Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/552848
j u ly . a u g u s t 2 0 1 5 c g w 2 3 he 2015 sum- mer blockbuster season is one of the hottest in recent memory. It started off on shaky ground – for no other reason than because of the "devastating" visual effects in San Andreas. There were other films whose CG work sent shock waves of sorts. But the one to take the biggest bite out of the box of- fice was Jurassic World, which set a number of records. In one movie, digital artists did the impossible, putting Ethan Hunt (actor Tom Cruise) in very dangerous situations for Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation. Double Negative han- dled the majority of the work, completing 1,000 of the film's 1,200 VFX shots, including a complicated sequence that takes place at the Vienna Op- era House, another involving an underwater heist, and one very unique scenario with a masked man. Whereas Rogue Nation is about action and intrigue, San Andreas is about havoc and devastation at the hands of Mother Nature in the form of California earthquakes. A num- ber of facilities helped create the destruction, including Meth- od Studios and Cinesite. Cine- site started the film off, sending a woman's car flying off a cliff during the first quake. Meth- od, meanwhile, got to destroy downtown Los Angeles before moving on to San Francisco. It's all about the future in Terminator Genisys. Double Negative was the major VFX provider, creating the T-1000, T-5000, and T-3000 Termi- nators and more. Naturally, the focus on this latest film in the franchise was the return of a younger version of the Guardian, played by Arnold Schwarzenegger. That chal- lenge was le to MPC. What would a summer be without an alien-invades-Earth film? This year, though, Pixels puts a unique spin on things. Here, the enemy has a familiar look: characters from video games. A number of studios contributed to the feature, bringing these characters to 3D life while still retaining their iconic 2D game look. Indeed, these feature films show off a range of visual ef- fects – from realistic to stylistic; from in-your-face to hidden – but they all have one thing in common: They make movies magical. TRAILERS: GO TO THE VIDEO SECTION OF THE WEBSITE C G W. C O M