By OLIVER WEBBDune: Part Two has significantly more action and effects than Dune: Part One, totaling 2,147 VFX shots. (Image courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures)Godzilla Minus One made history at last years 96thAcademy Awards when it became the first Japanese film to be nominated and win an Oscar for Best Visual Effects, and the first film in the Godzilla franchises 70-year history to be nominated for an Oscar. Will the 97th Academy Awards produce more VFX Oscar history? Certainly, VFX will again take center stage, with a number of pedigree franchises and dazzling sequels hitting movie screens in the past year. From collapsing dunes to vast wastelands, battling primates and America at war with itself, visual effects played a leading role in making 2024 a memorable, mesmerizing year for global audiences.Dune: Part One won six Academy Awards in 2022, including Best Achievement in Visual Effects, marking Visual Effects Supervisor Paul Lamberts third Oscar. Released in March, Dune: Part Two is an outstanding sequel and has significantly more action and effects than the first installment, totaling a staggering 2,147 visual effects shots. The film is a strong contender at this years Awards. It was all the same people from Part One, so our familiarity with Deniss [Villeneuve] vision and his direction allowed us to push the boundaries of visual storytelling even further, Lambert says.The production spent a lot more time in the desert on Dune Two than on Dune One. Cranes were brought in and production built roads into the deep deserts of Jordan and Abu Dhabi. Concrete slabs were also built under the sand so that the team could hold cranes in place for the big action sequences. A lot of meticulous planning was done by Cinematographer Greig Fraser to work out where the sun was going to be relative to particular dunes, Lambert explains.Editorial and postvis collaborated with the VFX team to create a truly unique George Miller action sequence for Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga. (Image courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures)We had an interactive view in the desert via an iPad that gave us a virtual view of these enormous machines at any time of day. This allowed us, for example, to figure out the shadows for the characters running underneath the spice crawler legs and the main body of the machine. VFX was then able to extend the CG out realistically, making it all fit in the same environment. Dune: Part One was a collaborative experience, but Dune: Part Two was even more so as we went for a much bigger scale with lots more action.The first topic discussed during pre-production among department heads and Villeneuve were the worm-riding scenes. Villeneuve envisaged Paul Atreides mounting the worm from a collapsing dune an idea that immediately struck the team as visually stunning and unique. The challenge lay in making this concept and the rest of the worm-riding appear believable. Filming for the worm sequences took place in both Budapest and the UAE. A dedicated worm unit was established in Budapest for the months-long shoot. The art department built a section of the worm on an SFX gimbal surrounded by a massive 270-degree sand-colored cone. This setup allowed the sun to bounce sand-colored light onto the actors and stunt riders who were constantly blasted with dust and sand, Lambert describes. Shooting only occurred on sunny days to maintain the desert atmosphere. Most of the actual worm-riding shots were captured here, except for the widest shots, which were later augmented with CG. In post-production, the sand-colored cone was replaced with extended, sped-up, low and high-flying helicopter footage of the desert.The VFX team at Framestore delivered 420 shots for Deadpool & Wolverine, while Framestores pre-production services (FPS) delivered 900-plus shots spanning previs, techvis and postvis. (Image courtesy of Marvel Studios)Wt FX delivered 1,521 VFX shots for Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes. Remarkably, there are only 38 non-VFX shots in the film. (Image courtesy of Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures)Earlier footage from Gladiator was blended into Gladiator II flashbacks and live-action, especially original Gladiator crowd footage and in the arenas. The Colosseum set for Gladiator II was detailed as closely as possible to the first film. (Photo: Aidan Monaghan. Courtesy of Paramount Pictures)Blowing up the Lincoln Memorial for Civil War was shot in a parking lot in Atlanta. The single-story set was extended with VFX and the explosion grounded in real footage. Soldiers fired at a bluescreen with a giant hole in the middle. (Image courtesy of A24)For the collapsing dune scene, an area was scouted in the desert, and then a 10-foot-high proxy dune crest was created on flat desert.Three concrete tubes attached to industrial tractors were buried in this proxy dune and were used to create the collapsing effect while a stunt performer, secured by a safety line, ran across and descended into the collapsing sand as the tubes were pulled out. We could only attempt this once a day because of the need to match the light to the real dune, and the re-set to rebuild the crest took a few hours. On the fourth day, Denis had the shot he wanted. Post-production work extended the dunes apparent height to match the real dune landscape. The