Hey everyone! I’ve finally finished coding the redesign of the blog, so I hope you all like it! It’s a lot more solid and mobile friendly. Plus it has some pretty sweet new gallery features. I dig it, but what do you think? Let me know!

Now onto business!

VFXWorld has finally published it’s story on the biggest film of the summer…’The Dark Knight‘. Right off the bat *wow, that wasn’t intentional I swear!* the 700 shot total is just mind blowing. Just considering how big this film was, it really should have gotten up to around 1,500 vfx shots like ‘Pirates 3‘. That’s such a breath of fresh air.

Anyways, the article talks about Two Face, the less is more approach to visual effects, and sheer awesomeness that is filming in IMAX and the challenges that it brought to the visual effects team. Which trust me, after working on a 3D IMAX formatted movie last year…it’s difficult and then some.

LINK: The Dark Knight – Grounding Batman – Part 1

The Dark Knight (now playing from Warner Bros.), not surprisingly, sets itself apart from the average vfx-based summer blockbuster. With around 700 vfx shots, director Christopher Nolan’s purpose once again was not to wow viewers, but to serve a story in which Batman confronts two of his arch enemies, the Joker and Harvey Two-Face.

LINK: The Dark Knight – Grounding Batman – Part 2

This time, though, director Chris Nolan wanted a completely fresh approach. The Joker was realized via evocative facial paintwork associated with subtle prosthetics work. For Two-Face, Nolan decided to break new ground. “This character was one of our major vfx challenges,” recalls overall Visual Effects Supervisor Nick Davis. “Chris was not interested in going the traditional make-up route. He felt that it would be an additive effect, rather than the subtractive effect that he felt the character required. So, instead of adding a layer of material to the actor’s skin, we actually removed the skin digitally.

And now I leave you with…well this is just too funny to resist…