From Harry Potter to Life of Pi, MPC have created some of the greatest visual effects in recent movie history. Take a peek behind the scenes of their creation.
We’ve reached a point in movie-making where, to borrow from Arthur O'Shaughnessy, VFX companies really have become the music makers and the dreamers of dreams. With the instruments they now have at their disposal, the effects masters working at VFX shops can immerse us in fantastical and magical worlds, or simply present their own version of reality, populated with computer-generated facsimiles.
Sitting at the heart of this burgeoning industry is The Moving Picture Company (MPC), one of the UK's leading VFX companies, and one that has been crafting effects for movies, commercials, music videos and TV for more than 25 years. Since its foundation, MPC has developed to the point where it now boasts offices in London, Vancouver, Montréal, Los Angeles, New York and Bangalore, and it has bagged multiple awards, across numerous disciplines (including an Academy Award and two BAFTAs).
See MPC's Head of Crowds speak!
Whilst working on leading movies and ads such as Harry Potter, Life of Pi, Prometheus, and World War Z, MPC's software team has developed a number of in-house technologies such as ALICE (for crowds), Furtility (for fur) and Tickle (for lighting).
And, as part of the HP ZED pop-up studio on the Friday, 18 October, you'll be able to learn much more about ALICE, as MPC's Global Head of Crowd, Adam Davis, will present the creative and technical processes behind the award winning VFX of World War Z, demonstrating how the team took early concepts through to completion on their most challenging crowd show to date.
Adam Davis will present the creative and technical processes behind the VFX of World War Z
The talk will be titled 'WWZ: From Previs to Pyramids', and we'll have some exclusive invites to the event nearer the time - so watch this space. In the meantime, here we showcase 10 of MPC's top pieces of work from the last decade and a look behind the scenes at how the effects were achieved...
01. World War Z
02. Channel 4 'Street Summer' ident
Award: Ciclope International Advertising Craft Awards, Gold - Visual Effects
03. Sky 360
04. Sunshine
05. Evian 'Skating Babies'
Award: ILA Gold Award for Best Visual Effects
06. Prometheus
07. Life of Pi
Awards: Academy Award for Best Visual Effects; Critics Choice Award, Outstanding Visual Effects; BAFTA Award for Special Visual Effects; VES Award for Outstanding FX and Simulation Animation in a Live Action Feature Motion Picture; VES Award for Outstanding Visual Effects in a Visual Effects-Driven Feature Motion Picture.
08. X-Men: First Class
09. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Part 1 & 2)
This content was produced in collaboration with HP & Intel as part of ZED - a Pop-Up Studio for the Creative Community held in Soho, London. For more information about ZED and any future events see here.
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