Ian Failes

Founder at befores & afters

Follow @beforesmag for all the latest on VFX and animation at befores & afters.

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Articles

New magazine! In-depth on ILM's visual effects for 'Twisters'

4 days ago | beforesandafters.com | Ian Failes

Get the magazine in PRINT or DIGITAL. The latest issue of befores & afters magazine is out! It covers the practical and digital visual effects in Twisters. Go in-depth with the team from Industrial Light & Magic on how they helped design and build a wealth of tornadoes and intense weather for the film. Learn about the jet engine and other special effects relied upon on set. This issue is chock full of behind the scenes images which break down layout, animation, FX sims and more.
Here’s how the spaceship LED walls on that Black Mirror ‘USS Callister: Into Infinity’ episode worked

6 days ago | beforesandafters.com | Ian Failes

Plus, how the VFX teams crafted a space battle, completed twinning shots, and delivered teleportation and disintegration. The follow-up to the season 4 Black Mirror ‘USS Callister’ episode is season 7’s ‘USS Callister: Into Infinity’, directed by Toby Haynes. Many scenes take place on the bridge of the USS Callister. For the original episode, screens on the bridge were greenscreen, but for ‘Into Infinity’, production employed LED walls.
Check out this new behind the scenes look at 'Andor', s2

1 week ago | beforesandafters.com | Ian Failes

Senate shots, K2 and more. VIDEO
How to register for SIGGRAPH 2025 in Vancouver

1 week ago | beforesandafters.com | Ian Failes

The conference is coming up in August. befores & afters is proud to be a media partner for SIGGRAPH 2025. The event is taking place in Vancouver from 10-14 August, 2025. Registration is now open. Why should you attend SIGGRAPH? Well, my top reason for attending is community. SIGGRAPH is one of those places that sees so many industry people descend into one place. It’s perfect for catching up with old friends, meeting new people and discovering new things in VFX, animation and computer graphics.
AI and ML in VFX from a VFX artist/supervisor point of view

1 week ago | beforesandafters.com | Ian Failes

Andreas Maaninka chats AI, ML and VFX. Today on the befores & afters podcast, as part of our AI, ML and VFX series, we’re chatting to visual effects supervisor Andreas Maaninka of Oasis Visual Effects. Andreas is a seasoned visual effects artist, who has worked at studios including Framestore, Weta FX, Imageworks, DNEG and MPC. He’s also someone I’ve seen jump into the possibilities of ML and AI in VFX.
Check out the fun way 'Locked' was filmed using a SUV mockup with removable pieces

1 week ago | beforesandafters.com | Ian Failes

See how PFX crafted visual effects for the film in this breakdown. The Anthony Hopkins film Locked is set inside a car, and sees the camera sweep in and around the vehicle. To make this kind of action, production filmed an SUV on a soundstage with removable pieces that allowed for the camera to move in and out for large long-takes. PFX crafted 750 VFX shots for the film. You can watch their VFX breakdown, below. Plus, I’ve included portions of a release which describes the work.
Behind the scenes of 'The Eternaut'

1 week ago | beforesandafters.com | Ian Failes

This official featurette includes virtual production and VFX work led by Control. VIDEO
‘I was just completely mesmerized by it’

2 weeks ago | beforesandafters.com | Ian Failes

Special effects veteran Mark T. Noel was recognized with a Scientific and Technical Achievement Award from the Academy for his contributions to motion bases. Mark T. Noel first encountered motion bases on the set of Jurassic Park, when he saw that Stan Winston’s giant animatronic T-Rex had been positioned on one for filming. “I was working on some of the mechanical effects like the car up in the tree gag, but then over on the next stage they had that T-Rex on this motion base. I was blown away.
How do you explode a glass swimming pool?

2 weeks ago | beforesandafters.com | Ian Failes

Behind the practical effects in that impressive sequence in ‘The Amateur’. There’s a particularly memorable moment in James Hawes’ The Amateur that occurs when the character Charlie (Rami Malek)—searching for his wife’s killer—confronts the criminal Mishka Blazhic (Marc Rissmann) at a hotel rooftop glass pool in Madrid. Charlie ultimately causes the glass sheets of the pool to collapse, and Blazhic is sucked away by the water and falls to his death.
Behind the development of Slapshot's AI roto and generative retiming tools

2 weeks ago | beforesandafters.com | Ian Failes

Part of the AI, ML and VFX series. Today on the befores & afters podcast, we’re chatting with Jon Mason, who is the co-founder and CEO of Slapshot, an AI-powered VFX toolkit. The kinds of things you can do with Slapshot right now include AI roto and generative retiming. They’re also working on camera tracking and depth maps. Slapshot hails from the team behind Hotspring, which is a platform for connecting VFX artists to carry out tasks like roto, comp and tracking.