Mikmak Effects - Magic, Fire and Electricity

Magic
There is nothing like inventing effects. For example, when you need to portray magic.
Well, actually, a lot of it usually involves what you know and giving it a magical look, spreading magic that looks like water etc. it all depends on how much time you have to experiment.
As my personal hero is Michel Gagne, anyone who knows his work will recognize the influence. If you don't know his work, check it out.
Here is my take on the magic metamorphosis that occurs at the end of the MIKMAK film. Sorry for the spoiler, to whoever it may concern. I was thinking mostly about light, probably because of the fact that the crystal emits light and that's the source of its magic.
The main idea was as if the crystal is a character, and it does a double-take. its starts....retreats...and comes back in full force. This would intensify the magic wave that occurs, after the energy is fulled back into the crystal. There could have been more ways to use the effect better. I think that a longer pause before the wave could have worked better. If you don't believe me, ask the kings on pauses, Nir and Gali, nobody does it better. No can can make a Pause work like these two.

Fire
There were a few places that required fire here, the monsters spit fire, there was a dream sequence with fire.
Here are some spots. My original fire was treated differently, you will see it in the next post, as I will talk a bit about proof of concept. But I don't think that this needs more introduction and explaining.

Electricity
That's always fun. I think that electricity was among the first effects I dealt with. Eventually, most of it was cut, or tuned down, but here are a few shots where its pretty much the same as it was delivered.

Man, I wish I was an effect animator on Predator, I bet it was fun.

MikMak effects - Waterfall and Splash physics

That was a cool one.
Watched a lot of waterfalls that week. I was looking for vertical speed. The waterfall had to be non realistic, look majestic from afar but feel very wild in potential. So I looked around, tried some designs and was very inspired by this-

By the way, tons of water effects all over this movie. I loved the design of the sheets of water
so I broke down the elements of a good waterfall. What happens when water fall from a high place?
As water tension is effected when water fall in the air, it had to be treated. I could not break the sheets of water into strings and beads as it happens in real life (design wise and for practical reasons) , so...the water haze helped me there, particles that drift in the air above the foam. And, naturally, speeding the movement as it heads downs. We can not focus ourselves on rapid movement in details, but watch it as a whole, so it works.
Speeding water, water highlights, vapor, foam, and ripples. Here is an early test-

After all this, something was still missing. Going though waterfall pictures, I realized that I was missing...a rainbow, here is one, too aggressive, but already, it feels better.

and the result...

Most of the other water effects in the movie were not something that I had not done before, but it happens a few times, when a character (Mondo or the monster) burst out of the water. How is it different from a splash and why? Well, obviously falling into water and bursting out has a different effect, but I think that understanding the physics behind the secondary splash, water tension and air pockets will help anybody who is interested to plan a splash better, and I'm talking about action, not design. The design will always work if the physics are right, not the other way around. Just like a movie will probably work if the script is right, not just packed with effects (this is addressed to you, m night shyamalan).

Anyway, in an old example I posted you can see it clearly. a droplet-

The side view holds all the main elements to a good splash.
here is a more elaborate explanation as to how it works, I have used an old post to demonstrate, bugs falling into the water after trying to take a photograph.

As Bugs fall in the water, the impact creates an air pocket in the water. 

The pocket is filled with water in such intensity, that they shoot up, creating the secondary splash.

Now, 'falling into' vs 'bursting out' mainly revolves around the secondary splash and the idea of 'impact' vs 'pushing water'. since bursting out of water doesn't involve an air pocket, there is no secondary splash. Here are a few examples of the bursting out - pushing water scenario.

And another example of the impact scenario. Here, the emphasis, story-wise, was the large ripple the goes through the cave from that enormous bolder. The ripple was far more important than the splash, as it drives the story to a different place, but still, rules are rules. Here is an example as to how effects serve the story.

Well, that it. Done. Got it? Good.