Contents Red Planet: Red Scare: In Red Planet, astronauts from a dying earth encounter dire obstacles as they investigate failing terraformation experiments designed to render Mars suitable for human colonization. Faced with daunting challenges of its own - including a competing project and a ballooning effects slate that threatened to top out at nearly a thousand shots -- Warner Brothers called upon visual effects supervisor Jeffrey A. Okun to oversee the massive effects effort. Also recruited were a dozen effects vendors, delivering everything from space footage and zero-gravity effects to Martian landscapes and a CG robot performance. Article by Kevin H. Martin

The Whos and Whys of How the Grinch Stole Christmas: For his live-action version of the beloved Dr. Seuss story, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, director Ron Howard created the town of Whoville and nearby Mount Crumpit on massive soundstages at Universal, then relied upon makeup maestro Rick Baker to transform actor Jim Carrey and a huge cast of supporting actors and extras into the fictional Grinch and his Who neighbors. Adding visual dazzle to the proceedings were special effects coordinator Allen Hall, in charge of on-set gags, and Digital Domain, whose virtual set extensions and other effects lent style and verisimilitude to the fantasy world. Article by Mark Cotta Vaz

Vertical Limit: Pushing the Limit

Bedazzled: Devil's Work

102 Dalmatians: Out, Out, Damned Spot

Contents 2001: A Time Capsule: Still a benchmark by which space films, old and new, are judged, 2001: A Space Odyssey has enthralled science fiction devotees for more than three decades with its purposefully ambiguous take on man's imagined first contact with an extraterrestrial intelligence. In this, its namesake year, Cinefex pays tribute to this seminal film with a comprehensive retrospective, culled from in-depth interviews with many of its principal technicians and craftsmen - some no longer with us - who were instrumental in bringing legendary director Stanley Kubrick's timeless, profound and startlingly realistic-looking vision of deep space exploration to the screen. From its inception as a novel and screenplay - a corroborative effort by Kubrick and science fiction maestro Arthur C. Clarke - through its painstaking, often frustrating, four-year-long odyssey, the epic undertaking continually tested the skills and resourcefulness of such innovators as special effects supervisors Douglas Trumbull and Wally Gentleman, production designer Tony Masters, cinematrographer John Alcott, makeup artist Stuart Freeborn and others whose recollections form the foundation of this account. Challenged by Kubrick, ever the perfectionist, all rose to the occasion, exploring countless concepts and approaches, and, in an era long before computers and motion control were endemic to visual effects, devising imaginative and heretofore untried techniques and equipment that would pave the way for future generations of filmmakers. Article by Don Shay and Jody Duncan

The Mummy Returns: Warrior Kings

The 6th Day: Copy Rights

Monkeybone: Monkey Business

Contents Pearl Harbor: More War: In Walt Disney Studios' epic Pearl Harbor, producer Jerry Bruckheimer and director Michael Bay stage a tale of love and valor against the backdrop of World War II and the infamous Japanese air attack on the U.S. Pacific Fleet that spelled the end of the country's isolationist doctrine. Depictions of the assault, along with earlier reenactments of air battles over Britain and the retaliatory Doolittle raid on Tokyo, were achieved through extensive use of digital battleships and planes -- compliments of Industrial Light & Magic -- in combination with large-scale mechanical and pyrotechnic effects by John Frazier and his crew. Stan Winston Studio contributed makeup effects.

Evolution: Accelerated Evolution: Echoing the sensibilities of his earlier comedy hit Ghostbusters, director Ivan Reitman's newest film, Evolution, has scientists battling aliens after a meteor crashes into the Arizona desert, releasing minute extraterrestrial lifeforms that vaguely attempt to mimic earth's evolutionary cycle. Phil Tippett and his Tippett Studio artists designed and created, through digital character animation, much of the continuously metamorphosing extraterrestrial ecology, from single-cell microorganisms to complex air and land creatures. Also in the mix were digital effects by Pacific Data Images and practical creature work by KNB EFX Group and Amalgamated Dynamics.

Moulin Rouge: Paris By Numbers

Final Fantasy: Flesh For Fantasy

Driven: Speed Demons

Contents A.I.: Mecha Odyssey: After more than two decades of super-secret development by filmmaking legend Stanley Kubrick, A.I.: Artificial Intelligence - the story of a robot-child's quest for a means to become human - would finally see the light of day in the hands of Steven Spielberg, who crafted both the script and the film from notes and artwork left behind by Kubrick upon his death. Spielberg summoned Industrial Light & Magic visual effects supervisors Dennis Muren and Scott Farrar to convey onto film new and existing conceptual art of a future world ravaged by the effects of global warming and overpopulated by both humans and their mechanical creations. Spielberg also engaged Stan Winston Sutdio to design and build an extensive cast of robot characters. Article by Joe Fordham.

Inside the Planet of the Apes: Visionary director Tim Burton put his own singular spin of Planet of the Apes,, a remake of the 1968 classic, depicting evolution turned on its ear in a world where humans are subjugated by a superior race of apes. The production would boast a stellar team of effects contributors. Cementing his reputation as the undisputed master of simian simulation was makeup maestro Rick Baker, whose Cinovation Studio team would create fourteen principal ape characters, all distinct and different, plus hundreds of secondary and background players. Spearheading the postproduction visual effects, a blend of models, paintings and digital work, were visual effects supervisors Bill George and George Murphy of Industrial Light & Magic. Article by Mark Cotta Vaz.

Jurassic Park III: Bigger, Faster, Meaner.

Tomb Raider: Illuminating Lara's World.