This is usually one of the tougher craft categories for me to decide my favourites. The photorealism of CGI these days is so evolved that it's hard to assess which effects are "better" than others (unless the effect is noticeably bad).
Inevitably, my own criteria boils down to some vague combination of the effects' technical excellence, their originality, and how effectively they're used to support the much bigger 'effect' of the movie experience. For instance, no one's going to argue that a Michael Bay explosion fest doesn't have highly accomplished effects work, but its always delivered in a visually messy and confusing fashion, essentially wasting the efforts of the hardworking technicians, animators, matte painters, texture artists, etc.
To that end, the following craftspeople nominated for my own Best Visual Effects honour can thank the directors of their respective movies for being filmmakers of taste and substance, who know how to utilize special effects to serve the story instead of distract from it.
Inevitably, my own criteria boils down to some vague combination of the effects' technical excellence, their originality, and how effectively they're used to support the much bigger 'effect' of the movie experience. For instance, no one's going to argue that a Michael Bay explosion fest doesn't have highly accomplished effects work, but its always delivered in a visually messy and confusing fashion, essentially wasting the efforts of the hardworking technicians, animators, matte painters, texture artists, etc.
To that end, the following craftspeople nominated for my own Best Visual Effects honour can thank the directors of their respective movies for being filmmakers of taste and substance, who know how to utilize special effects to serve the story instead of distract from it.
