Adapting the iconic, block-based design aesthetic of Mojang’s beloved Minecraft videogame into the hit feature film comedy adventure, The Minecraft Movie, posed an enormous number of hurdles for director Jared Hess and Oscar-winning Production VFX Supervisor Dan Lemmon. Tasked with helping translate the iconic pixelated world into something cinematically engaging, while remaining true to its visual DNA, was Wētā FX, who delivered 450 VFX shots on the film. And two of their key leads on the film were VFX Supervisor Sheldon Stopsack and Animation Supervisor Kevin Estey.  But the shot count merely scratches the surface of the extensive work the studio performed. Wētā led the design and creation of The Overworld, 64 unique terrains spanning deserts, lush forests, oceans, and mountain ranges, all combined into one continuous environment, assets that were also shared with Digital Domain for their work on the 3rd act battle. Wētā also handled extensive work on the lava-filled hellscape of The Nether that involved Unreal Engine for early representations used in previs, scene scouting, and onset during principal photography, before refining the environment during post-production. They also dressed The Nether with lava, fire, and torches, along with atmospherics and particulate like smoke, ash, and embers. But wait… there’s more! The studio’s Art Department, working closely with Hess, co-created the look and feel of all digital characters in the film. For Malgosha’s henchmen, the Piglins, Wētā designed and created 12 different variants, all with individual characteristics and personalities. They also designed sheep, bees, pandas, zombies, skeletons, and lovable wolf Dennis. Many of these characters were provided to other vendors for their work on the film. Needless to say, the studio truly became a “Master Builder” on the show. The film is based on the hugely popular game Minecraft, first released by Sweden’s Mojang Studios in 2011 and purchased by Microsoft for $2.5 billion in 2014, which immerses players in a low-res, pixelated “sandbox” simulation where they can use blocks to build entire worlds.  Here's the final trailer: In a far-ranging interview, Stopsack and Estey shared with AWN a peek into their creative process, from early design exploration to creation of an intricate practical cloak for Malgosha and the use of Unreal Engine for previs, postvis, and real-time onset visualization. Dan Sarto: The film is filled with distinct settings and characters sporting various “block” styled features. Can you share some of the work you did on the environments, character design, and character animation? Sheldon Stopsack: There's, there's so much to talk about and truth to be told, if you were to touch on everything, we would probably need to spend the whole day together.  Kevin Estey: Sheldon and I realized that when we talk about the film, either amongst ourselves or with someone else, we could just keep going, there are so many stories to tell. DS: Well, start with The Overworld and The Nether. How did the design process begin? What did you have to work with? SS: Visual effects is a tricky business, you know. It's always difficult. Always challenging. However, Minecraft stood out to us as not your usual quote unquote standard visual effects project, even though as you know, there is no standard visual effects project because they're all somehow different. They all come with their own creative ideas, inspirations, and challenges. But Minecraft, right from the get-go, was different, simply by the fact that when you first consider the idea of making such a live-action movie, you instantly ask yourself, “How do we make this work? How do we combine these two inherently very, very different but unique worlds?” That was everyone’s number one question. How do we land this? Where do we land this? And I don't think that any of us really had an answer, including our clients, Dan Lemmon [Production VFX Supervisor] and Jared Hess [the film’s director]. Everyone was really open for this journey. That's compelling for us, to get out of our comfort zone. It makes you nervous because there are no real obvious answers. KE: Early on, we seemed to thrive off these kinds of scary creative challenges. There were lots of question marks. We had many moments when we were trying to figure out character designs. We had a template from the game, but it was an incredibly vague, low-resolution template. And there were so many ways that we could go. But that design discovery throughout the project was really satisfying.  DS: Game adaptations are never simple. There usually isn’t much in the way of story. But with Minecraft, from a visual standpoint, how did you translate low res, block-styled characters into something entertaining that could sustain a 100-minute feature film? SS: Everything was a question mark. Using the lava that you see in The Nether as one example, we had beautiful concept art for all our environments, The Overworld and The Nether, but those concepts only really took you this far. They didn’t represent the block shapes or give you a clear answer of like how realistic some of those materials, shapes and structures would be. How organic would we go? All of this needed to be explored. For the lava, we had stylized concept pieces, with block shaped viscosity as it flowed down. But we spent months with our effects team, and Dan and Jared, just riffing on ideas. We came full circle, with the lava ending up being more realistic, a naturally viscous liquid based on real physics. And the same goes with the waterfall that you see in the Overworld.  The question is, how far do we take things into the true Minecraft representation of things? How much do we scale back a little bit and ground ourselves in reality, with effects we’re quite comfortable producing as a company? There's always a tradeoff to find that balance of how best to combine what’s been filmed, the practical sets and live-action performances, with effects. Where’s the sweet spot? What's the level of abstraction? What's honest to the game? As much as some call Minecraft a simple game, it isn't simple, right? It's incredibly complex. It's got a set of rules and logic to the world building process within the game that we had to learn, adapt, and honor in many ways. When our misfits first arrive and we have these big vistas and establishing shots, when you really look at it, you, you recognize a lot of the things that we tried to adapt from the game. There are different biomes, like the Badlands, which is very sand stoney; there's the Woodlands, which is a lush environment with cherry blossom trees; you’ve got the snow biome with big mountains in the background. Our intent was to honor the game. KE: I took a big cue from a lot of the early designs, and particularly the approach that Jared liked for the characters and to the design in general, which was maintaining the stylized, blocky aesthetic, but covering them in realistic flesh, fur, things that were going to make them appear as real as possible despite the absolutely unreal designs of their bodies. And so essentially, it was squared skeleton… squarish bones with flesh and realistic fur laid over top. We tried various things, all extremely stylized. The Creepers are a good example. We tried all kinds of ways for them to explode. Sheldon found a great reference for a cat coughing up a hairball. He was nice to censor the worst part of it, but those undulations in the chest and ribcage… Jared spoke of the Creepers being basically tragic characters that only wanted to be loved, to just be close to you. But sadly, whenever they did, they’d explode. So, we experimented with a lot of different motions of how they’d explode. DS: Talk about the process of determining how these characters would move. None seem to have remotely realistic proportions in their limbs, bodies, or head size. KE: There were a couple things that Jared always seemed to be chasing. One was just something that would make him laugh. Of course, it had to sit within the bounds of how a zombie might move, or a skeleton might move, as we were interpreting the game. But the main thing was just, was it fun and funny? I still remember one of the earliest gags they came up with in mocap sessions, even before I even joined the show, was how the zombies get up after they fall over. It was sort of like a tripod, where its face and feet were planted and its butt shoots up in the air. After a lot of experimentation, we came up with basic personality types for each character. There were 12 different types of Piglins. The zombies were essentially like you're coming home from the pub after a few too many pints and you're just trying to get in the door, but you can't find your keys. Loose, slightly inebriated movement. The best movement we found for the skeletons was essentially like an old man with rigid limbs and lack of ligaments that was chasing kids off his lawn. And so, we created this kind of bible of performance types that really helped guide performers on the mocap stage and animators later on. SS: A lot of our exploration didn’t stick. But Jared was the expert in all of this. He always came up with some quirky last-minute idea.  KE: My favorite from Jared came in the middle of one mocap shoot. He walked up to me and said he had this stupid idea. I said OK, go on. He said, what if Malgosha had these two little pigs next to her, like Catholic alter boys [the thurifers], swinging incense [a thurible]. Can we do that? I talked to our stage manager, and we quickly put together a temporary prop for the incense burners. And we got two performers who just stood there. What are they going to do? Jared said, “Nothing. Just stand there and swing. I think it would look funny.” So, that’s what we did.  We dubbed them the Priesty Boys. And they are there throughout the film. That was amazing about Jared. He was always like, let's just try it, see if it works. Otherwise ditch it. DS: Tell me about your work on Malgosha. And I also want to discuss your use of Unreal Engine and the previs and postvis work.  SS: For Malgosha as a character, our art department did a phenomenal job finding the character design at the concept phase. But it was a collective effort. So many contributors were involved in her making. And I'm not just talking about the digital artists here on our side. It was a joint venture of different people having different explorations and experiments. It started off with the concept work as a foundation, which we mocked up with 3D sketches before building a model. But with Malgosha, we also had the costume department on the production side building this elaborate cloak. Remember, that cloak kind of makes 80, 85% of her appearance. It's almost like a character in itself, the way we utilized it. And the costume department built this beautiful, elaborate, incredibly intricate, practical version of it that we intended to use on set for the performer to wear. It ended up being too impractical because it was too heavy. But it was beautiful. So, while we didn't really use it on set, it gave us something physically to kind of incorporate into our digital version. KE: Alan Henry is the motion performer who portrayed her on set and on the mocap stage. I've known him for close to 15 years. I started working with him on The Hobbit films. He was a stunt performer who eventually rolled into doing motion capture with us on The Hobbit. He’s an incredible actor and absolutely hilarious and can adapt to any sort of situation. He’s so improvisational. He came up with an approach to Malgosha very quickly. Added a limp so that she felt decrepit, leaning on the staff, adding her other arm as kind of like a gimp arm that she would point and gesture with.   