
Montreal Facility Delivers 227 VFX Shots for Magician Heist Film
Modus FX completed many of the key visual effects shots on Now You See Me, which was released today in theaters. Featuring a high-voltage ensemble cast, including Jesse Eisenberg, Mark Ruffalo, Morgan Freeman, Woody Harrelson and rising star Isla Fisher, Now You See Me charts the progress of a team of illusionists who appear to rob banks during their performances, distributing the spoils to their audiences, all the while staying a step ahead of the FBI and Interpol. Modus was charged with many of the film's CG sequences, creating compelling illusions that support the story and drive the narrative forward.
Modus delivered 227 VFX shots for the film, including a long camera movement sequence that culminates with a huge stack of money catching fire and vanishing entirely. The effects include a fight sequence in which a magician uses flash paper and playing cards as projectile weapons, before sliding down a CG garbage chute to escape. There is a spectacular CG mirror box magic trick, in which a sledge hammer is thrown in slow motion, shattering a huge pane of glass.
Now You See Me includes several layers of illusion, said Yanick Wilisky, VP and co-founder of Modus FX. The storyline plays with time while our effects shots play with visual reality. Together this makes for a great story that keeps the audience guessing. We had a lot of fun working with director Louis Leterrier and VFX supervisor Nick Brooks on this project.
Money to burn
One of the most complex shots of the movie involves the disappearance of a stack of money in a sealed stainless steel vault. The digital camera shot starts with a macro close-up of an origami rabbit catching fire, orbits around the stack of burning money as it disappears, leaving not a trace of smoke or ash, before pulling back to show a playing card and the entire vault, now completely empty. The shot required a lot of compositing to give it a photoreal look.
This was the most challenging shot for us, said Wayne Brinton, VFX supervisor on the project. We had to decide how to make all the money vanish so it would be believable.
Initially, the effect was conceived as a conflagration of magician's flash paper, ignited by a series of wires and fuses.
In previs the illusion was conceived as needing a digital timer, Brinton said. This created the problem of what to do with the timer and wires. We brainstormed and came up with an ingenious way of igniting the money involving potassium and water. The magicians could place some potassium above a pool of water so it would light the money on fire when they mixed.
Modus suggested using an origami rabbit holding potassium and placed in a puddle of water so the fire would start when the water seeped into the paper rabbit. Leterrier loved the idea of having a rabbit in the scene. In the end the potassium-water mixture was cut as too complicated to explain in the story, but the director insisted that the origami rabbit remain.
You get to know the director over the course of a shoot, and learn what they like and don't like, Brinton said. Keeping the rabbit was great and it's part of a visually neat effect.
The final 500-frame shot involved simulation, camera animation, modeling and lighting and all of the elements had to be refined iteratively, until everything worked flawlessly.
The CG lighting had to match that of the practical camera and, since the action takes place inside a stainless steel vault, the reflections on the walls had to match too , explained Brinton. Making fire look real in a stainless steel vault was especially challenging.
Massive gathering at 5Pointz
The film culminates in an impromptu congregation of thousands of people from all over downtown New York at the 5Pointz building in Queens, all with the hope of collecting free money.
This is an exciting scene and has the spontaneous feel of The Beatles' rooftop concert in Let It Be, with people coming out of their offices to watch from the streets, commented Brinton. The difference with the 5Pointz scene was that nobody was actually there. We had to create the whole wild get-together crowd, traffic jam and helicopters in CG.
After the empty building and surrounding streets were filmed from the air, Modus removed all of the production footprint from these plates, including lights, film crew and cranes. Modus populated the roof, courtyard, streets and sidewalks with the digital partygoers using Massive Crowd Simulation software. They used their in-house mocap studio to create animation cycles for the crowd. Streets were lined with cars to create traffic jams, four CG helicopters circle the sky around the party and CG lighting enhances the festive atmosphere.
Mirror moves
The mirror box is a classic magician's trick that is used to hide objects and Now You See Me uses it on a grand scale. The thieves create a room-sized mirror box, with a 40-foot by 28-foot mirror that can be lowered at an angle to reflect the ground below, thus hiding the entire room behind it that houses the vault containing millions of dollars. Then, when one of the thieves throws a sledge hammer at the wall, it shatters the mirror into billions of pieces, revealing the vault behind it.
Large parts of this shot are CG, including the thrown sledge hammer, said Brinton. We created a digital environment and made it fit with the surrounding practical set.
The actor threw the hammer from a distance so the mirror wouldn't shatter on top of him. Modus started its work at this point, removing the shattered glass and structure on the ground from the shot. Then, they added dust and the reflection from the ground. The result is a stunning sequence in which slow motion both reveals the remarkable computer-generated detail and contributes to the dramatic tension in
Most recent headlines
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
01/06/2026
January 6 2026, 05:30 (PST) Dolby Sets the New Standard for Premium Entertainment at CES 2026
Throughout the week, Dolby brings to life the latest innovatio...
02/05/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...
01/05/2026
January 5 2026, 18:30 (PST) NBCUniversal's Peacock to Be First Streamer to ...
