Movies/Entertainment

Ohhh, Look…'Tron: Legacy' and 'Black Swan' VFX Featurettes

2010 was a big year for Visual Effects. Films like Inception have had effects work (both practical and CG) seamlessly woven into the film which created just jaw dropping and memorable sequences. While Inception has deservingly received an Oscar nominated for it’s achievements, other visually striking films (like the two in our header) have struck out. From Oscars.org, here is the official list of SFX nominees:

So while it isn’t a travesty they aren’t in the running we still feel they deserve more recognition. Both Tron: Legacy and Black Swan‘s visuals were gorgeous; that goes without saying. Their respective effects and applications made the action on screen that much more dazzling to the eyes (though it sadly didn’t help Tron Legacy in the story department). It’s easy to see something completely digital like Star Wars, Avatar, and Tron Legacy and consider it commonplace in film but it still doesn’t mean it was easy to put it on screen. Also Black Swan’s VFX work was so subtle at times you didn’t even realize it was there until the end basically.

Below are two VFX featurettes showing, very briefly, the amount of incredible amount of work that the effects teams put into each film. Take just a few minutes out of your day to enjoy these little videos. It’s our way of giving each film a pat on the back:

Tron Legacy’s effects work were completed by Digital Domain over the course of two years…sleepless nights anyone??

Black Swan features 240 visual effects shots that involve compositing, face replacement, gore and makeup. (Thanks to First Showing for this video)

We’ll see what happens Oscar night but with a mixed bag of nominees for this category, it’s not one I’m very interested in. But what do you think? Did these films deserve to be on the ballot?? Or is their omission justified in light of the other films having better VFX work??

4 Comments

  • Husam

    That Black Swan video was pretty good. Did not know that there were so many digital touch ups in all those scenes. Not interested in the Visual Effects category either. Enlightening blog post!

    • MarcC

      Welcome to G-S-T Sam!

      The featurette kind of reminded me how Robert Rodriguez likes to work. He shoots most simple effects/touch ups digitally and it makes for a much faster shooting schedule. Different overall product in the case of Black Swan sure but impressive none the less. What did you think of Black Swan?

  • Andrew

    They say the best effects are the ones you don’t even recognize as effects. Black Swan is a real winner in that sense.