Even though she’s a blocky character, her anatomy is very much a biped, with rounder limbs than the other Piglins. She's got hooves, is somewhat squarish, and her much more bulky mass in the middle was easier to manipulate and move around. Because she would have to battle with Steve in the end, she had to have a level of agility that even some of the Piglins didn't have. DS: Did Unreal Engine come into play with her?  SS: Unreal was used all the way through the project. Dan Lemmon and his team early on set up their own virtual art department to build representations of the Overworld and the Nether within the context of Unreal. We and Sony Imageworks tried to provide recreations of these environments that were then used within Unreal to previsualize what was happening on set during shooting of principal photography. And that's where our mocap and on-set teams were coming into play. Effects provided what we called the Nudge Cam. It was a system to do real-time tracking using a stereo pair of Basler computer vision cameras that were mounted onto the sides of the principal camera. We provided the live tracking that was then composited in real time with the Unreal Engine content that all the vendors had provided. It was a great way of utilizing Unreal to give the camera operators or DOP, even Jared, a good sense of what we would actually shoot. It gave everyone a little bit of context for the look and feel of what you could actually expect from these scenes.  Because we started this journey with Unreal having onset in mind, we internally decided, look, let's take this further. Let's take this into post-production as well. What would it take to utilize Unreal for shot creation? And it was really exclusively used on the Nether environment. I don’t want to say we used it for matte painting replacement. We used it more for say, let's build this extended environment in Unreal. Not only use it as a render engine with this reasonably fast turnaround but also use it for what it's good at: authoring things, quickly changing things, moving columns around, manipulating things, dressing them, lighting them, and rendering them. It became sort of a tool that we used in place of a traditional matte painting for the extended environments. KE: Another thing worth mentioning is we were able to utilize it on our mocap stage as well during the two-week shoot with Jared and crew. When we shoot on the mocap stage, we get a very simple sort of gray shaded diagnostic grid. You have your single-color characters that sometimes are textured, but they’re fairly simple without any context of environment. Our special projects team was able to port what we usually see in Giant, the software we use on the mocap stage, into Unreal, which gave us these beautifully lit environments with interactive fire and atmosphere. And Jared and the team could see their movie for the first time in a rough, but still very beautiful rough state. That was invaluable. DS: If you had to key on anything, what would say with the biggest challenges for your teams on the film? You're laughing. I can hear you thinking, “Do we have an hour?”  KE: Where do you begin?  SS: Exactly. It's so hard to really single one out. And I struggle with that question every time I've been asked that question. KE: I’ll start.  I've got a very simple practical answer and then a larger one, something that was new to us, kind of similar to what we were just talking about. The simple practical one is the Piglins square feet with no ankles. It was very tough to make them walk realistically. Think of the leg of a chair. How do you make that roll and bank and bend because there is no joint? There are a lot of Piglins walking on surfaces and it was a very difficult conundrum to solve. It took a lot of hard work from our motion edit team and our animation team to get those things walking realistically. You know, it’s doing that simple thing that you don't usually pay attention to. So that was one reasonably big challenge that is often literally buried in the shadows. The bigger one was something that was new to me. We often do a lot of our previs and postvis in-house and then finish the shots. And just because of circumstances and capacity, we did the postvis for the entire final battle, but we ended up sharing the sequence with Digital Domain, who did an amazing job completing some of the stuff on the Battlefield we did post on. For me personally, I've never experienced not finishing what I started. But it was also really rewarding to see how well the work we had put in was honored by DD when they took it over.   SS: I think the biggest challenge and the biggest achievement that I'm most proud of is really ending up with something that was well received by the wider audience. Of creating these two worlds, this sort of abstract adaptation of the Minecraft game and combining it with live-action. That was the achievement for me. That was the biggest challenge. We were all nervous from day one. And we continued to be nervous up until the day the movie came out. None of us really knew how it ultimately would be received. The fact that it came together and was so well received is a testament to everyone doing a fantastic job. And that's what I'm incredibly proud of. Dan Sarto is Publisher and Editor-in-Chief of Animation World Network.

These annual rankings were last updated on May 30, 2025. Want to see your firm on next year’s list? Continue reading for more on how you can improve your studio’s ranking. Ireland’s architecture is a rich tapestry of vernacular craft, foreign architecture, and, most importantly, good ol’ grit. Like any nation, Ireland’s complex history is easily contextualized through its urban makeup. Dublin and Cork, for example contain a wealth of Georgian and Victorian structures that directly speak to the republic’s past ties to Britain through churches, libraries and courthouses. In the 20th century, Irish designers turned to modernism and other international trends, this time on their own terms. Art Deco, Brutalism and sleek Modern structures began to appear around the country, generating an architectural expression to mirror the republic’s newfound independence. Ireland’s traditional architecture — specifically the thatched cottage — was again made popular by tourists seeking a quintessential ‘Irish experience.’ Today’s designers continuously engage with discourse surrounding nationalism. What is the quintessential ‘Irish experience’, and how does it inform today’s architecture? With a built environment rooted in pluralism, Irish architects have an incredible opportunity to recreate and rectify an architectural language that best represents today’s Irish folk. With so many architecture firms to choose from, it’s challenging for clients to identify the industry leaders that will be an ideal fit for their project needs. Fortunately, Architizer is able to provide guidance on the top design firms in Ireland based on more than a decade of data and industry knowledge. How are these architecture firms ranked? The following ranking has been created according to key statistics that demonstrate each firm’s level of architectural excellence. The following metrics have been accumulated to establish each architecture firm’s ranking, in order of priority: The number of A+Awards won (2013 to 2025) The number of A+Awards finalists (2013 to 2025) The number of projects selected as “Project of the Day” (2009 to 2025) The number of projects selected as “Featured Project” (2009 to 2025) The number of projects uploaded to Architizer (2009 to 2025) Each of these metrics is explained in more detail at the foot of this article. This ranking list will be updated annually, taking into account new achievements of Ireland architecture firms throughout the year. Without further ado, here are the 30 best architecture firms in Ireland: 30. Hussey Architects © Hussey Architects Hussey Architects was established in 2009 in Dublin. The practice has grown from working on small domestic projects then to large healthcare, housing and hospitality projects now. We are a small practice with experience completing large projects. Over the past decade we have completed seven Primary Care Centres, two hotels, a nursing home, ten masterplans and over one hundred houses. Our focus is on designing simple economical buildings that respect their context. Our style has evolved from our more angular early buildings and projects to a more classical simple architectural language in traditional materials. Some of Hussey Architects’ most prominent projects include: National Leprechaun Museum Cafe The Hendrick, Dublin, Ireland Navan Road Primary Care Centre, Dublin, Ireland Celbridge Primary Care Centre, Celbridge, Ireland Balbriggan Primary Care Centre, Balbriggan, Ireland The following statistics helped Hussey Architects achieve 30th place in the 30 Best Architecture Firms in Ireland: Total Projects 14 29. Donaghy & Dimond Architects © Donaghy & Dimond Architects Based in Dublin, Donaghy + Dimond Architects was established in 2001 by Marcus Donaghy and Will Dimond, two architects with extensive experience of working on urban and rural design projects in Ireland and abroad. The practice has developed a reputation for high-quality, innovative and sustainable design, and has been selected for numerous national and international awards for completed projects. Their work has been published and exhibited in Ireland, Europe and the USA. Some of Donaghy & Dimond Architects’ most prominent projects include: Laneway Wall Garden House, Dublin, Ireland The following statistics helped Donaghy & Dimond Architects achieve 29th place in the 30 Best Architecture Firms in Ireland: Featured Projects 1 Total Projects 1 28. ABK Architects © ABK Architects Established in 1961, ABK Architects is a design-led practice with an international reputation for the delivery of buildings of the highest quality. It is renowned for its work in many fields including master-planning, education, healthcare, housing and the arts. The practice offers skills in architecture and related fields such as urban design and planning, interior and furniture design and is one of the leading exponents of sustainability in the field of architecture. Implicit in the work of ABK is a search for quality, which concerns the character and atmosphere of spaces and a sense of place. Each building proposal is a unique response, integrating the general and the particular into a coherent whole. Some of ABK Architects’ most prominent projects include: Roscommon Civic Offices, Roscommon, Ireland The following statistics helped ABK Architects achieve 28th place in the 30 Best Architecture Firms in Ireland: Featured Projects 1 Total Projects 1 27. de Siún Scullion Architects © de Siún Scullion Architects We are a new Dublin-based Architecture practice offering a broad range of experience and specialist expertise in high quality, innovative and sustainable design to both public and private sector clients Some of de Siún Scullion Architects’ most prominent projects include: 5Cube, Dublin, Ireland The following statistics helped de Siún Scullion Architects achieve 27th place in the 30 Best Architecture Firms in Ireland: Featured Projects 1 Total Projects 1 26. TAKA architects © TAKA architects TAKA is an architectural practice based in