01/04/2026
January 4 2026, 18:00 (PST) DOLBY AND DOUYIN EMPOWER THE NEXT GENERATON OF CREATORS WITH DOLBY VISION
Douyin Users Can Now Create And Share Videos With Stun...
06/02/2026
The National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF), an agency of the Department of Sp...
06/02/2026
Calrec Wins Best of Show at ISE 2026 for Orchestrating Distributed IP Production
Calrec is delighted to announce that its IP Ecosystem Powered by True Control...
06/02/2026
Despite most never having strapped on skis or skates, Aussies are keen for some ...
06/02/2026
MNC Software, a global leader in network management and operational support systems tailored to the broadcast and media industry, today announced the launch of ...
06/02/2026
The annual Junior Eurovision Song Contest arrived at Tbilisi's Gymnastic Hall in Olympic City, presenting an international stage for young talent with rich,...
06/02/2026
NAB Show 2026 | April 19 22 | Booth # N2471
At this year s NAB Show, Sonnet will showcase new Thunderbolt 5 products, including desktop and rackmount PCIe card...
06/02/2026
The Alliance for IP Media Solutions (AIMS), together with the Video Services Forum (VSF), the Advanced Media Workflow Association (AMWA), and the European Broad...
06/02/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, today announced a major update to Dalet Flex. Building on the workflow packages a...
06/02/2026
Getting closer to the business through highly respected technology partner
Stand 4P880, ISE 2026, Fira de Barcelona, 3 6 February 2026
Bitfocus is acceleratin...
06/02/2026
Bitmovin, a leading provider of video streaming solutions, has announced that 1001, a premier OTT service in Iraq, has chosen the Bitmovin Player to improve its...
06/02/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
06/02/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
06/02/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
06/02/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
06/02/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
06/02/2026
Back to All News
Next on Netflix Thailand 2026: The Widest Variety of Thai Stor...
06/02/2026
The Winter Olympics 2026 in Milano Cortina officially get underway this evening (Friday 6 February) with the Opening Ceremony live on RT Player and RT News ch...
06/02/2026
How invisible vaccine scaffolding boosts HIV immune response Scripps Research scientists designed a DNA scaffold that carries HIV vaccine proteins into the bo...
05/02/2026
Three examples of how wireless microphones are deployed to bring fans in deep an...
05/02/2026
Broadcast coverage will include 25 cameras distributed around the venues, including to some athletes; Galaxy AI Interpreter will also be deployed
The Opening C...
05/02/2026
Kiswe has partnered with the Mountain West Conference to power the next iteratio...
05/02/2026
NBCUniversal and Roku announce the launch of the 2026 NBC Winter Olympics Experience, a destination delivering NBCUniversal's comprehensive CTV coverage of ...
05/02/2026
Vizrt, which specializes in live production technology as well as transforming v...
05/02/2026
Canon USA has launched the RF7-14mm F2.8-3.5 L fisheye STM zoom lens and the RF14mm F1.4 L VCM prime lens. Building on Canon's legacy of innovative optics, ...
05/02/2026
The Paul E. Tsongas Center at UMass Lowell in Massachusetts has chosen Ikegami cameras for incorporation into its broadcast-quality television production facili...
05/02/2026
Once again, service members and Veterans worldwide will enjoy free access to NBC...
05/02/2026
Advanced Systems Group, LLC (ASG), a technology and services provider for media ...
05/02/2026
Broadcast Management Group (BMG) is strengthening its leadership team to support...
05/02/2026
NBC Sports selects Comcast Technology Solutions (CTS) to provide multiscreen vid...
05/02/2026
AIM Sports Group, a sports enterprise dedicated to elevating youth athletics thr...
05/02/2026
Designed for efficient use of shared services and resources, the home of OBS pro...
05/02/2026
The Yankees fan from Connecticut is executive producer of BTN StudentU for the Wolverines
In the live-sports-video industry, the future is bright. Our series S...
05/02/2026
In an Olympic first, the ceremony will be held in four locations simultaneously...
05/02/2026
Members of the broadcast and tech communities share four decades of memories of the technology leader
The 2026 Milano Cortina Olympics are upon us, and every O...
05/02/2026
Key vendors include Appear, Audio-Technica, Canon, Chyron, Cisco, Comcast Techno...
05/02/2026
Since bringing audiobooks to Spotify in 2022, we've helped listeners discove...
05/02/2026
Today, Spotify announced two new updates to give book lovers a more personalized...
05/02/2026
A U.S. Coast Guard HC-130J aircraft during a test flight at L3Harris' facility in Waco, Texas....
05/02/2026
Al Seer Marine and L3Harris have announced a strategic partnership combining UAE...
05/02/2026
AI should balance automation (replacing tasks) and augmentation (empowering humans). Automate the mundane and augment the creative by applying the right AI type...
05/02/2026
During this period, streaming comprised the majority of ad supported TV (45.6%),...
05/02/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
05/02/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
05/02/2026
Advanced Systems Group, LLC (ASG), a technology and services provider for media creatives and content owners, announced the appointment of Derek Pezzotti as Sen...
05/02/2026
Taurus Technologies, a Dallas-area professional AV systems integrator, has upgraded its in-house podcast studio with Brightline Lighting's AV/720 low-voltag...