Abraham Lincoln: Underrated Hunter

I can't help but feel that I lack creativity - blame the mediocre title of this blog post. I know I suck at this but you shouldn't care. But you SHOULD care about Abraham Lincoln. 

The Expendables 2 - All It Was Set Out To Be.

I wasn't too keen on the first film and had pretty good reasons to believe that - the film was marred by a thinly-written script and an overused plot. It nailed the 'action' part of the genre but the emotional tease that you expect from a movie of this caliber was non-existent. This wasn't the case with the sequel. 

In fact, the sequel was surprisingly a whole lot more gripping and watchable than it's predecessor. When you call something an action movie, give me mind-blowing action - probably what this series will be known for from this point on. And I won't lie, I enjoyed it. Even more so than I expected. You never got to know the expendables properly in the first film, and this one doesn't bother to fix that. But the fact that all these guys do is kick ass all day it's better if you don't know much about them - I think you'll agree that it's mystifying (to say the least). 

So obviously I couldn't go ahead and find a VFX take on the movie (which wasn't particularly hard to find - thank you YouTube!) 

Have a looksy! 

I also, having expected the barrage of Arnold Schwarzenegger's Terminator allusions, he does manage to get a kick out of you every time he says, 'I'm back' or 'I'll be back' - to which Bruce Willis simply replies, 'You've been back enough!'. I thought this was brilliant! 

CG Bullets in After Effects [Composite]

CG Bullets in After Effects [Composite] from Umar Ansari on Vimeo.

I made these bullets in 3D Studio Max, and rendered them out in separate passes. I personally loved the Reflection pass, it came in so handy with it's almost-unnoticeable HDRI.

Color correction has always played an important role in compositing and in this case the bullets had to undergo a few corrections. Originally they were given a golden/brass diffuse but I preferred a more red-like color. I added a small camera move inside of After Effects to show-off depth. And a camera-lens blur to top it all off - I find that there is some problem with it though, in that there is something wrong with the focus, maybe the order in which the lens focuses is a bit off but feel free to correct me. 

The Mill 2012 Showreel.

So 2 days back before going to bed I had to bare an annoying-as-hell fire alarm in my apartment building. It was mind-numbing and irritating. Hence, making me stay up a few extra minutes which wouldn't hurt. In these few minutes I fired up my twitter and spent the rest of my time admiring a vimeo link to The Mill Group's 2012 VFX Showreel. It was pretty sweet considering how many projects they've worked on that I didn't know until now. I'll take one YouTuber's words into account, they really should put the studio's name at the end of these commercials. A lot of work gets put in and the creativity behind-the-scenes is not made known. Fix it! 


But enjoy this nevertheless:

Chronicle, Some Crazy S*** - Rhythm and Hues' VFX

I was never really a fan of found footage sci-fi flicks...okay that's because I haven't seen that many. During my week off I had a chance to watch Chronicle with my brother and a friend of mine. Entering the theater, we were taken aback at the site of numerous empty seats at the theater. This was either because it was a week day (most kids were at school) or the trailer. Granted it wasn't the best trailer ever, nor was it catchy. But it's about SUPERPOWER'S AND INTOXICATED TEENS! We should be all over this, but no, as the dread of other, more fast-paced, half-assed action movies continues to invade silver screens. -don't worry, The Grey is not considered half-assed in my opinion-


If you've seen Chronicle you know it's a movie like no other and sure as hell deserves more attention than it already has. I was totally absorbed into the intensity of the film right from the start. Special thanks to some of the best VFX I have EVER seen and a cast of mega-multi-talented individuals. 


Speaking of Visual Effects, Rhythm and Hues' Raymond Chen kicks it up a notch with his adrenaline-pumping flying sequences. FXGuide covers the story, check it out below:

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, VFX Breakdown

One of the most critically-acclaimed adaptations ever, backed up with top-notch, mind blowing VFX...what more could you ever want?! :)

"Mindblowing. The best special effects are those you’d never guess are effects."

(RYAN ADAMS)