sequence was completed with extensive CG sand simulations of the worm moving through dunes, all contributing to the believability of this extraordinary scene.Mad Max: Fury Road was nominated for Best Visual Effects at the 2016 Academy Awards. Spin-off prequel/origin story Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, the fifth installment in the Mad Max franchise, is the first of the films not to focus on the eponymous Max Rockatansky. DNEG completed 867 visual effects shots for the finished film. When DNEG came onboard with the project, main conversations were focused on the scope of the film and the variety of terrains and environments. Furiosa covers much more of the Wasteland than Fury Road did and details a lot of places that had only been touched on previously, notes DNEG VFX Supervisor Dan Bethell. It was really important that each environment have its own look, so as we travel through the Wasteland with these characters, the look is constantly changing and unique; in effect, each environment is its own character.Twisters features six tornadoes for which ILM built 10 models. (Images courtesy of Universal Pictures)Twisters features six tornadoes for which ILM built 10 models. (Images courtesy of Universal Pictures)The Stowaway sequence was particularly challenging for the visual effects team to complete. Apart from being 240 shots long and lasting 16 minutes, it had a lot of complex moving parts; vehicles that drive, vehicles that fly, dozens of digi-doubles, plenty of explosions and, of course, the Octoboss Kite! says Bethell. Underneath it all, a lot of effort also went into the overall crafting of the sequence, with editorial and postvis collaborating with our VFX team to create a truly unique George Miller action piece. The Bullet Farm Ambush was also a big challenge, although one of my favorites. Choreographing the action to flow from the gates of Bullet Farm down into the quarry as we follow Jack, then culminating with the destruction of, well, everything was very complex. We work often on individual shots, but to have over a hundred of them work together to create a seamless sequence is tough.Working on a George Miller project is always a unique experience for Bethell. Everything is story-driven, so the VFX has to be about serving the characters, their stories and the world they inhabit. Its also a collaboration; the use of VFX to support and enhance work from the other film departments such as stunts, SFX, action vehicles, etc. I enjoy that approach to our craft. Then, for me, its all about the variety and scope of the work. Its rare to get to work on a film with such a vast amount of fresh and interesting creative and technical challenges. On Furiosa, every day was something new, from insane environments and FX to the crazy vehicles of the Wasteland this movie had it all!Robert Zemeckis Here follows multiple generations of couples and families that have inhabited the same home for over a century. The movie required de-aging Tom Hanks and Robin Wright. Nearly the entire movie was touched by VFX in some form or another. (Images courtesy of TriStar Pictures/Sony)Robert Zemeckis Here follows multiple generations of couples and families that have inhabited the same home for over a century. The movie required de-aging Tom Hanks and Robin Wright. Nearly the entire movie was touched by VFX in some form or another. (Images courtesy of TriStar Pictures/Sony)Alex Garlands Civil War required over 1,000 visual effects shots as Garland pushed the importance of realism. The more grounded and believable we could make Civil War, the scarier it would be, notes Production VFX Supervisor David Simpson. We deliberately avoided Hollywood conventions and set a rule that all inspiration should be sourced from the real world. Every element VFX brought to the film had a real-world reference attached to it drawing from documentaries, news footage, ammunition tests and war photography.Due to the strict rules about shooting from the skies above Washington D.C., capturing the aerial shots of the Capitol would have been impossible to do for real. This resulted in full CG aerial angles over D.C. and the visual effects team building their own digital version, which covered 13 square miles and 75 distinct landmarks, thousands of trees, buildings, lampposts and a fully functioning system of traffic lights spread over 800 miles of roads. Plus, there are roadworks, buildings covered in scaffolding, parked cars, tennis courts and golf courses, Simpson adds. One of my favorite touches is that our city has cranes because all major cities are constantly under construction!The visual effects team went even further, building a procedural system to populate the inside of offices. When the camera sees inside a building, you can make out desks, computers, potted plants, emergency exit signs, water coolers. The buildings even have different ceiling-tile configurations and lightbulbs with slight tint variations. We literally built inside and out! Once the city was complete, it was then turned into a war zone with mocap soldier skirmishes, tanks, police cars, explosions, gunfire, helicopters, debris, shattered windows and barricades.Here follows multiple generations of couples and families that have inhabited the same home for over a century. Three sequences in the film were particularly CG-dominant, the first being the neighborhood reveal, which was the last shot in the movie. It was challenging mainly because it was subject to several interpretations, compositions and lighting scenarios, and the build was vast, says DNEG VFX Supervisor John Gibson. The sequence surrounding the houses destruction was also incredibly complex due to the interdependence of multiple simulations and elements, which made making changes difficult and time-consuming.Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire was directed by Adam Wingard, who developed a distinctive and appealing visual style for the film. Compelling VFX work was completed by Wt, Scanline VFX, DNEG and Luma Pictures, among others. (Images courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures and Legendary Entertainment. GODZILLA TM & Toho Co., Ltd.)Dune: Part Two was even more of a collaborative experience than Dune: Part One, on a bigger scale with more action. (Image courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures)The biggest challenge was the grand montage, which required seamless transitions through various time periods and environments. The Jurassic Era beat was especially challenging in that we needed to flesh out a brand-new world that had real-time elements mixed with accelerated time elements, and they all had to be set up to transition smoothly into the superheated environment and maintain a consistent layout, Gibson details. By far the most challenging aspect of the grand montage was the tree and plant growth. As it would have been very difficult to modify existing plant growth systems to match our cornucopia of plant species using the existing software available for foliage animation and rendering, we had to develop a host of new techniques to achieve the realistic results we were after.Gibson lauds the collaborative spirit of the team. He cites their willingness to experiment, learn new techniques and support each other as instrumental in overcoming the challenges of the condensed production schedule. Boundaries between departments dissolved, folks seized work to which they thought they could contribute, there was little hesitation to bring in and learn new software or techniques, and we brainstormed together, constantly looking for better and better ways to get results. Thats what stood out to me: the cohesion within the team.Cassandra inserting her hand through Mr. Paradoxs head was one of the many challenging VFX shots required for Deadpool & Wolverine. (Image courtesy of Marvel Studios)Framestore VFX Supervisor Robert Allman praises Marvels collaborative approach to VFX on Deadpool & Wolverine, which he describes as a melting pot for filmmakers and artists. (Images courtesy of Marvel Studios)Framestore VFX Supervisor Robert Allman praises Marvels collaborative approach to VFX on Deadpool & Wolverine, which he describes as a melting pot for filmmakers and artists. (Images courtesy of Marvel Studios)I love Marvels collaborative approach to VFX things are often hectic at the end, but that is because stuff is still being figured out, largely because its complicated! In this melting pot, the filmmakers look to the artists for answers, so your ideas can end up in the film. For hard-working VFX artists, nothing is better than that.Robert Allman, VFX Supervisor,Deadpool & WolverineWt FX delivered 1,521 VFX shots for Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes. Remarkably, there are only 38 non-VFX shots in the film. VFX Supervisor Erik Winquist ran through a gauntlet of challenges, from a cast of 12 new high-res characters whose facial animation needed to support spoken dialogue, to a minute-long oner set in an FX extravaganza with 175 apes and 24 horses to choreograph, he notes. The scenes that Id say were the most challenging were those that featured large water simulations integrating with on-set practical water, digital apes and a human actor. The bar for reality was incredibly high, not only for the water itself but also in having to sell that waters interaction with hairy apes, often in close-ups. It was an incredibly satisfying creative partnership for me and the whole team, working with [director] Wes Ball. From the start, he had a clear vision of what we were trying to achieve together and the challenge was about executing that vision. It gave us unshifting goal posts that we could plan to, and we knew that we were in safe hands working on something special together. That knowledge created a great vibe among the crew.More shooting time was spent in the desert on Dune: Part Two than on Dune: Part One. Cranes were brought in and production built roads deep into the deserts of Jordan and Abu Dhabi, UAE. (Image courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures)Strict rules about shooting from the skies above Washington, D.C. prevented capturing aerial shots of the Capitol for Civil War, which resulted in full CG aerial angles over D.C. and the VFX team building a digital version covering 13 square miles and 75 distinct landmarks. (Image courtesy of A24)Deadpool & Wolverine has grossed more than $1.264 billion at the box office, a staggering feat. The VFX team at Framestore delivered 420 shots, while Framestores pre-production services (FPS) delivered 900-plus shots spanning previs, techvis and postvis. Robert Allman served as Framestore VFX Supervisor on the film. I love Deadpool, so it was tremendously exciting to be involved in making one, he explains. However, more