Video: The Martian VFX Breakdown

"The Martian VFX Breakdown" by mpcvfx

Of of all the Best Picture nominees, The Martian is unquestionably the geekiest, and it's also probably the movie with the widest audience appeal.  It's a dramatic but simple story with a stellar cast.  The real stars of the film are the special effects, though.   

With the Oscar nominations out, studios are beginning to circulate featurettes highlighting the technical complexity of their contenders.  This piece on The Martian separates out the practical effects from the computer generated setpieces.

On the practical side of things, they actually blew up part of the Mars base on set instead of doing it digitally.  On the CG side of things, the reflective visors on the astronauts’ helmets were created entirely in post.  Even the transparent portion of the glass was added digitally.