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This article contains spoilers for Inside Out 2.

The Inside Out 2 trailers hinted how Anxiety's debut would complicate Riley's psyche. Director Kelsey Mann explained how one scene was particularly challenging to create: Riley's anxiety attack towards the film's ending.

Inside Out 2's big opening weekend confirmed it was a worthy sequel to the 2015 original. Both films leaned on the premise of personified emotions influencing Riley's thoughts and actions, but the sequel ups the ante with Riley entering puberty. Her internal conflicts reach a breaking point in the film's climactic scene when she's forced to sit out a hockey match's final scrimmage. Director Kelsey Mann told Variety that the critical scene required "a good 25 meetings" of planning with all creative heads pitching in to strategize the ending; she described their production discussions as "the gatherings of the mind council."

Related 5 Ways Inside Out 2 Is Better Than Inside Out (& 5 Ways...

Spoiler Alert: This story discusses major plot points, including the ending for “Inside Out 2” now playing in theaters.

“Inside Out 2” director Kelsey Mann and producer Mark Nielsen held “a good 25 meetings” in preparation for the film’s climactic scene — when Riley, the movie’s teenage protagonist, suffers an anxiety attack. But these weren’t any average production discussions, they were “the gatherings of the mind council,” which summoned all the department heads together to strategize the execution of the scene.

“Simulation, effects, lighting and animation all together like, ‘How are we going to do this?'” Nielsen tells Variety.

“We had a gong our visual effects supervisor [Sudeep Rangaswamy] would ring at the beginning and end of every meeting,” Mann adds. “It was a collection of all the heads of the different departments to figure out the difficult things.”

“Inside Out 2” follows a now 13-year-old Riley who...

The diversity of animated features — both content and assembly — continues to evolve in lockstep with filmmaking technology’s almost daily leaps and bounds. This ever-changing landscape creates new challenges and opportunities for directors to tell stories that encapsulate everything from epic blockbuster spectacles to personal, relationship-driven dramas.

“Animation is such a powerful medium in exploring complicated themes in an easily accessible way,” says Pixar director Domee Shi, whose “Turning Red” tells the coming-of-age story of Mei, a 13-year-old girl in 2000s-era Toronto, who turns into a giant red panda at the onset of puberty. “I think animation also almost tricks the audience into believing magical logic a little bit more, because it’s already an abstracted version of reality.”

In a process that took more than four years, Shi utilized some of the industry’s most cutting-edge technologies to progressively expand her team of collaborators, from two co-writers (Sarah Streicher...

“War for the Planet of the Apes” from Weta Digital could well be on its way to the elusive VFX Oscar after winning four Ves trophies Tuesday night at the Beverly Hilton (including the top feature prize). Christopher Nolan’s “Dunkirk” won for supporting VFX, Pixar’s “Coco” earned four awards (including VFX for animation), and “Game of Thrones” took home five awards (including VFX for TV).

The “Apes” finale, directed by Matt Reeves, benefited from a Shakespearean performance from Andy Serkis as Caesar, with Weta working its wizardry in much harsher conditions for the performance-captured animation. Not surprisingly, “Apes” additionally won for Caesar, the effects simulations for the thrilling avalanche, and compositing. However, although both “Rise” and “Dawn” captured Ves prizes, neither won the Oscar, so “War” is not a certainty in its race with “Blade Runner 2049.”

Speaking of which, Denis Villeneuve’s “Blade Runner” sequel won two...

"The Adventures of Tintin" dominated the nominations but it was "Rango" that received the most trophies at the 10th Visual Effects Society (Ves) awards. Stan Lee received the the Lifetime Achievement Award and visual effects pioneer Douglas Trumbull received the George Melies Award. Patton Oswalt hosted the event held at the Beverly Hilton Hotel. Antonion Banderas, Lou Ferrigno, director Chris Miller, Marc Webb, and Jennifer Yuh Nelson presented awards. But the surprise appearance by Martin Scorsese was the highlight of the evening.

Here's the full list of winners (highlighted) and nominees of the 10th Annual Ves Awards, to visit our Awards Avenue coverage of other award-giving bodies, winners and nominees, click here:

Outstanding Visual Effects in a Visual Effects-Driven Feature Motion Picture

Captain America: The First Avenger

Charlie Noble

Mark Soper

Christopher Townsend

Edson Williams

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2

Tim Burke

Emma Norton

John Richardson

David Vickery...

The visual effects that we are seeing in movies these days are absolutely mind blowing. At this point it doesn't seem like there's any excuse for a film to have bad visual effects unless the people hired lack talent, or the studio is keeping the cash in their pockets.

There's a lot of good nomination this year such as Captain America, Harry Potter, Pirates of the Caribbean 4, Rise of the Planet of the Apes, and Transformers: Dark of the Moon. Out of all of these I think that Planet of the Apes might take home the top prize, those apes were incredibly freaky looking. Weta did an amazing job with this movie, and out of all the other nominations this was the movie I was most impressed by. What are your thoughts? What movie did you think have the best visual effect in 2011?

Here's the full press release with all of the nominations:

Los Angeles,...

By Sean O’Connell

hollywoodnews.com: Over the weekend, the Visual Effects Society announced the nominees for its 10th Annual Ves Awards ceremony, recognizing summer tentpoles (“Harry Potter,” “Captain America”) and surprise hits (“Rise of the Planet of the Apes,” “Hugo”) for their outstanding visual effects artistry in 23 categories of film, animation, television, commercials, special venues and video games.

“The standard of the creative work that is being considered this year is unbelievably high across all categories,” said Jeffrey A. Okun, Chair of the Visual Effects Society. “The judges faced a huge challenge because all of the work was so far above the norm. We’re honored to have the opportunity to focus the spotlight on the outstanding work that has contributed to some of the highest grossing films and broadcast projects of all time.”

As previously announced, Stan Lee will be honored with the Ves 2012 Lifetime Achievement Award and...