polar bear lightsaber fight, a web-slinging monkey and more.

A man is visited by the mighty Vitruvius, and is bestowed with the power to turn anything he touches into LEGO bricks. It’s an ability that we really wouldn’t mind having – assuming it didn’t affect our french fries – and we had our shoes on.

A race of cute and cuddly looking cartoon aliens lands on Earth, which leads some humans to welcome the creatures into their homes. But all is not as it seems in this brilliantly done live-action/animated sci-fi film by Owen Rixon and The 2D Workshop.

RocketJump Film School director Clinton Jones defines the core processes that fall under visual effects, including compositing, tracking, 3D modeling, and the dreaded rotoscoping. The video’s description has links to tutorials for each VFX process.

With the Oscars upon us, Burger Fiction put together this awesome reel of eye candy which compiles every movie that ever received a nod for best visual effects, from the primitive methods of the 1920s and 30s to the high tech CGI of today, and everything in between.

We’ve seen the heroes of Half-Life and Portal work together. This time they go up against each other in a battle to see who gets cake. A silly short film by YouTuber AndrewMFilms.

An awesome CGI animation from Brothers and Sisters in which a moving image from The Avengers is turned to liquid, then moves across the house to another TV to sell the concept of Sky Q’s Fluid Viewing service, which lets viewers resume paused shows on another TV.

Apparently, the secret to Marilyn Monroe’s beauty wasn’t her genes or her makeup. It was her food. Snickers gives us a behind-the-scenes look at the shooting of her infamous subway grate scene from The Seven Year Itch.

SoKrispyMedia dabbles in the emerging media of 360º VR video with their latest clip, as our protagonist finds himself trapped inside of his TV set, bouncing between channels with the flick of his remote. Yeah, it’s already been done before, but not in the round.

ILM shares an effects breakdown reel from last summer’s popcorn blockbuster. By today’s standards, it’s a fairly typical, yet still impressive mix of CGI, rotoscoping, and matte work, but the way they did the kiddie rides and the mo-capped raptors is worth a chuckle.

A robot designed to be a temporary office worker is ignored by his co-workers, save for the new HR manager. Neill Blomkamp’s 2006 short film effectively uses a robot as a metaphor for someone who thinks that he is above his peers yet still craves human contact.

Editor Vic Rincon put together this awesome roll call of the nominees for the 2016 Academy Awards for Best Visual Effects: Ex Machina, Mad Max: Fury Road, Star Wars: The Force Awakens, The Martian and The Revenant. The song is Ryan Taubert’s No Other Name.

Photographer Julian Tryba spent a total of 100 hours shooting and 350 hours editing over 150,000 photos to create another beautiful layer-lapse, this time featuring some of the most popular spots in Boston.

Visual effects studio Brave New World shares some of its contributions to Mad Max: Fury Road, including adding the movie’s eye-popping blue skies and orange deserts, adding Furiosa’s metal prosthetic arm and removing tire tracks from the sand.

In AndrewMFilm’s latest action short, a game of chess between two old men leads to a lethal duel as the two geezers use every trick up their sleeve to come out on top. Man, the only old person quirk we’ve acquired so far is the one at the very end.