The Creation of Fire City

Demons walk among us, but we cannot see them. That's the premise of Fire City: King of Miseries, a short film directed by Academy Award-winner Tom Woodruff Jr. that premiered on DreadCentral in 2013. Though self-contained, King of Miseries set the scene for the feature-length movie Fire City: End of Days (originally titled Fire City: The … Continue reading The Creation of Fire City

“Catacombia” and “Alyxa” Delivery

My author copies of Catacombia and book 3 of the School of Alyxa trilogy arrived in the mail today, both written under the pseudonym R.L. Ferguson, and published in German translation by Ravensburger. Love these covers! Catacombia After falling through a shaft in the middle of the night, 13-year-old Sam suddenly finds himself deep beneath … Continue reading “Catacombia” and “Alyxa” Delivery

Extract: “Monsters of Hollow Earth” — Godzilla vs Kong Concept Design by ADI

In this exclusive extract from The Illusion Almanac: Creating Godzilla vs Kong, Amalgmated Dynamics, Inc. co-founder Tom Woodruff Jr. discusses the company's concept work for Godzilla vs Kong. Under Woodruff's direction, artists including Xander Smith, Justice Joseph, Ken Barthelmey and Bryan Wynia designed the monstrous denizens inhabiting the subterranean realm of Hollow Earth. Read the full … Continue reading Extract: “Monsters of Hollow Earth” — Godzilla vs Kong Concept Design by ADI

Extract: “Designing Mechagodzilla” — Godzilla vs Kong Concept Design by Legacy Effects

In this exclusive extract from The Illusion Almanac: Creating Godzilla vs Kong, Legacy Effects concept designer Jared Krichevsky discusses the company's design work for Godzilla vs Kong. The production design department brought in Legacy Effects to develop designs for the 2021 iteration of Mechagodzilla, a human construction built by APEX for use as a weapon against … Continue reading Extract: “Designing Mechagodzilla” — Godzilla vs Kong Concept Design by Legacy Effects

Extract: “APEX Aftermath” — Godzilla vs Kong visual effects by Luma Pictures

In this exclusive extract from The Illusion Almanac: Creating Godzilla vs Kong, Luma Pictures visual effects supervisor Brendan Seals discusses the aftermath of Godzilla's attack on APEX Cybernetics in Godzilla vs Kong. While the artists at Luma did not get their hands on the monsters of Godzilla vs Kong, they did however deliver a range of … Continue reading Extract: “APEX Aftermath” — Godzilla vs Kong visual effects by Luma Pictures

Extract: “City as Character” — Godzilla vs Kong visual effects by MPC

In this exclusive extract from The Illusion Almanac: Creating Godzilla vs Kong, MPC visual effects supervisor Pier Lefebvre talks about the construction of a digital Hong Kong environment for Godzilla vs Kong. Having previously discharged third-act duties for the 2014 reboot Godzilla, and after spearheading much of the spectacle in Godzilla: King of the Monsters, MPC … Continue reading Extract: “City as Character” — Godzilla vs Kong visual effects by MPC

Extract: “Animating Kong” — Godzilla vs Kong visual effects by Weta Digital

In this exclusive extract from The Illusion Almanac: Creating Godzilla vs Kong, Weta Digital visual effects supervisor Kevin Smith discusses the methodology used to bring the giant ape Kong to life for Godzilla vs Kong. With its track record creating the expressive simians of King Kong (2005) and the Planet of the Apes trilogy, Weta Digital … Continue reading Extract: “Animating Kong” — Godzilla vs Kong visual effects by Weta Digital

Extract: “Ape in the Rain” — Godzilla vs Kong visual effects by Scanline VFX

In this exclusive extract from The Illusion Almanac: Creating Godzilla vs Kong, the Scanline VFX team discusses the scenes involving Kong on the deck of the transport ship. As lead visual effects vendor for Godzilla vs Kong, Scanline handled the sea battle, the three-way Titan fight in Hong Kong, the attack on the APEX facility … Continue reading Extract: “Ape in the Rain” — Godzilla vs Kong visual effects by Scanline VFX

Roger Christian and the Making of Luke’s Lightsaber

Roger Christian, the Academy Award-winning set decorator of Star Wars, began his journey to a galaxy far, far away while working with production designer John Barry in Mexico on Lucky Lady, building rum-running sets based in 1930s America. “George Lucas arrived on one of the sets I was dressing – an old salt factory – … Continue reading Roger Christian and the Making of Luke’s Lightsaber

The Visual Effects of Ex Machina

In 2015, I had the pleasure of interviewing visual effects supervisor Andrew Whitehurst about Ex Machina, Alex Garland’s iconic film about a startlingly human robot and the quest for artificial intelligence. The resulting Q&A appeared on the Cinefex blog and, when the film went on to win that year’s Academy Award for Best Visual Effects, … Continue reading The Visual Effects of Ex Machina