VFX

Science meets art once again. Abe Davis, a computer science PhD student at MIT, recently published a research about interaction with the objects in videos, by measuring and mapping the vibrations of their movements. His project, which he developed with Justin Chen and Fredo Durand, and patented by MIT, aims to be used both in engineering and videography.

Drive Like Maria just released a music video for their song "Deep Blue." What makes this unique is that every frame has been rendered with the "Dreams" effect using the Prisma App. This app uses AI to create effects that make your images look like paintings of famous artists. It has many effect options, and it really looks as though a lot of time, knowledge, and effort has been put together to create it. It looks like Waking Life, but instead of drawing each frame by hand, Drive Like Maria has taken every frame of their music video and run it through the app.

This Cinemagraph time-lapse was made using only 12 JPEG images. The software allows photographers to create motion within a static photograph. You need to upload each image to the website, and then you design the movement within each image. Once you get a moving image "flowing" you can render it out and import it into Adobe Premiere Pro to create the final time-lapse.

As you probably know, much of the epic imagery in "Game of Thrones" is computer-generated. It's a monumental task, and this video from Rising Sun Pictures, the visual effects company responsible for that amazing imagery, really puts into perspective the amount of work and imagination required to pull off such a feat.

Beyond any doubt, the effects and compositing techniques used in the first three films of Star Wars trilogy were the game changer in VFX world. Although there has been a rapid improvement in the VFX technology for the last 40 years, we can say that Star Wars was one of the pioneers. So, how was that possible to achieve realistic results in a movie produced in 1980? Mark Vargo explains the mathematics, optics, engineering, and software behind the blue screen photography and compositing in detail.

[UPDATE] The winners have been announced! Check out the winners page to see some incredible video editing.

Filmsupply and Musicbed have partnered up to bring you a film competition that could change your life. Without having to shoot one frame of footage, you could win up to $100,000 in cash, prizes, and incredible experiences. Although you're not restricted to only using their content, this competition allows you to tap into the huge libraries of both Musicbed and Filmsupply to create and submit your 60-second film. Check out the submission guidelines below.

Adobe has released Premiere Pro CC 2015.3. The new welcomed features are something I haven’t yet seen implemented in any other NLE. If you use Premiere, here is a look at what’s new, and if you’re not a subscriber, this might make you consider switching.

In their latest video, Film Riot's Frontman/Director Ryan Connolly comes to my backyard (Vancouver, BC) to film a truly epic bar brawl short. This entire series of videos is extremely useful when it comes to learning what it takes to film a quality short. The "Uncut Behind the Scenes" video is seriously my favorite of the bunch as you get a very candid look at every little detail and consideration the cast and crew had to make.

From the company that pioneered the use of virtual car reskinning for video use, comes the newest innovation of film technology. The Mill, in partnership with JemFX, Performance Filmworks, and Keslow Camera, launched their new product onto the scene, dubbed "Blackbird." Resembling a mix of a Caterham 7, a dune buggy, and maybe some sort of Batman-esque type vehicle, the Blackbird is a small electric car that has pre-mapped tracking points on it to allow for easy replacement in post.

As much of a Game of Thrones fan as I am, the scene in Sunday's episode that has had everyone talking, "Battle for Winterfell" or "Battle of the Bastards," resonated with me for two reasons. The first is the same as most people who watched it: the scene was epic — not epic in the way kids these days use the word, but in the sense of it being truly gargantuan and awesome. The second reason was the curiosity of the photographer in me on how something of that scale could be shot.

It's truly incredible what they can do with film today, especially with the advancement of visual effects and motion graphics. When I first heard they were remaking Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles I was incredibly sad; all those years growing up watching the original live action films featuring the puppets crafted by Jim Henson's. It was brilliant and really well done for a movie of its time. Then came the almost 100% CGI filled epic by Michael Bay himself, yet it works and it's fun.

