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Nope, those 30-year-old Terminator 2 bullet effects weren’t CGI, they were practical effects

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When 1991’s Terminator 2 was first released, it was an effects marvel, in terms of both Special Effects and Visual Effects. The two terms are essentially differentiated by their use of computer graphics, and Terminator 2 was pretty groundbreaking in terms of the latter. But it still contained a lot of practical effects – and that included the bullet hits on the mimetic polyalloy (“liquid metal”) T-1000 Terminator, portrayed by Robert Patrick.

A recent post to the Stan Winston School Instagram account recently shared a behind the scenes clip along with an excerpt from The Winston Effect: The Art and History of Stan Winston Studio by Jody Duncan. It demonstrates and explains how the bullet impacts were created using “vacumetalized” latex, foam and a spring-loaded mechanism triggered by an RC controller.

Recreating the Apollo 13 rocket launch with practical models at home

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Winner of multiple Oscars, BAFTAs and SAG awards, Apollo 13 was a pretty epic movie. And with a budget of $52 million it had some pretty spectacular effects, too. Apollo 13 was a mix of model and miniature effects as well as CG and compositing, with one of the most memorable scenes being the launch itself.

DIY filmmaking and effects guru Steve Ramsden wanted to have a go at remaking this scene for himself with the help of a model rocket, some stock footage and Google Earth. Ironically, this was exactly the way the VFX team on the actual movie didn’t want to shoot it, but Steve’s interpretation turned out pretty well.

Verizon’s new 5G ad serves up some impressive visual effects to illustrate a world with lag

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Most commercials don’t interest me these days. But sometimes, you spot one that really grabs your attention. This one from Verizon called The Reset, to promote their 5G service, grabbed mine. And I’m not even close to being in their service area, living in a different continent n’ all.

The 2-minute video shows what the world would be like if we experienced video game “lag” in real life and it’s just packed with some pretty amazing (and occasionally creepy) visual effects. It reminds me a lot of the early days of World of Warcraft, with glitchy terrain, walking through walls and things not loading exactly where they’re supposed to be.

Watch to see the evolution of chase sequences over the last 100 years

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Chase scenes have been a staple in movies for almost as long as movies have existed. And boy have they changed over the years! Car chase scenes from the 1920s look practically comical now, yet were at the pinnacle of on-screen drama back in their day. With Fast & Furious 9 set to hit our screens this year, Insider decided to take a look at how they’ve evolved over the last 100 years.

From 1924’s Sherlock Junior, through Bullitt, The French Connection, Ronin, Drive and more, through to the latest Fast & Furious movies, it covers a lot of ground in not only how the filming of the scenes has evolved, but how new technological innovation has allowed them to kick things up a notch every so often.

DaVinci Resolve 17 final now available in native Apple M1 flavour

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Blackmagic has announced that DaVinci Resolve 17, released just a couple of weeks ago, is now also available as an Apple M1 native application. As with the beta, the version built specifically for Apple Silicon is version 17.1. Final releases have been made for both the free and Studio version of DaVinci Reoslve and are available to download now from the Blackmagic website.

After Adobe’s announcement yesterday of Photoshop also seeing its native M1 version come out of beta, Apple’s new Silicon-based systems are starting to look even more attractive to creatives.

Blackmagic DaVinci Resolve 17 is now out of beta, hits final release

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It’s been a bit of a journey since the last major release of DaVinci Resolve. Resolve 16 came out almost two years ago, at NAB in April 2019. Finally, last November, Blackmagic announced that Resolve 17 was being released as a public beta, letting us get our grubby little mitts on the newest version to have a play and see what we could break.

Today, Blackmagic has announced that DaVinci Resolve 17 is now out of beta and sees its first final release. As with all new major Resolve versions, Resolve 17 offers a massive number of new features and improvements over Resolve 16. Over 300, they say, along with native support for Apple’s new M1 chips.

Blackmagic adds support for new M1-powered Macs in 17.1 Beta update

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Quick off the mark, Blackmagic has today announced a new update to the DaVinci Resolve 17 Beta. The new 17.1 version adds support for Apple’s new M1-powered Macs. The new update brings all of the recently released features of the DaVinci Resolve 17 Beta to the new M1 Macs, including the new HDR grading tools, redesigned colour wheels, next-generation Fairlight engine and all the rest of it.

Literally, the only thing the new DaVinci Resolve 17.1 Beta 1 offers over DaVinci Resolve 17 is support for the M1 Macs. It’s designed to take advantage of the unified memory architecture on the M1 to increase performance on the new systems. But for those that missed the previous announcement, here is a complete list of all the changes and updates since Resolve 16.

Blackmagic has announced DaVinci Resolve 17 with a bunch of new features and performance enhancements

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Blackmagic Design has today announced the latest iteration of their video editing and colour grading software, DaVinci Resolve 17. The new version, which is a Public Beta, comes with “hundreds of cleanups” and a number of “powerful new features”. As with previous versions of Resolve, it combines editing, colour correction, visual effects, motion graphics and audio into a single package.

The latest update add some performance benefits, particularly with optical flow, and some fantastic features that users have been hoping would come for a long time. There are also a couple of new desktop hardware tools to help you more easily interact with the software outside of the usual keyboard and mouse.

ILM used a Canon 5D III and Nikon 28mm lens to shoot space scenes for The Mandalorian

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It’s funny how a company can use both the latest insane bleeding-edge tech as well as gear that’s deemed “obsolete” by the masses in order to produce one of the most popular TV shows to ever grace our screens. But that’s exactly what Disney did for The Mandalorian – New season begins tomorrow!

Although much of The Mandalorian, and particularly the space scenes, were created using some pretty next-level CG, a number of scenes for the new series in the show were actually shot using the Canon EOS 5D Mark III DSLR… With a $500 Nikon 28mm f/2.8 manual focus lens.

How to recreate the original title card from “The Thing” completely in-camera

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The Thing is arguably one of sci-fi’s finest masterpieces, of that there is no doubt. Released in 1982, its creators didn’t have access to even the most modest of modern CG tools that can run on just about everybody’s desktop or laptop computer today. They had to do things practically. For real. In-camera.

Amongst those things shot practically is the initial opening title sequence. After initially seeing a ship hurtling towards the earth, the words “THE THING” are burned into the screen. But how exactly was it done? In this video, Tommy and the team at InCamera walk us through a recreation, sticking as closely to the original techniques as possible.

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