• What is VFX?

    What is VFX?

    Carolina Jiménez explains how animators, modelers, lighting TDs, and editors work together to create fantastic visual effects

  • Ralph McQuarrie: Star Wars' Concept Artist

    Ralph McQuarrie: Star Wars' Concept Artist

    Remembering the work of Ralph McQuarrie, the visual genius behind the look of Star Wars Star Wars has captivated audiences over four decades. Its actors as much a part of popular culture as the characters they play and its creator George Lucas is already living history. To celebrate Star Wars Day, May the Fourth, we are revisiting at an artist who may not have George Lucas' fame but certainly played his part in the look and soul of Star Wars: Illustrator Ralph Angus McQuarrie who designed the concept art for the first three films.

  • 10 Short Documentaries To Inspire Anyone to Make a Film

    10 Short Documentaries To Inspire Anyone to Make a Film

    Whether you’ve directed a hundred films or just a humble Instagram story, this collection of short documentaries will inspire you to make your own Documentary is a big word, but short isn’t. To make one, all you need is a device with editing software–a basic free one will do–images to play with–record them, make them, or find them–and some imagination. With that, you can find a story almost anywhere. As a filmmaker, I turn to visual stories to inspire me and a feature-length films can be too long. A short is just as good, if not better: focusing on one small corner of the world can reveal universal truths and even a toilet-break is enough to watch the one that inspires your next creation. If you’re starting out, or yet to begin, smaller projects also give you the chance to try things out, sharpen your tools, and actually finish a production. A completed short is worth infinitely more than that epic saga you’ve been sitting on for the last decade. You can even make a short in quarantine: Great Big Story just made “not leaving home” the only rule to their #StayHomeFilmChallenge.

  • What Is Color Grading?

    What Is Color Grading?

    Learn how to manipulate color to evoke emotion in your audiovisual projects Color grading is a very creative process. In the same way that a video editor tells a story and shapes its narrative, a color grading artist evokes emotion through the manipulation of color. They do this by digitally modifying exposure, white balance, contrast, tones, and more, using specialized software and tools. Why do we need to color grade the footage we’ve shot? Producers and directors ask themselves the same question: if the footage is well shot, why does it need to be color corrected/graded? It’s normal to question this, especially given the extra time and costs there are to consider. The answer is very straightforward: if the footage is good to start with, once it’s color graded, it will be even better.

  • VFX: Peter Ellenshaw’s 7 Defining Moments

    VFX: Peter Ellenshaw’s 7 Defining Moments

    The moments that defined the remarkable career of matte painting artist, Peter Ellenshaw Born in London in 1913, Peter Ellenshaw went on to become one of the most inspiring matte painting artists of the 20th century and an integral member of the Walt Disney team for over 30 years. In 1965, along with Hamilton Luske and Eustace Lycett, Ellenshaw was awarded an Academy Award for Best Visual Effects for his work on “Mary Poppins,” for which he painted 102 different mattes with scenes of Edwardian London. In 1993, he was named a Disney Legend. Here we take a look at his life and highlight the moments that defined his remarkable career.

  • 5 Websites For Free Stock Videos

    5 Websites For Free Stock Videos

    Discover the best sites for downloading free footage to use for your video projects These are the top sites for downloading free stock videos to use in whatever project you’re currently working, be it audiovisual or web. All of the sites we’re recommending are free both for personal and commercial use, and some of them even offer photography, music, sound, and motion graphics content as well. Among their libraries, you will discover footage in 4K and a range of aerial shots that have been captured by drones or using time-lapse, as well as archives that you can search by category or using tags. Life of Vids This free selection offers videos, clips, and loops without any copyright restrictions, to use for both personal and commercial projects. The footage includes a range of shots of the great outdoors, the workplace, aerial shots, food, cities, people, and more. The only thing they do ask is to limit redistribution across other websites and, providing you’re happy to, credit the authors. You can upload your own footage as well.

  • The First Special Effects: From Méliès to Marvel

    The First Special Effects: From Méliès to Marvel

    Discover the technology behind the first special effects in history Destroyed cities, explosions, aliens: nothing is impossible in the world of special effects. We're used to seeing practically anything imaginable on our screens. They're not only for action movies either: almost all films use digital elements to simplify production. But this isn't the end of "true cinema": film has always been a visual spectacle filled with special effects. Discover in the video below how the first special effects were made:

  • Download 16,000 BBC Sound Effects Free

    Download 16,000 BBC Sound Effects Free

    For the first time ever, the BBC are making their enormous sound effects archive openly available and free for personal and educational use Whether it’s a baby waking up, the warble of an African bird, or the roaring of a single motor cylinder, it can all be found in the BBC sound catalog.

  • Berlinale 2020: 4 Films That Will Inspire You to Pick up Your Camera

    Berlinale 2020: 4 Films That Will Inspire You to Pick up Your Camera

    With the Berlinale Film Festival kicking off next week, we take a look at the competing films that will inspire you to reach for your camera With the Oscars now done and dusted, conversations are steering away from film accomplishments in 2019 and towards ones-to-watch in 2020. What does this year hold for international cinema? The line-ups for the major film festivals indicate the talent and titles we should be keeping an eye out for.

  • What Does Each Color Mean in Cinema?

    What Does Each Color Mean in Cinema?

    Find out what emotions are provoked by each of the colors most used in your favorite films, and apply them to your projects Cinema acts upon us in ways that are both conscious and unconscious: art direction and subsequent color grading, for example, are used to construct a universe of a particular color, related to the theme and intentions of the film. Because, yes, each color awakens very different feelings in us, whether we realize it or not. So, with the help of photographer Nay Jiménez (@nayjimenez), we propose a selection of colors and their respective meanings, so that you can apply them when analyzing your favorite films or take them into account for your own audiovisual projects. Ah! And don't forget: in this case, we're talking about movies... but the different psychological effects that all these colors generate are not limited to the cinema, but are found in all visual arts for thousands of years. This set of emotions can also be applied to disciplines ranging from painting to embroidery, to interior design or branding. Red Traditionally, red has been associated with intense and uncontrollable feelings: love and romantic passion, violence, danger, rage or ambition for power are themes that are often associated with this color. In general, as we see, it is related to the forbidden, the controversial, the sexual... so it will be very present in violent or passionate stories, romantic or otherwise.