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Designing the technology of ‘Blade Runner 2049’
This article contains spoilers for 'Blade Runner 2049' There's a scene in Blade Runner 2049 that takes place in a morgue. K, an android "replicant" played by Ryan Gosling, waits patiently while a member of the Los Angeles Police Department inspects a skeleton. The technician sits at a machine with a dial, twisting it back and forth to move an overhead camera. There are two screens, positioned vertically, that show the bony remains with a light turquoise tinge. Only parts of the image are in focus, however. The rest is fuzzy and indistinct, as if someone smudged the lens and never bothered to wipe it clean. Before leaving the room, K asks if he can take a closer look. The blade runner -- someone whose task it is to hunt older replicants -- dances over the controls, hunting for a clue. As he zooms in, the screen changes in a circular motion, as if a series of lenses or projector slides are falling into place. Before long, K finds what he's looking for: A serial code, suggesting the skeleton was a replicant built by the now defunct Tyrell Corporation. Throughout the movie, K visits a laboratory where artificial memories are made; an LAPD facility where replicant code, or DNA, is stored on vast pieces of ticker tape; and a vault, deep inside the headquarters of a private company, that stores the results of replicant detection 'Voight-Kampff' tests. In each scene, technology or machinery is used as a plot device to push the larger narrative forward. Almost all of these screens were crafted, at least in part, by a company called Territory Studios.
After Math: Come out and burn
As the current presidential administration keeps trying its best to be America's last, let's take a moment from the existential horror of nuclear annihilation at the hands of the world's other wannabe king and see who's been killing it in tech this week. Game of Thrones roasted way more horses and stuntmen than necessary in the name of VFX (spoilers, duh), Nissan is shelling out nearly another $100 million in hopes that the Takata airbag scandal will just drag itself into the woods and die already, and Facebook quietly took the Groups app out behind the woodshed mere days after axing the teen-targeting Lifestage app. Numbers, because how else are we going to accurately describe the literal decimation of the global human population when this pissing contest is over with?
Watch the most impressive 'Game of Thrones' VFX reel yet
Warning: Spoilers ahoy. This week's Game of Thrones episode wasn't dampened by hacking or leaks, mainly because the "Loot Train" battle was so spectacular. The producers have posted a new YouTube breakdown (below) showing how the VFX and stunt team used everything they've learned so far to pull it off. On top of the CGI, there are acrobatic horse stunts, multiple people on fire, and most of all, those fire-breathing dragon scenes. "It's like a time travel movie -- what if somebody had an F-16 that they brought to a medieval battle?" said executive producer D.B. Weiss.
See how VFX puts the realism and fire into 'Game of Thrones'
Warning: mild spoilers ahead. The last two shows on Game of Thrones season six were particularly spectacle-laden, so the show's VFX houses were busier than ever. Mackevision and Rising Sun Pictures have released new demo reels showing exactly how they turned extras into a huge crowd or just (digitally) murdered them. Rising Sun (below) was charged with the King's Landing scenes in the final episode, which featured fiery green explosions, a huge bell crushing a hapless citizen and the incineration of a certain not-well-liked character.
'Star Wars: Rogue One' sizzle reel loves practical effects
If you fell in love with Star Wars: The Force Awakens' gorgeous melody of practical sets and VFX, then good news: Rogue One seems to be following in its footsteps. A new sizzle reel released at Star Wars: Celebration looks behind the camera to highlight the film's use of practical effects, props and stunts. It's nearly three minutes of explosions, sets on moving hydraulics, fantastic creature costumes and gorgeous shooting locations.
How 'Game of Thrones' put together its biggest battle yet
If you're caught up on Game of Thrones, you're probably still reeling from last night's "The Battle of the Bastards." The show is no stranger to big battle scenes, but it was an episode that still managed to outdo anything we've seen before when it comes to large-scale mayhem (even last year's zombie-filled "Hardhome"). As you'd expect, it was all thanks to a smart combination of practical effects and CG, as the HBO behind the scenes feature below points out.
'Ex Machina's' Oscar win is a triumph for low-budget VFX
If you've ever thought that a low-budget sci-fi thriller can't compete with the cream of Hollywood, think again. Last night's Academy Awards handed the Oscar for best visual effects to Alex Garland's brilliant Ex Machina. It's something of a shock, since the category had three heavy hitters in The Martian, Mad Max: Fury Road and Star Wars: The Force Awakens. By comparison, Ex Machina is a claustrophobic three-hander with a minuscule budget of just $15 million. According to Moviefone, that makes it the cheapest FX Oscar winner since 1979's Alien and that's before you take inflation into account.
See how VFX transforms 'Star Wars: The Force Awakens' (updated)
Alert: Spoilers ahoy. There was a lot of talk about practical effects in Star Wars: The Force Awakens, but make no mistake, digital dominates -- there are over 2,100 CG shots in the film out of 2,500 total. However, a new VFX show reel released just ahead of the Oscar nominations shows how cannily the producers married the real and the fake. JJ Abrams and the ILM effects team grokked that viewers clearly know when they're being fed CG, so the team uses practical sets, props, stunts and explosions wherever possible. Digital effects are then added to dress up the shots and add the necessary scale.
