Masters of FX: Behind the Scenes with Geniuses of Visual and Special Effects 1st Edition

It's interesting to read about how they did the different effects and see the evolution of technology. There are also interesting bits about different people at ILM and related companies.

Great book, but the graphic design hurts readability. Type is hard to read on bright colored backgrounds.

The media could not be loaded. This book should have been part of the FilmCraft series of books that were published by Focal Press and ILEX. The presentation style is similar and that series is just lacking a book on visual effects.Masters of FX is a book on that goes behind the scenes to show you how visual and special effects are made. This is done through interviews with 16 top VFX practitioners in the film industry.The contributors includeJohn BrunoChris CorbouldRichard EdlundScott FarrarPaul FranklinKaren GoulekasIan HunterJohn KnollRobert LegatoJoe LetteriDennis MurenJohn RosengrantPhil TippettDouglas TrumbullBill WestenhoferEdson WilliamsI've not heard of all these people but the movies they have helped made are films like Ghostbusters, Star Wars, Inception, Minority Report, Lord of the Rings, Life of Pi, Planet of the Apes reboots, Jurassic Park, Captain America and other classics and big budget blockbusters.It's fascinating and interesting to read about how visual effects were created for the old movies like Ghostbusters, Terminator and the recent ones such as Interstellar or Avatar. Each of the VFX supervisors would talk about selected sequences that are from the films, e.g. the folding Paris blocks in Inception, and explain the technology involved. Even after reading the explanation, it's still quite awe-inspiring to learn about how those effects are actually created. Those people working in the VFX department are amazing.Many of the supervisors have worked on the same films so there are sections where the films are mentioned a couple of times throughout the book.This is an illuminating book that provides insight into how VFX are created and used in films. It's like magicians explaining their magic tricks.(See more pictures of the book on my blog. Just visit my Amazon profile for the link.)

The media could not be loaded.  When combined with a great story and compelling performances, directors can utilize visual effects to take their films to a level of immersion that was once impossible. Audiences are becoming more and more familiar with visual effects in movies (almost every one of the top grossing films of the last decade have relied on extensive visual effects work); but they are not necessarily familiar with those who are actually responsible for this work.The new book "Masters of FX" from Focal Press highlights 16 of the visual effects professionals who are among the best in their craft. Each featured person gets about 10-12 pages which discusses 4-5 of their most well known movies. In reading through the book, which highlights the various VFX milestones that these individuals were a part of, it's fascinating to see just how many of these guys were involved in some way with the "Star Wars" movies - Dennis Muren, Phil Tippett, Richard Edlund, etc.Here are some others you may (or should) know:- Chris Corbould: special effects supervisor on the James Bond franchise and the Dark Knight trilogy.- John Knoll: CCO of Industrial Light & Magic, co-creator of Photoshop, and VFX supervisor of the Star Wars prequels and the Pirates of the Caribbean films.- Joe Letteri: director of Weta Digital and 4-time Oscar winner for his work on Avatar, King Kong (2005), and Lord of the Rings.A wide variety of movies are discussed, so there's something here for everyone. Naturally, there are a lot of science fiction and fantasy films given that they are more reliant on effects than other genres. The book went to press in 2015, and there's no shortage of recent films mentioned (World War Z, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, Interstellar). But all the classics are here too - Blade Runner, Back to the Future, Raiders of the Lost Ark, and 2001: A Space Odyssey.The topics discussed are just as diverse as the people and films featured. When people hear visual effects they tend to think of CGI and digital effects. But the text serves as a reminder that artists were creating unique characters and environments using practical effects long before the days of computer assistance. The book discusses models and miniatures, forced perspective, and good old-fashioned stunt work.I should also mention that the book includes two forewords - one by director James Cameron and the other by producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura. Cameron states it best when he says "VFX is a love affair with the impossible". There is also a handy glossary with 30+ terms that are relevant to visual effects (rotoscoping, matchmaking, rendering, etc).A book about visual effects no doubt will rely heavily on imagery, and there is plenty of it to be found in the pages of "Masters of FX". I actually found myself wanting to see even more imagery to support the text - each film gets only 1-2 pictures. The good news is that where there are pictures, they are all printed large and at a high resolution. I should also mention that in general, the layout of the book is very appealing.Through its profiles of these VFX pioneers and their films, "Masters of FX" is a successful exploration into a complex and fascinating art form.*NOTE: A big thanks to Focal Press for making this book available to me for review.**See accompanying video for a brief flip-through of the book.*****A few other books I would also recommend for those interested in VFX: The Art of Film Magic: 20 Years of Weta Industrial Light & Magic: The Art of Innovation

Masters of FX is a great book, from one of the best journalists writing about VFX today. It focusses on key legends behind many of your favourite frames. Some of them are true pioneers, others are the ringleaders or workhorses behind the biggest and best Hollywood productions, all pushing forward the state of the art.Like all successful effects films, it perfectly overlaps its examples of practical and digital work.It goes to some of the landmark films multiple times. It is telling that these examples are so multidisciplinary and effective.It also highlights the emerging best practices - virtual cinematography, onset performance capture and digital skin work.You will see a repetition of the same key mantras - look at the real world, and study photography.There are, inevitably, some nitpicks, but no significant flaws.It might have been nice to see more examples of in-studio capture, as seen on Gravity.There is a lack of corresponding images in some cases - sometimes it relies too heavily on a familiarity with the scenes being discussed. Given how iconic most of these moments are it's not a big problem, but if any studios feel inclined to give permission for more images to be included in a future reprint that'd be better!It's not always possible to tell from the text exactly when techniques were being pioneered and when they had already been well established e.g. Split screen/using the same actor in multiple passes as discussed for The Social Network, Multiplicity and Back To The Future 2.And only once - in the case of the Transformers robots - does it descend to dazzling with somewhat meaningless statistics.Overall it's a must-have. It condenses the knowledge of 20+ Cinefexes into a single very readable tome. It's an easily digestible 192 pages packed with large imagery and personal stories, which will be appreciated by novices and professionals alike.Forget online rants about why CGI sucks, if you want to learn how special films truly conjure up magic, using whatever appropriate technique, start here.

Quite a comprehensive introduction to the Masters. Each one of whom could have done with twice the word count. The pictures use valuable space on images that the likely readership will already be familiar with when more space for text would have been more useful. Not a substitute for Cinefex but a good book giving a well deserved spotlight to the true masters of modern cinema, unfortunately none of whom are known outside of the VFX industry (and a few fanboys) unlike the adored actors who stand upon the shoulders of these Titans.

This wasn't what I expected really. Some nice stories from the people who made it all happen, but I didn't learn a great deal that was new, or about the techniques employed. There were also several grammar/spelling errors and at least one set of images that were poor quality - as though they were video captures.

HelloWhen I opened the packed the book was dirty black mark like it was seconds handNot happy.

Such an amazing book! So interesting to find out about these innovators of VFX! Brilliant photos to accompany too and excellently written! The forward by James Cameron is very inciteful too!