Awesome Vfx

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.

Corridor Digital is back with a follow up to its 2D/3D ninja battle. This time, the fight involves a crew of paper street art ninjas who come to life to challenge the worker who tries to clean them off the wall.

Norman Chan from Tested got to go behind the scenes with effects and makeup genius Rick Baker to check out some puppets and animatronics from the Men in Black series. Some of his creatures are up for auction this month.

(Gore) The music video for Darlin’ Celsa by synth pop band Maestro is about Tim and Celsa. She was the only girl in their university, and he did whatever it took to have her. What else can you expect from a school named Mount Madness?

Zack Snyder’s Man of Steel has drab desaturated colors, apparently in a misguided attempt to mimic Nolan’s Batman trilogy. VideoLab digitally altered the film to its original colors to see what it would look like.

The guys from Mr.TVCow are playing a round of the new Mortal Kombat X game when things get just a little too real, and Sub-Zero and Scorpion decide to continue their fight outside the confines of the game console. Needs more fatalities.

Superflux presents a pessimistic look into a future where drones are as commonplace and easy to use as smartphones. The short film presents drones specialized for law enforcement, personal communication, news and advertising.

(PG-13: Language) Leonard is in an eternal state of slow motion, and anything he touches is affected as well. He’s tired of missing out and would love to be normal. Whatever that means. He should’ve just started a YouTube channel.

Set in a futuristic and dystopic Mexico, this proof-of-concept short is about a man who figures out that the world is not what it seems. We’re not convinced that it’s as profound as it seems, but its mix of District 9 and The Matrix is intriguing.

Director Christopher Nolan and a few other Interstellar cast and crew talk about how the movie’s robot protagonists were brought to life. It turns out both TARS and CASE were half CGI and half steel puppets.