It's not often someone contacts you about chemistry and superheroes, but when someone does, you pay attention. Nikolay of ArtNauka showed me a project they have been working on where they combine a superhero theme with chemical elements and reactions to create a series of striking portraits.

Whether you realize it or not, most videos produced for cinema or even high-end marketing campaigns have some sort of cropping on it, be it by design or with a specific purpose in mind. It's a common occurrence, and for the most part, when you wanted to use this kind of cropping you either had to make your own templates or scour the web in order to find what you were looking for. Well thanks to the folks over at PremiumBeat.com, they have compiled an extensive list of what they claim to be every popular video resolution in the world. All the way from 720 HD to 8K and creating crop ratios from 1:1 to 4:1 Polyvision.

In this Film Riot video, actor and director Ryan Connolly gives us the rundown on how to create a blind eye effect, similar to what we see happen to Arya Stark in HBO's, "Game of Thrones." Film Riot pulls this off in Adobe After Effects (although this tutorial can be applied to your compositor of choice) and without the use of painful contact lenses.

I recently came across this video by Christoph Galep and was very impressed by the editing thereof. The transitions between shots and the slowing down and speeding up of the time-lapse provided a good energy to the video, something a simple cut edit isn’t able to do.

It’s amazing how photos and video have become ingrained in events, especially when fashion and arts come together. Art and Commerce, an agency representing Photographers, Hair Stylists, Makeup Artists, Illustrators, Creative Director, Set Designers, and Directors have documented the small ‘studio’ space at the Met Gala. Art and Commerce represents Gordon von Steiner, who directed and brilliantly executed these images and video.

The Hitfilm crew, Kirstie Tostevin, Josh Davies, and Simon Jones take over Film Riot to bring you a kick-butt tutorial on how to create an Iron Man heads-up display effect with their free HitFilm 4 Express software.​ This eight-minute video takes us all the way from pre-production to post-production.

Following the introduction of its Immerge virtual reality system, Lytro, the "light field" camera company whose consumer models we now see discounted nearly everywhere, recently left the consumer space to concentrate on and introduce its new product, Lytro Cinema. Offering a complete solution with an included server to handle the 755 megapixels of data at up to 300 frames per second (not typos), the Lytro Cinema is a new kind of too-good-to-be-true beast. But the most incredible thing about the camera? It's no lie.

I'll be the first to say it, smoke bombs are usually too Tumblr for my taste. Generally you see them with a moody girl looking off into the distance in some backyard forest. I never got the point of those images. But I found myself mesmerized by "Chromaticity"; the smoke bombs were alive, more like wayward spirits hovering above the big blue. I was so entranced it took me half of the video to realize they were attached to drones, and the drones were nowhere to be seen.

There isn't a great deal of macro cinematography and after drinking in this video, you might wonder "Why not?" German photographer and filmmaker Roman De Giuli creates beautiful and complex scenes using simple ingredients on areas sometimes smaller than the surface of a coin.

Time-lapse Photographer Rufus Blackwell put together an interesting video for DJI, featuring their Osmo stabilizer/camera system, but using it in a way that might not be the most obvious: for hyperlapses. Check out the video, then read on to see what improvements DJI has made in their latest firmware update to the Osmo.

A couple of a weeks ago I shared a video called "Centriphone," which left many people (myself included) wondering how exactly the creator, Nicolas Vuignier, was able to capture this incredible effect. Just today he has released a behind-the-scenes video explaining exactly how it was done, along with plans for how anyone can make their own with a 3D printer.

A few years ago, simple timelapse videos were all the rage. To spice things up, videographers started to add small camera movements to their timelapses using motorized sliders. Those small camera movements have become far more complex today as some of these camera movements are miles in length. These are called "hyperlapse" videos.

Have you ever wondered what it takes to film detail shots of a product? If you haven't ever tried it, you may not fully appreciate all of the effort that goes into every second of this footage. Luckily, we get an insider's look at what it really takes.