Dublin, Ireland. Our practice is focused on creating buildings, places and moments which have a distinct character. Our approach involves a careful and economic approach to materials and construction and a first-principles approach to sustainability. We collaborate closely with clients, professional consultants, and expert makers to ensure the ambitions of projects are met and exceeded. A continuing level of excellence in the built work of the practice is recognized by multiple national and international awards and worldwide publication. Some of TAKA architects’ most prominent projects include: Merrion Cricket Club, Dublin, Ireland The following statistics helped TAKA architects achieve 26th place in the 30 Best Architecture Firms in Ireland: Featured Projects 1 Total Projects 1 25. NOJI Architects © NOJI NOJI Architects are a practice based in Sligo Town working on individual and collaborative projects throughout Ireland. NOJI architects have been in existence for 4 years, now with two staff and the principle architect being John Monahan. The practice has been primarily involved with residential work ranging from renovation extensions of period properties to one off houses and the possibility of community level buildings in the near future. In parallel to the mainly residential work there is an emphasis on the smaller scale design projects allowing an artistic expression and shorter build fruition periods. NOJI architects aim to have craft and innovative design solutions at the core of their work. Some of NOJI Architects’ most prominent projects include: Scale of Ply, Dublin, Ireland The following statistics helped NOJI achieve 25th place in the 30 Best Architecture Firms in Ireland: Featured Projects 1 Total Projects 1 24. Carr Cotter Naessens Architects © Dennis Gilbert, VIEW Box Architecture was created in 1997. Since conception, the company has been established as a leading design practice in the nation. Quality has remained the focus of Box throughout and this has been employed to a variety of projects including urban schemes, apartment units, award-winning private commissions, corporate offices, crèches and housing developments. The success of Box Architecture is achieved through a personal approach to understand client needs. With a hands-on approach, technical expertise, creative execution and a commitment to continued education, the company applies a philosophy of the highest principle in order to contribute to a sustainable future and maintain quality architecture. Some of Carr Cotter Naessens Architects’ most prominent projects include: dlrLexicon, Dublin, Ireland The following statistics helped Carr Cotter Naessens Architects achieve 24th place in the 30 Best Architecture Firms in Ireland: Featured Projects 1 Total Projects 1 23. Box Architecture Timber elements mark the transition between openness and enclosure - © Box Architecture Box Architecture was created in 1997. Since conception, the company has been established as a leading design practice in the nation. Quality has remained the focus of Box throughout and this has been employed to a variety of projects including urban schemes, apartment units, award-winning private commissions, corporate offices, crèches and housing developments. The success of Box Architecture is achieved through a personal approach to understand client needs. With a hands-on approach, technical expertise, creative execution and a commitment to continued education, the company applies a philosophy of the highest principle in order to contribute to a sustainable future and maintain quality architecture. Some of Box Architecture’s most prominent projects include: BALLYROAN PARISH CENTRE Ballyroan Library The following statistics helped Box Architecture achieve 23rd place in the 30 Best Architecture Firms in Ireland: Featured Projects 1 Total Projects 2 22. Kingston Lafferty Design © Donal Murphy Kingston Lafferty Design are an award-winning, international multi-disciplinary design company run by Roisin Lafferty based in Dublin, Ireland. At KLD we think differently about design. Our designs take people on a journey, delivering fun and unexpected experiences. With a holistic approach, we study the way in which people live and work to create tactile and meaningful design, putting human behavior at the centre of every project. Some of Kingston Lafferty Design’s most prominent projects include: Dublin Residence, Dublin, Ireland Ballsbridge Residence, Dublin, Ireland Ranelagh Residence, Dublin, Ireland The following statistics helped Kingston Lafferty Design achieve 22nd place in the 30 Best Architecture Firms in Ireland: Featured Projects 1 Total Projects 3 21. Architecture Republic © Architecture Republic Architecture Republic with offices in Dublin (Ireland)and Lyon (France) operates in the fields of architecture, urbanism and landscape design. We engage with engineers, artists, researchers, policy-makers, and other professionals through research, analysis and cross disciplinary collaboration. We find the seeds of our inspiration in the rich and complex realm of ordinary everyday life. We believe in the social engagement and spatial power of architecture more than its visual or plastic expression. We believe in architecture that creates public spaces and democratic cities. An architecture that revitalizes redefines and strengthens existing buildings and neighbourhoods. Some of Architecture Republic’s most prominent projects include: The Plastic House, Dublin, Ireland Formwork Studio Brick a Back, Gordon Street, Dublin, Ireland Orla Kiely’s New York Store, New York, New York The following statistics helped Architecture Republic achieve 21st place in the 30 Best Architecture Firms in Ireland: Featured Projects 1 Total Projects 4 20. Conneely Wessels Architects © F22 PHOTOGRAPHY Conneely Wessels Architects is an Award Winning Architectural Practice, established in 2008 and based in Kinsale, County Cork. Our practice provides a responsive, imaginative and professional service, tailored to the aspirations of each of our clients, and to deliver quality results, regardless of commission size or type. Some of Conneely Wessels Architects’ most prominent projects include: Three Pavilions, House Clancy, Kinsale, Ireland Peek-a-Boo!, Kinsale, Ireland Cardinal Point, Kinsale, Ireland Ardgwee House, Kinsale, Ireland The following statistics helped Conneely Wessels Architects achieve 20th place in the 30 Best Architecture Firms in Ireland: Featured Projects 1 Total Projects 4 19. ARCHITECTSTM © Ros Kavanagh ARCHITECTSTM is a design practice founded by Tom Maher. Based in Dublin, Ireland the firm boasts a portfolio of residential, cultural and commercial designs. Some of ARCHITECTSTM’s most prominent projects include: K HOUSE, Ranelagh, Ireland GARDENER’S WORLD (FUTURE), Callan, Ireland SLATE STOREY EXTENSION, Dublin, Ireland COTTAGE, County Kilkenny, Ireland 8BY4, Dublin, Ireland The following statistics helped ARCHITECTSTM achieve 19th place in the 30 Best Architecture Firms in Ireland: Featured Projects 1 Total Projects 5 18. Paul Dillon Architects © Paul Dillon Architects In 1999, architect Paul Dillon established his full-service practice in Galway, which quickly earned a reputation for combining design sensitivity with professional management and delivery. Each year, paul dillon architects complete a small number of challenging everyday projects, ranging from domestic extensions and garden designs to large commercial, retail, industrial and public projects. This commitment to the process of building, has been recognized with numerous national and international publications and awards. The completed work, both public and private, is receiving growing understanding and appreciation from those who take responsibility for their built environment. Some of Paul Dillon Architects’ most prominent projects include: Carnaun Primary School, Athenry, Ireland Extension to Secondary School, County Galway, Ireland Kilrickle Primary School, Kilreekill, Ireland Art Room, Secondary School, Aran Islands, County Galway, Ireland Art Room, Inis Mór, County Galway, Ireland The following statistics helped Paul Dillon Architects achieve 18th place in the 30 Best Architecture Firms in Ireland: Featured Projects 1 Total Projects 5 17. Isabel Barros Architects © Robert Mullan Photography isabel barros architects are driven by a passion for creating high quality contemporary architecture. Our goal is to make good design available to the general public while maintaining a strong focus on the energy efficiency and sustainability of our designs. Some of Isabel Barros Architects’ most prominent projects include: Seaview House, Wexford, Ireland Conservation Works at Brandon House Hotel, New Ross, Ireland Extension to House Over 100 Years Old, Ireland River House Kilkenny, Kilkenny, Ireland Shaolin Cottage, Ireland The following statistics helped Isabel Barros Architects achieve 17th place in the 30 Best Architecture Firms in Ireland: Featured Projects 1 Total Projects 6 16. Solearth Architecture © Solearth Architecture Solearth Architecture specialise in design that is both beautiful and deeply sustainable. We have for 15 years been Irelands leading green design firm and now provide architecture, design and consulting services further afield. All projects and client types are of interest to us but our key experience to date lies in hospitality, visitor, environment, wellness and buildings for spirituality as well as housing and private houses. We also have expertise in sustainable masterplanning and urban design. We are Europes only Living Building accredited practice. Some of Solearth Architecture’s most prominent projects include: Airfield Evolution, Dublin, Ireland Castle Espie, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom The Daintree Building, Dublin, Ireland Ballybay Wetland Centre, Ballybay, Ireland Dechen Shying, Cork, Ireland The following statistics helped Solearth Architecture achieve 16th place in the 30 Best Architecture Firms in Ireland: Featured Projects 1 Total Projects 7 15. Foley Architects © Foley Architects, CAMPUS Foley Architects is an architectural practice based in Dublin led by Stephen Foley and Marta Lopez driven by creating sustainable buildings and considered spaces that connect to their physical and social contexts. Our mission is to uncover what is special about each project to create unique spaces and buildings which can inspire communities. The concept of our first built project, the Eastbourne Beach Hut took inspiration from a local story involving fossils and was developed using digital fabrication tools. The pavilion’s translucent skin allows it to transform at night, emitting light and expressing its structure. The Cork Butter museum involved the adaptive reuse of an existing space, it’s remodelling and installation of elements for a collection of artefacts, using economic materials like mild steel and birch plywood. Some of Foley Architects’ most prominent projects include: The Lark Theatre, Dublin, Ireland Eastbourne Beach Hut, Eastbourne, United Kingdom Rossaveel Small Craft Harbour, Galway, Ireland 12th Lock Area Masterplan, Lucan, Ireland Killybegs Small Craft Harbour, Donegal, Ireland The following statistics helped Foley Architects achieve 15th place in the 30 Best Architecture Firms in Ireland: Featured Projects 1 Total Projects 9 14. David Flynn Architects © David Flynn Architects Ltd We are award-winning Architects in Dublin specializing in residential projects, including newbuild houses, reconstruction and significant refurb / extension / transformation of existing. We are currently engaged as Architects in a small number of projects across Dublin with construction values ranging from €400,000 up to €1.5m. The majority of our houses will end up as highly efficient A-rated homes for life. We have a track record in delivering highly bespoke residential architecture projects which run smoothly through design, planning and construction stages, many of which have received awards and been widely published. We use highly detailed 3D Digital models to plan, visualise and clearly communicate from early in the design process to ensure a successful outcome. Some of David Flynn Architects’ most prominent projects include: Garden Retreat, Blackrock, Ireland Mount Merrion, Dublin, Ireland 1930s Extension Renovation, Booterstown, Ireland 1870s period house extension, Sandymount, Ireland Rebuild & Renovation, Clonskeagh, Ireland The following statistics helped David Flynn Architects achieve 14th place in the 30 Best Architecture Firms in Ireland: Featured Projects 1 Total Projects 10 13. ODKM Architects & Designers © ODKM Architects & Designers ODKM are highly experienced award-winning architectural practice, with accolades and publications both in Ireland and abroad. We love design, how it makes us feel, and what it offers us every day, and we are passionate about how important this is in creating new spaces, identities and places that exceed our clients expectations. Ultimately, buildings are about people, and we believe in quality driven design to create environments with a sense of place. Our team each bring unique and diverse skills to the practice, all stemming from a common holistic design philosophy; that design can improve the quality of our lives, and make us happier. Some of ODKM Architects & Designers’ most prominent projects include: Ranelagh House, Dublin, Ireland The following statistics helped ODKM Architects & Designers achieve 13th place in the 30 Best Architecture Firms in Ireland: A+Awards Finalist 1 Featured Projects 1 Total Projects 1 12. Architectural Farm © Ste Murray | Photography & Design Architectural Farm is a design focused architectural studio based in Dublin. The studio has been led by Shane Cotter and Kathryn Wilson since 2010. To date the practice has worked on a variety of projects specializing in residential and public commissions in both urban and rural settings but also have collaborated on retail, commercial and landscaping projects. Some of Architectural Farm’s most prominent projects include: Walled Garden, Ballsbridge, Ireland St Declans Terrace, Saint Declan’s Terrace, Ireland The following statistics helped Architectural Farm achieve 12th place in the 30 Best Architecture Firms in Ireland: Featured Projects 2 Total Projects 2 11. GKMP Architect © GKMP Architect GKMP Architects is a Dublin-based practice that designs high quality modern architecture. Our recent projects include house design, domestic extensions, public spaces and tourist facilities. Some of GKMP Architect’s most prominent projects include: Hedge House at Leeson Walk, Dublin, Ireland House Extension at Silchester Park, Dublin, Ireland The following statistics helped GKMP Architect achieve 11th place in the 30 Best Architecture Firms in Ireland: Featured Projects 2 Total Projects 2 10. Aughey O’Flaherty Architects © Aughey O'Flaherty Architects Since the start, in 1999, we have been blessed with great clients. We work closely with them to understand their needs and create buidings to fit those needs. By 2003, the practice had won the first of many awards and in 2005, we won the prestious RIAI award, best building in the landscape.As conservation architects, we have Grade II RIAI Conservation Accreditation. Some of Aughey O’Flaherty Architects’ most prominent projects include: Fethard House on Mount Anville, Goatstown, Ireland New House The following statistics helped Aughey O'Flaherty Architects achieve 10th place in the 30 Best Architecture Firms in Ireland: Featured Projects 2 Total Projects 3 9. BRENNAN | FURLONG Architects & Urban Planners © BRENNAN | FURLONG Architects & Urban Planners BRENNAN | FURLONG Architects, founded in 2015 by Gareth Brennan and Séamus Furlong, is an award-winning RIAI-registered practice based in Clontarf, Dublin. The practice is accredited in Conservation (Grade III), can act as Project Supervisors for the Design Process (PSDP) and holds full Professional Indemnity Insurance. The work of the practice – a mix of residential and commercial projects — centers on the principle that the well-considered and carefully developed design of buildings and spaces we use every day helps to enrich and enliven our experience and interaction with the built environment. Some of BRENNAN | FURLONG Architects & Urban Planners’ most prominent projects include: GLENTORA, Howth, Dublin, Ireland FOUR WINDS, Dublin, Ireland STRAND ROAD, Dublin, Ireland LERRIG, Dublin, Ireland The following statistics helped BRENNAN | FURLONG Architects & Urban Planners achieve 9th place in the 30 Best Architecture Firms in Ireland: Featured Projects 2 Total Projects 4 8. Ambient Architecture © Ambient Architecture At Ambient Architecture we design exclusive residences for private clients in new builds, renovation and conservation projects. For our commercial partners, we develop innovative, sustainable, and sound feasibility and planning solutions. As architects we focus on providing the best outcome for our clients, in terms of design, costs, and buildability. Some of Ambient Architecture’s most prominent projects include: New house in Malahide, Malahide, Ireland Rathgar Redbrick, Dublin, Ireland Loreto Abbey Dalkey Sportshall, Dalkey, Ireland Rathmines Redbrick, Dublin, Ireland 2SEMIS, Dublin, Ireland The following statistics helped Ambient Architecture achieve 8th place in the 30 Best Architecture Firms in Ireland: Featured Projects 2 Total Projects 5 7. Coady Architects © Coady Architects Coady Architects is an award winning practice of highly skilled professionals, specializing in healthcare, residential, workplace and education design. We are passionate about understanding our clients’ and end users’ needs. We understand commercial drivers and add value at every opportunity. We enjoy design, we listen and explore, we innovate and challenge to deliver better environments and better buildings. Some of Coady Architects’ most prominent projects include: Scholen van Morgen. VIIO, Tongeren, Belgium Eolas, Maynooth University, Maynooth, Ireland Clinical Education and Research Centre, Limerick, Ireland Scholen van Morgen. Heilig Hart van Mariainstituut, Berlaar, Belgium Scholen van Morgen, Virga Jessecollege, Hasselt, Belgium The following statistics helped Coady Architects achieve 7th place in the 30 Best Architecture Firms in Ireland: Featured Projects 2 Total Projects 5 6. Architecture 53seven © Architecture 53seven Architecture 53seven is focussed on the delivery of inventive architecture and urban design, with a particular interest in developing new programmatic forms that reflect the complexities of the contemporary city. Established by Jason O’Shaughnessy in 2000, Architecture 53seven has developed a series of acclaimed projects in Ireland and overseas and was nominated for the European Union Prize for Contemporary Architecture – the Mies van der Rohe Award in 2009. Some of Architecture 53seven’s most prominent projects include: Egans Juice Bar and Roof Terrace, Main Street, Portlaoise, Ireland Tullow Ciivic Offices and Library Montenegro Villa, Dobra Voda, Montenegro Villa Petrovic, Dobra Voda, Montenegro Renaasance day hospital The following statistics helped Architecture 53seven achieve 6th place in the 30 Best Architecture Firms in Ireland: Featured Projects 2 Total Projects 37 5. FKL architects © FKL architects FKL architects is committed to contemporary design with a focus on the application of abstract ideas to built form. Each project is approached from first principles by responding to the specifics of site and program and formulating a singular concept that informs all aspects of the design. This individual concept is firmly rooted in the pragmatics of the project. We seek to condense ideas to their essentials, from the building form to the detail of junctions between materials with all decisions re-affirming and complementing the primary concept. The form and language of each project grows out of this approach leading to a diversity in the work, within a framework given by enduring interests; in space, atmosphere, assemblage, pattern, hierarchy, texture and materiality. Some of FKL architects’ most prominent projects include: A House, Rathmines, Ireland A house, Rathmines, Ireland St John’s House Nursing Home, Dublin, Ireland Brick House Reuben Street Apartments, Dolphins Barn, Ireland The following statistics helped FKL architects achieve 5th place in the 30 Best Architecture Firms in Ireland: Featured Projects 3 Total Projects 17 4. Heneghan Peng Architects © Iwan Baan heneghan peng architects is a design partnership practicing architecture, landscape and urban design. The practice was founded by Shih-Fu Peng and Róisín Heneghan in New York in 1999 and in 2001 opened an office in Dublin, Ireland. We take a multi-disciplinary approach to design and have collaborated with many leading designers and engineers on a range of projects which include larger scale urban masterplans, bridges, landscapes and buildings. Current projects include the Canadian Canoe Museum, The Old Library refurbishment at Trinity College Dublin, the Visitors’ Centre at the Berlin Botanic Gardens and the Grand Egyptian Museum. Some of Heneghan Peng Architects’ most prominent projects include: The Palestinian Museum, Bir Zayt Air BnB European Operations Hub, Dublin, Ireland School of Architecture and Design/Library at the University of Greenwich, London, United Kingdom The following statistics helped Heneghan Peng Architects achieve 4th place in the 30 Best Architecture Firms in Ireland: Featured Projects 3 Total Projects 3 3. Scullion Architects © Scullion Architects SCULLION ARCHITECTS are a Dublin-based Architectural Studio established by Declan Scullion MRIAI, providing architectural services for both the public and private sector. The practice’s work is characterized by a particular attention to user experience supported by an interest in things well-made. Our ambition is to provide a dedicated and professional service delivering exceptional buildings. Some of Scullion Architects’ most prominent projects include: Grand Canal Street, Dublin, Ireland Glass Ribbon, Dublin, Ireland Blackrock House, Dundalk, Ireland Churchtown, Dublin, Ireland The Liberties, Dublin, Ireland The following statistics helped Scullion Architects achieve 3rd place in the 30 Best Architecture Firms in Ireland: Featured Projects 4 Total Projects 5 2. ODOS © ODOS The constant questioning of how people work, rest and play in today’s society is the fundamental driving force behind the practice. We strongly believe our clients deserve to be challenged and that buildings need to inspire their occupants. As architects we have a duty to expose such possibilities. We hope to instill a sense of curiosity and excitement, stimulating a response, confronting and challenging traditional conceptions of architecture Some of ODOS’s most prominent projects include: Flynn Mews House, Dublin, Ireland Dwelling at Maytree, Wicklow, Wicklow, Ireland 3 Mews Houses, Dublin, Ireland Grangegorman, Dublin 7, Dublin, Ireland 31 Carysfort Road, Dalkey, Ireland The