Cracking ice-sheets sound like Star Wars blasters
This remarkable recording of ice-sheets cracking on a frozen lake sounds just like a Star Wars blaster fight. Andreas Bick, a Berlin sound designer/composer, made the recording and explains, on his...
View ArticleNice survey of great title design
A Brief History of Title Design from Ian Albinson on Vimeo. Last year, Pesco mentioned the new SXSW Title Design Competition. Ian Albinson's presentation video for this year's SXSW "Excellence in Title...
View ArticlePlaying God with a high-speed/high-def video camera
Tom Guilmette spent a productive evening locked in a Las Vegas hotel room with a Phantom Flex high-speed/high-def video camera, taking high-speed footage of water, breaking glasses, himself jumping on...
View ArticleAnimatronic wonders of John Nolan
John Nolan is a special effects roboticist who creates stunning animatronic effects for film and elsewhere. His showreel, above, is a mesmerizing tour of the uncanny valley where he dwells. Amazing...
View ArticleReal-life Portal adventure
Jason Craft is very good at special effects. As proof, I offer this homebrew Portal video, in which Craft and friends animate an excellent (and rather comical) Portal adventure. I was amazed to...
View ArticleThe Making of Raiders of the Lost Ark
The Making of Raiders of the Lost Ark, aired on PBS in 1981.
View ArticleVideo: rapid-fire history of film effects
Video editor Jim Casey clipped together this wonderful accelerated look at The Evolution Of Visual Effects.
View ArticleGimpsuited greenscreen fluffer flicks shampoo model's hair
An actual job is to be a greenscreen fluffer, dressed in a chromakey gimpsuit, hidden in the background for shampoo commercials, tasked with artfully flicking models' hair. If you're very good at that...
View ArticleWATCH: How we used Slo-mo in 2014
If you're taking things a little more slowly than usual this weekend after a big New Year's Eve, maybe you'll appreciate this montage of great slow-motion shots from films, put together by The...
View ArticleIs bad CGI ruining movies? A nuanced critique
It's an age-old complaint about video games and films: bad graphics make them suck. But plenty of classic entertainment holds up even if the effects don't. RocketJump Film School examines the issue in...
View ArticleWATCH: Waterphones, source of creepy film music effects
Ever wonder how they make unsettling dissonant sounds in sci-fi and horror films? Some are made by waterphones or synths emulating them. Portland-based Robb Bockman demonstrates an analog waterphone,...
View ArticleBWAAAAP! Inception button makes everything dramatic
Need to spice up your next meeting or school presentation? Dave Pedu created this handy button to play the now-ubiquitous musical sting! (more…)
View ArticleFuturististic computer screens are mostly blue
Chris Noessel and Nathan Shedroff demonstrated that in movies depicting computers in the future, the screens are mostly blue. Some interesting exceptions: 1991's Terminator 2 made red popular, and the...
View ArticleFantastic short documentary on movie sound effect artists
Director Daniel Jewel invites us into the magical and world of foley artist Pete Burgis and Sue Harding who create sound effects using techniques that look odd when you see them but sound spot on when...
View ArticleThe biomechanical horror of Alien and H.R. Giger
In this video essay by Kristian Williams, the story of the biomechanical beasts from the mad mind of H.R. Giger, surrealist painter and designer best known for his work on the special effects team...
View ArticleMaking of the creatures in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story
Enjoy this "creature featurette" with director Gareth Edwards and Creature Effects Supervisor Neal Scanlan introducing us to the strange characters in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story.
View ArticleAdam Savage goes behind the scenes of Ghost In The Shell
Adam Savage visits with Weta Workshop's Richard Taylor for a glimpse of the mecha-geisha masks, animatronic amazement, and far-out fabrication that brought the new Ghost in the Shell film to life....
View ArticleFamous Monsters of Filmland's 1965 guide to home monster makeup
The Do-It-Yourself Monster Make-Up Handbook is a 1965 classic: Famous Monsters of Filmland founder Forrest Ackerman tapped movie makeup legend Dick Smith to create guides for turning yourself into any...
View ArticleMeet a creepy little girl from the uncanny valley
Landon Meier, maker of fantastically realistic (and hyperrealistic) masks introduces us to a wonderfully weird little girl who visits us from the uncanny valley. (Stan Winston School via Laughing Squid)
View ArticleWonderful home Super 8mm special effects experiments from the 1970s
Stoned special effects fun from the 1970s. "I created these films in the 70's using Super 8mm film and a bunch of my creative friends," writes uploader WooferHound Town. "This is a collection of...
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