The Chemical Brothers new music video with Beck for the song "Wide Open" is the best music video I've seen in a long time. The premise is so simple; the entire video is one take of a girl dancing around a warehouse. What makes this video so compelling is that over time she becomes a 3D printed version of herself.

The term "centripetal" refers to a force that makes a body follow a curved path, and in this case, an iPhone 6 is that body. "Centriphone" is a play on that term, as an orbiting iPhone shoots super slow-motion footage of a skier at the center of its path, as they cut their way down the side of a snowy slope. This clearly takes selfies to the next level.

Big movies mean big budgets, which usually mean big visual effects. The Moving Picture Company (better known as MPC) recently released another one of those mesmerizing VFX breakdown videos for their most recent feature film, “The Martian.” The breakdown reveals some aspects of the film and of Matt Damon's performance that were both challenging and impressive, like the fact that the helmets worn in the film didn't feature physical windscreens. Those were added later with matching reflections to the scenery.

Leave it to a German drone company to create the world's first light painting by drone with a fully programmed flight path, all to create one fantastic holiday time-lapse of Santa Claus delivering presents. Perhaps the most unique part of the project isn't the world-first of programming a drone to complete a multi-colored light painting, but is instead the reimagining of Santa Claus' method of delivery, as something more similar to that of your neighborhood newspaper boy with perfect accuracy.

Unless you have been living under a rock for the last year or so, you probably have noticed that the force is awakening! After a wait that has spanned a generation, Star Wars fans are finally getting a sequel to the saga that started in the seventies! With the arrival of Star Wars come hordes of its most endearing fans dressing up as their favorite Jedi or Sith heroes! Which means an awful lot of opportunity for photoshoots, but there is one problem. Those dull, plastic, toy, lightsabers just don't have the same epic feel that will do the rest of the costume justice. Luckily creating a lightstaber blade in Photoshop using visual effects is quite easy!

Matt Allard from Newsshooter.com has been hopping around Inter BEE 2015, an NAB-like exhibition that takes place in Japan, reporting on new video gear from established, as well as developing companies. In this particular video, he gets to try out a different type of lens adapter– one that is built specifically to let light leak in from the sides and flare the image as it's recorded in-camera.

If you've been on Facebook or hopping around YouTube's popular videos lately, chances are you've seen the video advert for the "Squatty Potty," a step stool used to make, well, going poop much easier on your body. Sound like a tricky concept to sell? See how a team of creatives turned an ad about a dookie-easing product into an Internet sensation.

South Africa native Matthew Rycroft creatively combined creepy music, a creepy-looking dude, and some dark, chiaroscuro lighting techniques to create a video that brilliantly mocks the cliché Instagram accounts with which we're all too familiar. The final result is a well thought-out piece that's short and sweet and definitely leaves room for more.

Stanislas Giroux gets it. All of his videos have a common thread of featuring fantastic soundtracks. This video, "Curves of Iran," celebrates modern Iran's rich visual textures and — you guessed it — curves. Fitted to great music, fun (but fitting) sound effects to every cut, and a great overall tempo, this video makes use of hyperlapse-like cuts, but spares your brain from the monotony of yet another time-lapse by letting the actual shots play in real time once you've "arrived" at your new destination. Truly imaginative. And at the Giroux's request, I'll remind you to listen with headphones.

I have mad respect for Swedish independent film outfit Crazy Pictures for their big-budget cinematography skills that are being utilized on a moderately small budget with rigs and labor that are within reach of almost any videographer. They've put together an incredibly informative behind-the-scenes video that covers in detail the massive amount of work that goes into such a short segment of film.

Canadian Designer, Photographer, and Cinematographer Tom Kucy doesn't sleep. Less than two days after we reported on NASA's huge release of over 10,000 never-before-seen photos from the Apollo space missions, Kucy decided to work them into a project that involves taking these almost half-century old two-dimensional film images and converting them into moving, stereoscopic 3D photographs.