The Emmy-winning studios behind American Horror Story's freaks
The body in the brown box looks cold at first glance. The blue-green web of veins in her pale white legs can be traced down to her feet. Her flaming red hair looks like it hasn't been brushed for weeks and her torso is split wide open. Justin Raleigh reaches in and plucks out her intestines and liver. He knows her anatomy all too well. It's been built from scratch for an upcoming TV series in his workshop in Monrovia, California.
Watch how a CGI-heavy 'Game of Thrones' zombie battle was made
(Warning: spoilers ahead.) The spectacular Game of Thrones 'Hardhome' battle scene with white walkers, zombie-like wights and wildings is pretty VFX-heavy, judging by a new video from effects house El Ranchito. Highlights include Jon Snow slashing a walker into shards of crystal, battle scenes with the giant Wun Wun, and wights -- so many hordes of wights. Despite having TV's highest budget, the show doesn't rely overly on digital effects, using them sparingly on gore and dragons, we imagine. However, Snow actor Kit Harrington said that the 'Hardhome' battle "is so CGI-heavy it's unlike anything I've ever done on Thrones."
Recommended Reading: Why do we hate CGI so much?
Recommended Reading highlights the best long-form writing on technology and more in print and on the web. Some weeks, you'll also find short reviews of books that we think are worth your time. We hope you enjoy the read. Why VFX Is Being Vilified by Raqi Syed & Sonya Teich Motherboard By now, you've heard someone complain about the prevalence of visual effects in movies. Perhaps you've groaned about it yourself. Sure, there are varying degrees of execution, and some of the results that made the final cut have been downright awful. Take Avengers: Age of Ultron for example. The film was a massive success at the box office, but critics griped about the role visual effects played in the bulk of the action. Is all the post-production to blame for ruining movies?
Every ridiculous vehicle in 'Mad Max: Fury Road' is drivable
Practical effects have gotten incredibly scarce in big-budget summer blockbusters, so it's pretty refreshing to learn that every ride in Mad Max: Fury Road's apocalyptic menagerie isn't CGI -- they're all functional and drivable. Production designer Colin GIbson had strict marching orders from the movie's director ("make it cool or I'll kill you," according to Jalopnik) so he and his team scoured Australian scrapyards for donor vehicles. The 88 nightmarish results of that quest speak for themselves whether it's the Mopar-on-tank-treads "Peacemaker" or 600+ cubic-inch, dual V8 monstrosity with two '59 Cadillac Coupe de Ville bodies mounted on top of its chassis dubbed "Interceptor." The production team built some 150 vehicles and then beat the ever-living hell out of them. When all was said and done, "over half" were destroyed. How'd that happen? Catch the flick when it opens this weekend and find out.
Filmmakers share the story behind Find Makarov and Operation Kingfish
Among the festivities this weekend at Call of Duty XP in Los Angeles was the premiere of the second "Find Makarov" short film, subtitled "Operation Kingfish." In case you missed it on the live stream, you can watch the short above -- it's a segment set in between Call of Duty 4 and Modern Warfare 2, featuring part of the origin story for soldiers Soap and Price. The filmmakers from digital agency We Can Pretend and visual effects company The Junction sat down with me here at the convention to chat about how Find Makarov originally came about, how Activision contributed to this Operation Kingfish followup, and what's next for these creatives and the Call of Duty brand on film.
Iron Man 2: the gadgets (video)
When done right, a science fiction or fantasy film will leave audiences with a prescient glimpse into our actual gadget future. Remember the heady pre-iPhone, pre-Pureness days of 2002 when you first saw Minority Report? Staring silently, mouth agape, jonesing for a chance to partake in a multi-touch, transparent display future using nothing but gestures? Well now that Iron Man 2 has been released, we've got another chance to look into the high-tech crystal ball, this time envisioned by a team of artists at Perception who did the design, animation, and visual effects work that turned Tony Stark's transparent LG smartphone (pictured above), touch-screen coffee table, and holographic lab environment into an on-screen reality. The group was compelled by director Jon Favreau and the team at Marvel Studios to keep the UI elements "legible and logical, while still appearing to be several generations beyond the typical user experience." Perception tells us that some of its inspiration was directly attributed to Engadget as it researched near-term technologies for the film's future reality. No doubt, we do see influence from Emblaze's First Else navigation elements and limited color palette as well as Microsoft's InkSeine research at the heart of the doomed Courier UI. And if we're not mistaken, Stark's big ass computing table is almost certainly inspired by Microsoft Surface. Now get past the break and check out Perception's contribution to Iron Man 2, the future of Google search alone is not to be missed.%Gallery-92501%
Star Trek Online VFX Lead on updating visual style of the IP
IGN recently posted a Star Trek Online dev diary written by the game's VFX Lead Michael Cavallaro. "Creating the visual style of Star Trek Online was no easy task," said Cavallaro. "You might think that everything we would be creating has already been done, but not only are references several years old but they vary across the board." If you factor in how the effects changed between the various series and movies, you can see how preserving the look of Star Trek as viewers know it posed a challenge for the Cryptic Studios devs. The idea, Cavallaro related, was for the Cryptic devs to draw upon elements from the original Star Trek series and update that now-retro 60's sci-fi look for a contemporary audience. The trick was to do so while keeping said elements recognizable from the original IP.
