It’s not hard to pick out all the visual effects shots in movies like Avengers: Infinity War or Ready Player One, but First Man was shot more like a documentary, so the extensive visual effects had to be seamless and invisible. To help accomplish this, visual effects studio DNEG built one of the most amazing TVs you’ve ever seen, allowing many flight sequences to be filmed on set with minimal post-production work required afterwards. Read More >>

Digital tools like 3D animation and motion capture helped revolutionise the visual effects industry, but there’s still plenty of room for practical effects to help bring the impossible to the big screen. Solo: A Star Wars Story’s VFX supervisor Julian Foddy revealed to the BBC that one of the film’s most memorable explosions was actually inspired by a popular YouTube channel. Read More >>

Have you seen this video of a very human-looking robot walking up a driveway? It’s gotten a lot of people online freaked out about the coming robot apocalypse. But you can rest easy... for now. This “robot” was created using computer graphics. As in, it’s totally fake. Read More >>

It’s a technique that’s often used for flashback sequences in movies when an older actor plays a much younger version of himself like Kurt Russell did in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2. But the results are never quite perfect, or at least don’t reach the impressive level of pixel perfection that compositor Rousselos Aravantinos did with this 4K digital touch-up that made this model look 30 years younger. Read More >>

You’ve probably seen countless behind-the-scenes videos of visual effects wizards spending months turning boring green screen footage into amazing movie shots. But did you know that the hardware exists to fake live video in real time? Is anything real anymore? Read More >>

Five months ago, the Russian musical group 5’Nizza released a music video for their track, Samoliot, featuring a series of mishaps that were seemingly frozen in time. But while the action was paused, the artists themselves continued to sing as the camera moved around them. It was a clever take on the bullet-time effect made popular in The Matrix, and we finally know how they created it. Read More >>

Terminator 2 isn’t just a film, it’s an achievement. James Cameron managed to create a movie that was not only tense and action-packed, but also revolutionary. It was the harbinger for what visual effects could do, and changed the industry forever. And it turns out, a lot of it was made possible by a small group flying by the seat of their pants, just to see what would work. Read More >>

David Fincher got his start working on special effects for Return of the Jedi. In some rare footage from Alien 3, we get to see and hear how he works with the FX team to bring the destroyed Bishop android to life. Usually, footage like this would be considered an effects test, but when David Fincher’s doing it, it’s a rehearsal. Read More >>

In an effort to capture never-before-seen footage of animals in their natural habitats, the BBC’s Spy in the Wild series created robotic versions of meerkats, monkeys, and other creatures designed to blend in with their real-life counterparts. The robots are remarkably lifelike, until you remove all of their fur and reveal their inner workings. Read More >>

When you can’t rely on a computer to improve (or fake) a movie scene, you have to improvise. And back in the days of silent films, filmmakers were really, really good at coming up with creative ways to cook up special effects. It was a master class of using specific camera angles, splicing together shots, using glass matte paintings, and twisting perspectives to make things look as realistic as possible. Read More >>

Even if there is too much CGI in movies these days (and there is), let’s be thankful that the CGI we’re bombarded with looks good. Or, at least, it looks so much better than the utter crap computers spat out back in the ‘90s. God, that era of CGI was awful. Read More >>

Jurassic Park still holds up. It’s an excellent film that’s still fun to watch, the dinosaurs are still scary as hell, and the visual effects still look spectacular. How is that possible? Even though Jurassic Park changed the way films use visual effects, the restraint it used with its own effects is what has made it stand the test of time. Read More >>

As Alfred pointed out in The Dark Knight, some men just like to watch the world burn. To them, a day at the beach spent lounging in the sun isn’t particularly enjoyable. But a day at the beach spent terrorising swimmers with this amazing animatronic shark suit? Now that’s an afternoon well spent. Read More >>

Though it may seem like you’re watching a time lapse that uses hundreds of photos of a scene to track the passing of time, you’re actually just looking at a single picture “moving” with the magic of software called Platograph Pro. It’s one still photograph that’s been moved digitally. How? Read More >>

When I close my eyes at night, I can still hear that beautifully creepy score from Game of Thrones’ season finale, I can see the Great Sept of Baelor and the characters inside, and I can feel that chilly sense of doom. It’s funny how real those emotions are still, especially since so much of what we watched on TV was faked through expert visual effects. Read More >>