following statistics helped ODOS achieve 2nd place in the 30 Best Architecture Firms in Ireland: A+Awards Finalist 1 Featured Projects 4 Total Projects 9 1. McCullough Mulvin Architects © McCullough Mulvin Architects McCullough Mulvin Architects is an architecture and urban design practice based in Dublin. Much of our work has been in the design of cultural and civic buildings around Ireland, projects working to define a new public realm in a changing society, dealing with Ireland’s diffuse light and stark materiality. The work is based around an idea of experimentation – from small domestic work through to larger civic projects – testing at all scales, the work is original and the response to each brief particular. There is no house style, rather a concern for improving the lives of people by designing public and private spaces where life is played out. Some of McCullough Mulvin Architects’ most prominent projects include: Medieval Mile Museum, Kilkenny, Ireland Featured image: Trinity Long Room Hub, Dublin, Ireland Z Square House, Temple Gardens, Dublin, Ireland Beaufort Maritime Research Building, Cork, Ireland one up two down , Dublin, Ireland The following statistics helped McCullough Mulvin Architects achieve 1st place in the 30 Best Architecture Firms in Ireland: Featured Projects 4 Total Projects 6 Why Should I Trust Architizer’s Ranking? With more than 30,000 architecture firms and over 130,000 projects within its database, Architizer is proud to host the world’s largest online community of architects and building product manufacturers. Its celebrated A+Awards program is also the largest celebration of architecture and building products, with more than 400 jurors and hundreds of thousands of public votes helping to recognize the world’s best architecture each year. Architizer also powers firm directories for a number of AIA (American Institute of Architects) Chapters nationwide, including the official directory of architecture firms for AIA New York. An example of a project page on Architizer with Project Award Badges highlighted A Guide to Project Awards The blue “+” badge denotes that a project has won a prestigious A+Award as described above. Hovering over the badge reveals details of the award, including award category, year, and whether the project won the jury or popular choice award. The orange Project of the Day and yellow Featured Project badges are awarded by Architizer’s Editorial team, and are selected based on a number of factors. The following factors increase a project’s likelihood of being featured or awarded Project of the Day status: Project completed within the last 3 years A well written, concise project description of at least 3 paragraphs Architectural design with a high level of both functional and aesthetic value High quality, in focus photographs At least 8 photographs of both the interior and exterior of the building Inclusion of architectural drawings and renderings Inclusion of construction photographs There are 7 Projects of the Day each week and a further 31 Featured Projects. Each Project of the Day is published on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram Stories, while each Featured Project is published on Facebook. Each Project of the Day also features in Architizer’s Weekly Projects Newsletter and shared with 170,000 subscribers.     We’re constantly look for the world’s best architects to join our community. If you would like to understand more about this ranking list and learn how your firm can achieve a presence on it, please don’t hesitate to reach out to us at editorial@architizer.com. The post 30 Best Architecture and Design Firms in Ireland appeared first on Journal.

Legendary director, animator and VFX supervisor Phil Tippett is set to host two panels at VIEW Conference 2025. First up is “Stop Motion: Bring the Goods,” in which Phil will join forces with Tippett Studio colleagues Tom Gibbons, Mark Dubeau and Gary Mundell to present their work on Star Wars projects such as The Force Awakens, The Rise of Skywalker, Solo, The Mandalorian, and Skeleton Crew. Next is “SENTINEL and AI:  Brave New World,” VFX supervisor Marc Morissette joining the team to present a sneak peek of Sentinel, the latest slice of irreverent horror from Tippett, which features a combination of CG, analog, and AI techniques. VIEW Conference 2025 runs from October 12-17 in Turin, Italy. A lineup of film directors, animators, artists, and game designers will deliver a program of keynotes, panels, talks, workshops, and masterclasses. The cast of speakers includes Elio directors Domee Shi and Madeline Sharafian, and creatives such as Jamie Umpherson, Alexis Wanneroy, Jake Maymudes, Sandro Blattner, Maciej Kuciara, and Ted Ty. More speakers will be announced soon. Registration is now open. Source: VIEW 2025 Journalist, antique shop owner, aspiring gemologist—L'Wren brings a diverse perspective to animation, where every frame reflects her varied passions.

On this day in 1975, Industrial Light & Magic was officially signed into existence by George Lucas. By Lucas O. Seastrom ILM’s original crew for Star Wars: A New Hope (1977) poses in the front lot of their original studio (Credit: ILM & Lucasfilm). 50 years ago today on May 28, 1975, George Lucas signed a legal certificate issuing his formal shares of stock ownership in a new company: Industrial Light & Magic. It’s likely the founder affixed his signature without pomp or ceremony. There was too much to do. ILM, as it would come to be known for short, had less than two years to build a visual effects studio from scratch and create nearly 400 shots in a new space fantasy film called Star Wars. By that time in late May, Lucas had hired John Dykstra to supervise the film’s visual effects. The director had an audacious vision for creating dynamic images of spaceships dogfighting with each other. Lucas wanted the camera to move with the ships, as if the camera operators were up there to capture the action by hand. The idea broke many of the traditional rules in visual effects that typically required locked off cameras to allow for separate elements to be carefully blended together. Visual effects supervisor John Dykstra poses on the stage next to a TIE fighter miniature (Credit: ILM & Lucasfilm). John Dykstra was practically the only effects artist in Hollywood willing to buy into Lucas’s plans on the existing terms. He’d gained experience with the type of equipment that would be needed to realize the elaborate shots of custom-built miniatures. Dykstra was also a free thinker with a sense of adventure. There were only a handful of effects companies still operating, and none at a major studio. Most balked at the proposal, decrying its limited budget, tight schedule, and seemingly unattainable goals. So Dykstra was tasked with establishing a new operation. Lucas was a Northern Californian and planned to base the editorial side of post-production near his San Francisco Bay Area home. He wanted to do the same for visual effects. Dykstra argued otherwise, deciding to keep the new facility in Southern California where he had access to a network of talent and close proximity to third party film processing labs. So it was at some point in late May that Dykstra located and then leased a warehouse in Van Nuys, one of a number of towns that sprawled across the San Fernando Valley, a ways north of Hollywood proper, and conveniently removed from the overbearing presence of the established studios.  Located in an industrial park on Valjean Avenue, just a block from the south end of the Van Nuys Airport, ILM rented a building for $2,300 a month from owner Bill Hanna. It was two stories, made largely of stacked cinder blocks, with a large asphalt lot in front. Inside were a handful of unfurnished offices and open warehouse space with high ceilings ideal for hanging lights. Early on, Dykstra would drive his motorcycle through the building, leaving skid marks on the floor. It was often oppressively hot, even more so once the tungsten film lights were switched on, and Dykstra initially planned to construct a pool onsite, but later compromised with a cold tub that could hold multiple people. The exterior of ILM’s original studio in Van Nuys, CA. An explosion on the surface of the Death Star is photograped in the foreground (Credit: ILM & Lucasfilm). “It just popped into my head,” Lucas would recall about the name “Industrial Light & Magic.” “We were sitting in an industrial park and using light to create magic. That’s what they were going to do.” Initially, Dykstra worked out of Lucasfilm’s offices in a bungalow on the Universal Studios lot, a few minutes drive from Van Nuys. Soon he’d moved to Valjean, working off the floor before furniture was acquired. He was busy recruiting. By early June, modelmakers Grant McCune and Bill and Jamie Shourt were hired, as were production manager Bob Shepherd, technician Jerry Greenwood, first cameraman Richard Edlund, electronics designer Al Miller, and machinists Richard Alexander and Don Trumbull.  As former Lucasfilm executive editor J.W. Rinzler would note in The Making of Star Wars, “They all knew one another and had worked together before.” They’d worked on feature films with Douglas Trumbull (son of Don), or on commercials and other projects with Robert Abel and Associates. A later group would come from another commercial house, Cascade Pictures. Others came straight from universities where they’d studied everything from animation to industrial design. They brought with them aspects of the culture and methodology from these other places, together making something new and unique. Optical composite photography supervisor Robert Blalack’s Praxis Printer is loaded into the new ILM space (Credit: ILM & Lucasfilm). A view of one of ILM’s shooting stages in the rear of the original Van Nuys studio (Credit: ILM & Lucasfilm). Before anything else could happen, the Valjean warehouse needed to be converted into production space and workshops. Over six weeks into the summer, they first taped out sections and then constructed the designated areas themselves. On the first floor would be the optical and rotoscope departments, a model shop, machine shop, wood shop, two shooting stages in the rear, and production offices in the front. Upstairs would be home to the animation department, editorial, a screening room, and the art department.By July, optical composite photography supervisor Robert Blalack and animation and rotoscope supervisor Adam Beckett had been hired, as had a sound recordist and designer who would use ILM’s space as a sometime home base, Ben Burtt. By early August, artist Joe Johnston was setting up the art department (concept artists Colin Cantwell and Ralph McQuarrie had started much earlier, but each worked from home). Within a few months, a dozen people were on board, many of them attracted to join the project out of admiration for George Lucas, whose American Graffiti (1973) had made waves upon its release two years before. The second floor art department, with storyboard and concept artist Joe Johnston working at a desk in the background as modelmaker Paul Huston looks on (Credit: ILM & Lucasfilm). Film control coordinator Mary Lind in the upstairs editorial department (Credit: ILM & Lucasfilm). The spaces were ready by mid-summer, but ILM’s work had only just begun. It would take them nearly a year to successfully design and construct an entire visual effects facility and workflow, including miniatures, motion-control camera systems, optical printers, animation