than this, I love Marvels collaborative approach to VFX things are often hectic at the end, but that is because stuff is still being figured out, largely because its complicated! In this melting pot, the filmmakers look to the artists for answers, so your ideas really can end up in the film. For hard-working VFX artists, nothing is better than that.The atomizing of Cassandra in the final sequence was technically tough to achieve. Making a completely convincing digital human and the atomizing effects as detailed and dynamic as the shots demanded was a huge challenge. Most problematic was creating an effect within the borders of good taste when the brief disintegrate the face and body of a human seems to call for gory and horrifying. Many takes of this now lie on the digital cutting-room floor. An early wrong turn was to reference sandblasted meat and fruit, for which there are a surprisingly large number of videos on YouTube. However, this real-world physics gave rise to some stomach-churning simulations for which there was little appetite among filmmakers and artists alike. In the end, the added element of searingly hot, glowing embers sufficiently covered the more visceral elements of the gore to make the whole thing, while still violent, more palatable to all concerned.Traveling through the Wasteland with the characters of Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, the look is constantly changing and unique. Each environment had to have its own look and, in effect, became its own character. (Images courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures)Traveling through the Wasteland with the characters of Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, the look is constantly changing and unique. Each environment had to have its own look and, in effect, became its own character. (Images courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures)Ridley Scotts Gladiator was met with critical acclaim upon its release in 2000. It won five awards at the 73rdAcademy Awards, including Best Visual Effects. Nearly 25 years later, Gladiator II hits screens as one of the most anticipated releases of the year. Last year, Scotts highly anticipated Napoleon was also nominated for Best Visual Effects, and Scotts films are, more often than not, strong contenders at the Awards.Work for Gladiator II was split between Industrial Light & Magic, Framestore, Ombrium, Screen Scene, Exceptional Minds and Cheap Shot, with 1,154 visual effects shots required for the film. For Visual Effects Supervisor Mark Bakowski, the baboon fight sequence was particularly daunting. Conceptually, this was a tough one, he explains. Very early on, Ridley saw a picture of a hairless baboon with alopecia. It looked amazing and terrifying but also somewhat unnatural. Most people know what a baboon looks like, but a baboon with alopecia looks a bit like a dog. Framestore did a great job and built a baboon that looked and moved just like the reference, but viewed from certain angles and in action, unfortunately, it didnt immediately sell baboon. Its one thing to seeone in a nature documentary, but to have one in an action sequence with no introduction or explanation was a visual challenge.One of the biggest challenges facing the VFX team on Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes was the cast of 12 new high-res characters whose facial animation needed to support spoken dialogue. (Images courtesy of Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures)One of the biggest challenges facing the VFX team on Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes was the cast of 12 new high-res characters whose facial animation needed to support spoken dialogue. (Images courtesy of Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures)Bakowski explains that working with Ridley Scott was a crazy and unique experience. So many cameras and such scale, its a real circus and Ridleys very entertaining. He talks to everyone on Channel 1 on the radio, so you can follow along with his thought process, which is by turns educational, inspirational and hilarious. A lovely man. I enjoyed working with him. The VFX team was all fantastic and so capable both on our production side and vendor side. Ive never worked with such an amazing bunch on both sides. Our production team was a well-oiled machine sometimes in both senses but mainly in terms of efficiency and, vendor side, its great just being served up these beautiful images by such talented people. Both made my job so much easier. The locations were stunning, both scouting and shooting 99% of the film was shot in Maltaand Morocco, so youre there for a long time; you get to immerse yourself in it. That was multiplied by the fact we got impacted by the strikes, so we ended up going back to Malta multiple times. I felt I got to know the island quite well and loved it and the people. That said, I wont be going back to Malta or Morocco for a holiday soon. I feel like Ive had my fill for a while!Other outstanding releases that could potentially compete for Best Visual Effects include Twisters, which took everyone by storm earlier in 2024 (with ILM as the main vendor), Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire featuring compelling work by Wt, Scanline VFX, DNEG and Luma Pictures, among others, and A Quiet Place: Day One, a fresh, frightening addition to the Quiet Place series.