Naruto

Naruto is the longest ongoing anime series, aside from Bleach. Cartoon Network used to air episodes of  the famous anime but it has been replaced with a Western cartoon series. The adventures of Naruto has been set in culturally rich Japan, where ramen shops are abundant and people remove slippers and wear socks when they enter a home, regardless whether it is their own or it belongs to another. Japanese animation is completely on a whole other level compared to Western animation in terms of style of animation and storylines. In Naruto, ninja skills are essential to drive the story forward because it serves as a motivation for the protagonist and his friends which will make the audience root for him. Ninjas did originate from Japan so this is another way for the animators to promote and showcase the unique Japanese culture.

Madagascar 3 : Europe's Most Wanted

The third installment of the Madagascar series lived up to its predecessors. The film boasts about its stunning visuals and another heartwarming storyline with everyone's favourite animals. The Madagascar movies did so well that a cartoon series centered around the lives of the lovable penguins has been airing on Nickelodeon till now. 

Mark Theriault was the FX artist for the film. He has worked on films like Sucker Punch and Tron Legacy. He did keyframe animation in Maya, created fluid simulations and rippling water simulations in Houdini. The scene that definitely caught my attention would be the final scene where the circus act finally takes place. There were a lot of light waves and it looks like a bunch of glowsticks waving in the darkness.

The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button

The first thing about the movie that fascinated me would be the fact that the film is subtly mysterious and creepy. The story touches on a man who was born as an old man and throughout his life, he aged backwards, finally dying as a baby. It's just so twisted, yet compelling.

The visual effects work dedicated to the film is outstanding. One of the reasons would be that the film starts off with Brad Pitt and a replaced CG head. The visual effects team had to work with a reality capture software known as Mova to record Brad's facial expressions in detail to be transferred to his CG head. 

Body actors were used instead of having Brad himself be present for the shoot because the start of the film starts off with a small,old man. Brad was simply too tall so a body actor was used. After the shoot, the head of the body actor was simply replaced with Brad's old CG head. 

Before:

After:

Matte paintings for the film were dazzling too. The people in charge of the environments used in the film made use of the software we DVFX students use which would be Vue and Photoshop. Enhancements on the sky or the environment had been done in Vue.