cameras, and blue screens. “There’s a significant difference between coming up with a good idea and executing it,” Dykstra would say. ILM’s initial budget was roughly $1.2 million. Although time was of the essence to build the various equipment, distributor 20th Century Fox was slow to provide any initial funds ahead of the main shoot, which would commence in the spring of 1976. So for much of its first year, ILM operated with George Lucas’s personal finances, thanks to the momentous commercial success of American Graffiti. Former ILM general manager Thomas G. Smith would explain in his 1986 book, The Art of Special Effects, how “Outside, it looked like all the other industrial-style buildings in the valley. Inside, it was staffed with very young technicians, some barely out of college, few over 30, some even under 20 years old…. The doors at ILM were open 24 hours a day; technicians and artists worked without regard to time clocks or job classifications. They were children of the ’60s, and many rebelled against authority figures and traditional work rules. There were no dress codes and no specified work hours; designers built models, and modelmakers ran cameras. But there was a strong esprit de corps and feeling of purpose in the building…. The involvement was with the cause rather than with the money; somehow the group felt they were a part of something really important.” John Dykstra inspects miniatures of X-wings, TIE fighters, and Y-wings (Credit: ILM & Lucasfilm). The first floor model shop in ILM’s original Van Nuys, CA studio (Credit: ILM & Lucasfilm). What this group was about to accomplish in less than two years was anything but certain that late spring of 1975. If anything, it was “a long shot,” as Dykstra himself would admit. “It was very, very hard to say specifically what was and what wasn’t going to work before we built it,” he told Cinefantastique in 1977. “So we just had to take a shot at it and all I could do was bluff it and say, ‘Oh yeah, everything’s gonna be fine!’”As would become the defining element of ILM’s success and endurance, it was the people who made all the difference. “It would be very hard to do Star Wars just by setting up an independent facility unless you had the personnel to do it,” Dykstra said. “The people who designed the equipment and constructed it made it all happen. Not only was it independent of studios but the people who were doing it are the best people in the industry right now.” What began quietly with a handful of people in a hot, mostly empty warehouse would ultimately do the impossible, not just in the sense of its accomplishments on screen or the resulting accolades, but in its ability to grow, adapt, and continue innovating time and again. That story continues today at the company’s studios around the world. Though ILM has long since outgrown its original warehouse, it still attracts the same intrepid, curious people who bring their passion for image-making and problem-solving to multiple art forms. Watch ILM’s new celebratory reel in honor of the company’s 50th anniversary: — Lucas O. Seastrom is the editor of ILM.com and a contributing writer and historian for Lucasfilm. Read more on the ILM.com Newsroom. Watch Light & Magic on Disney+.

Includes VFX supervisor David Vickery, who hails from ILM. The post Fun short promo for ‘Jurassic World Rebirth’ highlights VFX appeared first on befores & afters.

By TREVOR HOGG Images courtesy of Netflix. Unlike North America where episodes tend to be no longer than an hour, it is not uncommon in Britain to have feature-length episodes, which explains why the seasons are shorter. Season 7 of Black Mirror has six episodes with the first sequel for the Netflix anthology series that explores the dark side of technology having a run time of 90 minutes. “USS Callister: Into Infinity” comes eight years after “USS Callister” went on to win four Emmys as part of Season 4 and expands the tale where illegally constructed digital clones from human DNA struggle to survive in a multiplayer online video game environment. Returning creative talent includes filmmaker Toby Hayness, writers Charlie Brooker and William Bridges, and cast members Cristin Milioti, Jimmi Simpson, Osy Ikhile, Milanka Brooks, Paul Raymond and Jesse Plemons. Stepping into the Star Trek-meets-The Twilight Zone proceedings for the first time is VFX Supervisor James MacLachlan, who previously handled the digital augmentation for Ted Lasso. “[For the planet where the digital clone of James Walton is found]… We got on a train and went to the middle of Anglesey [island in Wales] to a copper mine. The copper mine was absolutely stunning. … You’re a good 50 meters down, and there were little tunnels and caves where over the years things have been mined and stopped. … It was shot there, and we augmented some of it to help sell the fact that it wasn’t Earth. We put in these big beautiful arches of rock, Saturn-like planets up in the sky, a couple of moons, and clean-up of giveaways.” —James MacLachlan, Visual Effects Supervisor Taking advantage of the reflective quality of the bridge set was the LED wall utilized for the main viewscreen. Dealing with a sequel to a critically-acclaimed episode was not a daunting task. “It’s almost like I have a cheat code for what we need to do, which I quite like because there’s a language from the previous show, so we have a certain number of outlines and guidelines,” MacLachlan states. “But because this was set beyond where the previous one was. it’s a different kind of aesthetic. I didn’t feel the pressure.” No assets were reused. “We were lucky that the company that previously did the USS Callister ship packaged it out neatly for us, and we were able to take that model; however, it doesn’t fit in pipelines anymore in the same way with the layering and materials. It was different visual effects vendors as well. Union VFX was smashing out all our new ships, planets and the Heart of Infinity. There was a significant number of resources put into new content.” Old props were helpful. “The Metallica ship that shows up in this episode is actually the Valdack ship turned backwards, upside down, re-textured and re-modeled off a prop I happened to wander past and saw in Charlie Brooker’s and Jessica Rhoades’ office.” MacLachlan notes. Greenscreens were placed outside of the set windows for the USS Callister. “USS Callister: Into Infinity” required 669 visual effects shots while the other five episodes totaled 912. “Josie Henwood, the Visual Effects Producer, sat down with a calculator and did an amazing job of making sure that the budget distribution was well-weighted for each of the scripts,’ MacLachlan remarks. “We shot this one third and posted it all the way to the end, so it overlapped a lot with some of the others. It was almost an advantage because we could work out where we were at with the major numbers and balance things out. It was a huge benefit that Toby had directed ‘USS Callister’. We had conversations about how we could approach the visual effects and make sure they sat within the budget and timeframe.” Working across the series were Crafty Apes, Jam VFX, Jellyfish Pictures, Magic Lab, One of Us, Stargate Studios, Terraform Studios, Union VFX, and Bigtooth Studios.  “We had a spectrum of vendors that were brilliant and weighted so Union VFX took the heavy load on ‘USS Callister: Into Infinity,’ One of Us on ‘Eulogy’ and Jam VFX on ‘Hotel Riverie’ while the other vendors were used for all the shows.” “[W]e had a matte painter at Territory Studio create some generic space looks like exteriors of planets in pre-production. We gave those to Union VFX who animated them so the stars gently drifted and the planets would slowly rotate. Everything in that set was chrome, so no matter where the camera was pointing, when we went to hyperspace, outside planets or in space, there were all of these beautiful reflections all over the surfaces of the USS Callister. What I did not anticipate is when the actors came onto the set not knowing it was going to be a LED wall. Their reaction was enough to say that we had made the right choice.” —James MacLachlan, Visual Effects Supervisor Miranda Jones looked after the production design and constructed a number of practical sets for the different sections of the USS Callister. A clever visual effect was deployed when a digital clone of Robert Daly (Jesse Plemmons) is in his garage crafting a new world for Infinity, which transforms from a horizontal landscape into a spherical planetary form. “A lot of it was based off current UI when you use your phone and scroll,” MacLachlan remarks. “It is weighted and slows down through an exponential curve, so we tried to do that with the rotational values. We also looked at people using HoloLenses and Minority Report with those gestural moments. It has a language that a number of people are comfortable with, and we have gotten there with AR.” Union VFX spent a lot of time working on the transition. “They had three levels of detail for each of the moments. We had the mountain range and talked about the Himalayas. Union VFX had these moments where they animated between the different sizes and scales of each of these models. The final one is a wrap and reveal to the sphere, so it’s like you’re scaling down and out of the moment, then it folds out from itself. It was really nice.” For safety reasons, weapons were digitally thrown. “We had a 3D prop printed for the shuriken and were able to get that out in front of the camera onstage,” MacLachlan explains. “Then we decided to have it stand out more, so as [the Infinity Player] throws it, it intentionally lights up. On set we couldn’t throw anything at Cristin, so some tracking markers were put on her top where it needed to land. Then we did that in CGI. When she is pulling it off her chest with her hand, the shuriken is all CGI. Because of the shape of the shuriken, we were able to have it poke through the fingers and was visible, so it worked well. Cristin did a convincing job of yanking the shuriken out. We added some blood and increased the size of the wound on her top, which we had to do for a couple of other scenes because blood goes dark when its dry, so it needed to be made redder.” Nanette Cole (Cristin Milioti) throws a ceremonial knife that hits Robert Daly directly in the head. “That was a crazy one. We had the full prop on the shelf in the beginning that she picks up and throws. The art department made a second one with a cutout section that was mounted to his head. Lucy Cain [Makeup & Hair Designer] and I constructed a cage of hair clips and wire to hold it onto his head. Beyond that, we put tracking markers on his forehead, and we were able to add all of the blood. What we didn’t want to do was have too much blood and then have to remove it later. The decision was made to do the blood in post because you don’t want to be redressing it if you’re doing two or three takes; that can take a lot of time out of production.” “USS Callister: Into Infinity” required 669 visual effects shots. A digital clone of Robert Daly placed inside the game engine is responsible for creating the vast worlds found inside of Infinity. “We had a 3D prop printed for the shuriken [hidden hand weapon]… Then we decided to have it stand out more, so as [the Infinity Player] throws it, it intentionally lights up. On set we couldn’t throw anything at Cristin, so some tracking markers were put on her top where it needed to land. Then we did that in CGI. When she is pulling it off her