The Visual Effects Society announced the 2023 VES Awards nominees Tuesday morning and released a list that both exceeded expectations and tossed out a couple of noteworthy snubs.
VFX
Visual Effects Society to announce nominations this weekend for 2023 VES Awards
The Visual Effects Society’s 2023 Awards schedule starts on Saturday, January 14th when the nominating panels will hold their vote on the best VFX sequences of 2022.
The atmosphere of snow: two movies and a show that subtly blended nature with effects to portray an environment of beautiful cold murder
A talented director will take a beautiful bleak landscape and make the desolate feel lush and the emptiness feel alive. A talented VFX artist will make it seem like the director did it all on their own.
The two snow movies and a show we’re using as role models for natural snow blended with VFX are Wind River, The Revenant, and the television series Fargo.
‘Cocaine Bear’ versus ‘The Revenant’ versus ‘The Jungle Book’: The gory battle of the CGI bears
The Revenant and The Jungle Book were fully realized role models for CGI bear craftsmanship. Now, Cocaine Bear takes it a step further.
The deep-dive speculation supporting why the VFX of ‘Avatar 2: The Way of Water’ is dramatically improved over its predecessor
The innovative talent at Weta Digital, the invention of the Deep X 3D underwater rig, or just because James Cameron said so – here’s some evidence why Avatar 2 has dramatically improved on the technology of the 2009 blockbuster.
First looks at Harrison Ford de-aged in ‘Dial of Destiny’ and why this send-off will not disappoint
For Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, ILM has blended the young-Harrison-Ford CGI into current Harrison with the supreme skill that you would expect from Industrial Light & Magic…and de-aged Harrison Ford looks great.
Unreal Engine releases Faceware Retargeter and Analyzer courses for beginners who wish to master facial animation faster than a Batman training montage
Epic’s newly released courses for using MetaHuman with Faceware Retargeter and Analyzer can help you become an earthly god of character emotional expression in a few hours.
Jason Momoa’s ‘Slumberland’ stingingly proves dreamlike CGI doesn’t always translate to positive critical opinion but can still be adored
Jason Momoa’s Slumberland was released in select theaters and became available Friday the 18th for streaming on Netflix, but despite Jason Momoa riding the giant goose with the help of CGI, the film didn’t get the audience appreciation.
Rise of the studio of the apes: Crafty Apes expands to appoint first-time CEO and new Technology officer
Crafty Apes, the full-service visual effects studio has been rapidly expanding since post-Covid productions picked back up, especially the Baton Rouge office, which serves as a primary stop for post-production magic in Louisiana and is well-known for its talented pool of VFX artists and supervisors.
The wonderfully developed blend of digital and prosthetic creatures defining the decadent terror of ‘Cabinet of Curiosities’
Guillermo Del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities aired on Netflix as a four-night Halloween event and has gotten a lot of deserved hype, combining art in motion and digital VFX technology.
A virtual production blockbuster: Sony Pictures Entertainment buys out 100% of Pixomondo
Sony Pictures acquired Pixomondo from Mayfair Equity Partners. Pixomondo is an elite titan of virtual production and their talent will give Sony Pictures an even more formidable presence in the XR arena.
From ‘Sinbad’ to ‘House of the Dragon’: Marking VFX eras by the aesthetic evolution of the CGI dragon
For all the gloss of big-budget spectacles, the CGI roots of cinematic dragons have an old-world creative genealogy – every increasingly lifelike dragon that climbs onscreen was built on the influences of a previous imagination.
If Comic-Con and SIGGRAPH had a baby: What to expect at Epic’s Unreal Fest 2022
Epic Games is bringing their annual Unreal Fest back to a live audience this year. The festival will make camp in New Orleans from October 17th to the 20th for three full days of speakers, presentations, and industry innovations in XR and virtual production.
An intro to visual effects: ‘The Rough Cut’ post-production podcast hosts Crafty Apes to discuss “The art and business of VFX”
Kolby Kember and Sarah McCulley teamed up to represent the Crafty Apes Baton Rouge visual effects team this week for an episode of The Rough Cut podcast with Matt Feury.
The Unreal Engine vs. Unity PR prize fight: Who won the summer for news that matters to VFX artists
Here’s the timeline for some of the most notable happenings this summer by two of the biggest platforms empowering VFX creators, Unreal Engine and Unity.
“F*** yeah, let’s do it.” The creators of ‘Shapes’ banter about creative chemistry, good horror, and crafting brain gore from a grape
John Kellar, Noel Savoy, and Kevin Conlon sat down (or laid in bed) to reflect on ‘Shapes’, a short horror film about a shapeshifting entity that has a habit of preying on the flesh of its roommates.
Nuke Codex: Nodes Within Nodes – The Book on Nuke Compositing
Nuke Codex: Nodes within Nodes is a dynamic book by Daniel Smith (Compositing Supervisor at FuseFX) that will help you learn Nuke quickly and get you up and running using this powerful tool in a few days.
The marsh atmosphere in ‘Where the Crawdads Sing’ and the editing and VFX relationship that helped shape it
When you cut through the external buzz of ‘Where the Crawdads Sing’, what you have is an adventure mystery built on the foundation of an atmosphere. The marsh – the buzz of cicadas and the sun that drips down through the cypress trees – it’s a living piece of this story. The effects and the composition are paramount.
We talked to editor Alan E. Bell and VFX Supervisor Kolby Kember of ‘Where the Crawdads Sing’ about how they helped build the atmosphere of Crawdads with their editing and visual effects expertise.