chest with her hand, the shuriken is all CGI. Because of the shape of the shuriken, we were able to have it poke through the fingers and was visible… Cristin did a convincing job of yanking the shuriken out.” —James MacLachlan, Visual Effects Supervisor A cross between 2001: A Space Odyssey and Cast Away is the otherworldly planet where the digital clone of James Walton (Jimmi Simpson) is found. “We got on a train and went to the middle of Anglesey [island in Wales] to a copper mine,” MacLachlan recounts. “The copper mine was absolutely stunning. It’s not as saturated. You’re a good 50 meters down, and there were little tunnels and caves where over the years things have been mined and stopped. We found moments that worked for the different areas. It was shot there, and we augmented some of it to help sell the fact that it wasn’t Earth. We put in these big beautiful arches of rock, Saturn-like planets up in the sky, a couple of moons, and clean-up of giveaways.” The blue teleportation ring was practically built and digitally enhanced. Set pieces were LiDAR scanned. “What was interesting about the ice planet [was that] the art department built these amazing structures in the foreground and beyond that we had white drapes the whole way around, which fell off into darkness beautifully and naturally because of where the light was pulled by Stephan Pehrsson [Cinematographer],” MacLachlan states. “On top of that, there was the special effects department, which was wafting in a lot of atmospherics. Some of the atmospherics were in-camera and others were augmented to even it out and boost it in places to help the situation. We did add foreground snow. There is a big crane shot in the beginning where Unreal Engine assisted in generating some material. Then we did matte painting and set extensions beyond that to create a larger scale and cool rock shapes that were on an angle.” The jungle setting was an actual location. “That’s Black Park [in England], and because of the time of year, there are a lot of protected plants. We had a couple of moments where we weren’t allowed to walk in certain places. There is one big stunt where Nanette steps on a mine, and it explodes her back against a tree. That was a protected tree, so the whole thing was wrapped in this giant stunt mat while the stunt woman got thrown across it. Areas would be filled in with dressed plants to help the foreground, but we got most of the background in-camera. There were bits of clean-up where we spotted crew or trucks.” Large-scale and distinct rock shapes were placed at an angle to give the ice planet more of an alien quality. An exterior space shot of the USS Callister that is entirely CG. Twin versions of Nanette Cole and James Walton appear within the same frame. “Literally, we used every trick in the book the whole way through. Stephan and I went to see a motion control company that had a motion control camera on a TechnoDolly. Stephan could put it on his shoulder and record a move on a 20-foot crane. Once Stephan had done that first take, he would step away, then the motion control guys would do the same move again. You get this handheld feel through motion control rather than plotting two points and having it mechanical. You get a wide of a scene of clone Nanette in a chair and real Nanette standing in white, and you’ll notice the two Waltons in the background interacting with one another. Those shots were done on this motion control rig. We had motion control where we could plot points to make it feel like a tracking dolly. Then we also had our cameraman doing handheld moves pushing in and repeating himself. We had a wonderful double for Cristin who was excellent at mirroring what she was achieving, and they would switch and swap. You would have a shoulder or hair in the foreground in front of you, but then we would also stitch plates together that were handheld.” The USS Callister approaches the game engine situated at the Heart of Infinity. A homage to the fighter cockpit shots featured in the Star Wars franchise. USS Callister flies into the game engine while pursued by other Infinity players. A major story point is that the game engine is made to look complex but is in fact a façade. A copper mine served as the location for the planet where the digital clone of James Walton (Jimmi Simpson) is found. Principal photography for the jungle planet took place at Black Park in England. The blue skin of Elena Tulaska (Milanka Brooks) was achieved with practical makeup. Assisting the lighting were some cool tools such as the teleportation ring. “We had this beautiful two-meter blue ring that we were able to put on the ground and light up as people step into it,” MacLachlan remarks. “You get these lovely reflections on their visors, helmets and kits. Then we augmented the blue ring in visual effects where it was replaced with more refined edging and lighting effects that stream up from it, which assisted with the integration with the teleportation effect because of their blue cyan tones.” Virtual production was utilized for the main viewscreen located on the bridge of the USS Callister. “In terms of reflections, the biggest boon for us in visual effects was the LED wall. The last time they did the big screen in the USS Callister was a greenscreen. We got a small version of a LED screen when the set was being built and did some tests. Then we had a matte painter at Territory Studio create some generic space looks like exteriors of planets in pre-production. We gave those to Union VFX who animated them so the stars gently drifted and the planets would slowly rotate. Everything in that set was chrome, so no matter where the camera was pointing, when we went to hyperspace or outside planets or in space, there were all of these beautiful reflections all over the surfaces of the USS Callister. What I did not anticipate is when the actors came onto the set not knowing it was going to be a LED wall. Their reaction was enough to say that we had made the right choice.”

Interviews Mickey 17: Stuart Penn – VFX Supervisor – Framestore By Vincent Frei - 27/05/2025 When we last spoke with Stuart Penn in 2019, he walked us through Framestore’s work on Avengers: Endgame. He has since added The Aeronauts, Moon Knight, 1899, and Flite to his impressive list of credits. How did you get involved on this show? Soon after we had been awarded work, Director Bong visited our London Studio in May 2022 to meet us and share his vision with us. How was the sequences made by Framestore? Framestore was responsible for the development of the Baby and Mama Creepers. We worked on the shots of the Baby Creepers within the ship, and the Creepers in the caves and the ice crevasse. We developed the ice cave and crevasse environments, including a full-CG shot of Mickey falling into the crevasse. Within the ship we were also responsible for the cycler room with its lava pit, the human printer, a range of set extensions, Marshall’s beautiful rock and—one of my personal favourites—Pigeon Man’s spinning eyes. We also crafted the spacewalk sequence. All the work came out of our London and Mumbai studios. Bong Joon Ho has a very distinct visual storytelling style. How did you collaborate with him to ensure the VFX aligned with his vision, and were there any unexpected creative challenges that pushed the team in new directions? Director Bong was fun to work with, very collaborative and had a very clear vision of where the film was going. We had discussions before and during the shoot. While we were shooting, Director Bong would talk to us about the backstory of what the Creepers might be thinking that went beyond the scope of what we would see in the movie. This really helped with giving the creatures character. Can you walk us through the design and animation process for the baby and mother creepers? What references or inspirations helped shape their look and movement? Director Bong had been working with his creature designer, Heechul Jang, for many months before production started. We had kickoffs with Director Bong and Heechul that provided us with some of the best and most thought out concepts I think we’ve ever received. Director Bong set us the challenge of bringing them to life. We took the lead on the Baby and Mama Creepers and DNEG took on the Juniors. It’s fun to note that the energy and inquisitive nature of the Babies was inspired by reference footage of puppies. Were these creatures primarily CG, or was there any practical element involved? How did you ensure their integration into the live-action footage? They were all CG in the final film. On set we had a range of stuffies and mockups for actors to interact with and for lighting reference. People became quite attached to the baby creeper stuffies! For the Mama there was a head and large frame that was controlled by a team of puppeteers for eyeline and lighting reference. The ice cave has a very distinct visual style. How did you achieve the look of the ice, and what techniques were used to create the lighting and atmospheric effects inside the cave? I was sent to Iceland for a week to gather reference. I visited a range of ice cave locations—driving, hiking and being dropped by helicopter at various locations across a glacier. This reference provided the basis for the look of the caves. The ice was rendered fully refractive with interior volumes to create the structures. As it’s so computationally expensive to render we used tricks where we could reproject a limited number of fully rendered frames. This worked best on lock offs or small camera moves—others we just had to render full length. How were the scenes featuring multiple Mickeys filmed? Did you rely mostly on motion control, digital doubles, or a combination of techniques to seamlessly integrate the clones into the shots? For our shots it was mostly multiple plates relying on the skill of camera operators to match the framing and move and the comp work to either split frames or lift one of the Mickeys from a plate and replace the stand-in. Since Mickey’s clones are central to the story, what were the biggest VFX challenges in making them interact convincingly? Were there any specific techniques used to differentiate them visually or subtly show their progression over time? This really all came down to Robert Pattinson’s performances. He would usually be acting with his double for interaction and lighting. They would then switch positions and redo the performance. Robs could switch between the Mickey 17 and 18 characters with the assistance of quick hair and makeup changes. The prison environment seems to have a unique aesthetic and mood. How much of it was built practically, and how did VFX contribute to enhancing or extending the set? The foreground cells and storage containers were practical and everything beyond the fence was CG with a DMP overlay. The containers going off into the distance were carefully positioned and lit to enable you to feel the vast scale of the ship. We also replaced the fence in most shots with CG as it was easier than rotoing through the chain links. When Mickey is outside the ship, exposed to radiation, there are several extreme body effects, including his hand coming off. Can you discuss the challenges of creating these sequences, particularly in terms of digital prosthetics and damage simulations? Knocking Mickey’s hand off was quite straight forward due the speed of the impact. We started with a plate of the practical arm and glove and switch to a pre-sculpted CG glove and arm stump. The hand spinning off into the distance was hand animated to allow us to fully art direct the spin and trajectory. The final touch was to add and FX sim for the blood droplets. How did you balance realism and stylization in depicting the effects of radiation exposure? Were there real-world references or scientific studies that guided the look of the damage? Most of the radiation effects came from great make up and prosthetics—we just added some final touches such as an FX sim for a bursting blister. We tried a few different simulations based on work we had none on previous shows but ultimately dialed it back to something more subtle so it didn’t distract from the moment. Were there any memorable moments or scenes from the film that you found particularly rewarding or challenging to work on from a visual effects standpoint? There were a lot of quite diverse challenges. From creature work, environments, lava to a lot of ‘one off’ effects. The shot where the Creepers are pushing Mickey out into the snow was particularly challenging, with so many Creepers interacting with each other and Mickey, it took the combination of several animators and compositors to bring it together and integrate with the partial CG Mickey. Looking back on the project, what aspects of the visual effects are you most proud of? The baby creeper and the Ice cave environment. How long have you worked on this show? I worked on it for about 18 months What’s the VFX shots count? Framestore worked on 405 shots. A big thanks for your time. WANT TO KNOW MORE?Framestore: Dedicated page about Mickey 17 on Framestore website. © Vincent Frei – The Art of VFX – 2025

Breakdown & Showreels The Electric State: A World Full of Unique Robots by Digital Domain By Vincent Frei - 26/05/2025 In the final episode of Behind The Electric State, VFX Supervisor Joel Behrens and Animation Supervisor Liz Bernard from Digital Domain dive into the film’s most ambitious sequences — packed with fully CG environments and an army of bots, each with their own personality! WANT TO KNOW MORE?Digital Domain: Dedicated page about The Electric State in Digital Domain website.Joel Behrens & Elizabeth “Liz” Bernard: Here’s my interview with Joel Behrens (VFX Supervisor) & Elizabeth “Liz” Bernard (Animation Supervisor). © Vincent Frei – The Art of VFX – 2025

Women have been an important part of the armed services since the beginning, with icons like Harriet Tubman participating in the Civil War. While being female in a traditionally male-dominated space hasn't always been easy, these women have still served their countries.In 2023, the US Department of Defense reported that the percentage of women serving in active and reserve capacities was growing. In 2022, 17.5% of active-duty roles and 21.6% of the National Guard and reserves were women, up slightly from the year before, it reported, citing the 2022 Demographics Profile of the Military Community.On Memorial Day this year, here are 12 famous women who have served in the military around the world, including Bea Arthur, Queen Elizabeth, and more. Harriet Tubman was a military leader and Union spy during the Civil War. Harriet Tubman. MPI/Getty Images Most know Harriet Tubman for her groundbreaking work with the Underground Railroad and, later, as an abolitionist, but as National Geographic reported, Tubman was also an integral part of the Civil War.In 1863, Tubman and Colonel James Montgomery led a group of soldiers in freeing slaves from plantations in South Carolina, making Tubman the first woman in US history to lead a military expedition, according to National Geographic.Her work continued as a spy and recruiter for the Union Army. This operation was so covert that only President Lincoln knew about it.Tubman received compensation for her military contributions decades later, in 1899. Thomas B. Allen, the author of "Harriet Tubman, Secret Agent," called Tubman "one of the great heroines of the Civil War." Queen Elizabeth was a military truck driver during World War II. Queen Elizabeth outside a first aid truck during World War II. Keystone/Getty Images Queen Elizabeth was only 18 years old when she begged her father, King George VI, to take part in helping out during World War II. She joined the Women's Auxiliary Territorial Service in England that same year and was known as "Second Subaltern Elizabeth Windsor," according to the National Archives.While serving, the young queen drove military trucks and trained as a mechanic, making her, to this day, the only female member of the Royal Family to enter the armed forces.  NASA's Eileen Collins was one of the first female pilots in the Air Force and in space. Eileen Collins. NASA Eileen Collins broke several barriers during her career: Not only was she NASA's first female shuttle commander, but at 23, she became the Air Force's first female flight instructor, according to the agency.She joined the Air Force in 1978, becoming one of the first four women to go through pilot training at Vance Air Force Base in Enid, Oklahoma. She wrote in Time, "The Air Force was testing whether women could succeed as military pilots. We obviously were living in a fishbowl — everyone knew who we were, our personal business, our test scores and our flight performance. My philosophy was to be the best pilot I could be."Her military training directly led her to test-pilot school, where she "knew" she would go on to be the first female space shuttle pilot — and succeeded in doing so.   "Golden Girl" Bea Arthur was one of the first members of the Marine Corps Women's Reserve. Bea Arthur. Lennox McLendon/AP Photo Before she was Dorothy Zbornak on "The Golden Girls," Emmy Award-winning actor Bea Arthur was a Marine.As reported by The Daily Beast, Arthur enlisted in the Women's Reserve when she was 21 years old. She first served as a typist and truck driver. She worked her way up to staff sergeant and was honorably discharged in 1945. Official documents show that Arthur's supervisors thought she was "argumentative," which is not a far cry from the feisty persona she became known for on both "The Golden Girls" and "Maude." "Stranger Things" actor Jennifer Marshall served in the US Navy for five years. Jennifer Marshall as Susan Hargrove on "Stranger Things." Netflix Before Jennifer Marshall scored the role of Susan Hargrove on Netflix's hit show "Stranger Things," she served in the United States Navy from ages 17 to 22. According to Marshall's website, during her service, she was a forklift operator, aircraft handler, and logistics specialist. She also worked for the USS Theodore Roosevelt's Sexual Assault Victim Intervention (SAVI) program. Marshall was awarded many honors and medals for her time in the Navy. Now, in addition to acting, she works with Pin-Ups For Vets, a nonprofit organization that aids hospitalized veterans and deployed troops. Food Network star Sunny Anderson was in the Air Force. Sunny Anderson. Jim Spellman/Getty Images Anderson, who hosts "The Kitchen," "Cooking for Real," and "Home Made in America," grew up around the military because of her parents. As an adult, she enlisted in the US Air Force as a radio broadcaster and journalist, working in Seoul, South Korea, and in San Antonio. "I knew that there were radio stations, television stations, newspapers, and magazines, for the military, by the military, and I wanted to be a part of that," Anderson told ABC News in 2013.She also wanted to train in something that would be useful when she left the military."My transition from the Air Force started before I even got in the Air Force," she said. Radio talk show host Robin Quivers was a captain in the Air Force. Robin Quivers. Walter McBride/WireImage via Getty Images Robin Quivers has co-hosted "The Howard Stern Show" for over 30 years, but before that, she served as a captain in the US Air Force.Quivers got her degree in nursing from the University of Maryland and put it to use by joining the military as a second lieutenant after college. She quickly climbed the ranks, and when she was discharged in 1978, her official title was captain, according to Biography.com.She served as a reserve in the Air Force until 1990, per military records, after which she fully pivoted to her career in radio. But Howard Stern hired her for his show in 1981, which means that Quivers — though she was "inactive" — was still technically serving while she was on the air. Actor Zulay Henao served in the US Army for three years. Zulay Henao. JB Lacroix/ Getty Images Colombian-American actor Zulay Henao has appeared on the show "Army Wives," but few know that she herself served in the US Army before becoming an actor.Henao enlisted after completing high school and, after three years of serving, went on to enroll at the New York Conservatory for Dramatic Arts.She previously spoke to the paparazzi about her time in the military, saying: "I wouldn't be doing what I'm doing, and I wouldn't have the perspective I have of the world, if it weren't for the Army." Olympic medalist Shauna Rohbock was in the National Guard. Shauna Rohbock. Harry How/Getty Images Shauna Rohbock is an Olympic bobsledder and won the silver medal at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Torino, Italy. But before that, according to Team USA, Rohbock joined the Utah Army National Guard and was part of the National Guard Outstanding Athlete Program. Olympian Amber English competed while still in the military. She won gold in women's skeet shooting at the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo. Amber English at the 2020 Olympics. Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images At her first Olympics, First Lt. Amber English took gold with an Olympic record score of 56, NBC reported. Technically not yet a veteran, she's a logistics officer and member of the Army Marksmanship Unit, according to Military.com.After English's win, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin congratulated her on Twitter, now known as X."Your country is extremely proud of you today, and I'm so glad you're representing us," he wrote.She joins an illustrious list of medal winners, both male and female, with military backgrounds. "Wonder Woman" Gal Gadot served in the Israel Defense Forces for two years. Gal Gadot. Dia Dipasupil/Getty Images After Gal Gadot was crowned Miss Israel in 2004 and before she became Wonder Woman in 2017, she served her mandatory two years in the IDF. During her assignment, she worked as a "physical fitness specialist," teaching gymnastics and calisthenics to the soldiers, PopSugar reported.Pro-Palestine groups have criticized her service, as well as her support of the Israeli military and cause in social media posts."I think much of it comes from ignorance and people not understanding what most people do in the army in Israel or what I did in the army during my service in the military," she told The Jakarta Post in May 2021. She added, "Being an Israeli and going to the army is an integral thing. It's something you have to do. It's mandatory." Ruth Westheimer, better known as the sex therapist Dr. Ruth, trained as a sniper in the IDF. Dr. Ruth. Donna Svennevik/Walt Disney Television/Getty Images Dr. Ruth was a Holocaust survivor, and after World War II ended, she moved as a teenager to what would become Israel. During her time there, she trained as a sniper due to her small size.She told The New Yorker in 2013, "I have no idea what the experience would be if I had to show it. But I was a very good sniper."Melina Glusac contributed to an earlier version of this story.