Shanks FX

Create a realistic looking Jupiter with a jar, milk, dish soap, and food coloring.

Use some prop-building expertise to build this cool modified surge protector.

Get mesmerized with giant bubble reflections.

With styrofoam and the right lighting, this massive prop can be recreated anywhere.

Creating eerie sci-fi lighting with a new DJI Phantom drone.

In this video, Joey crafts his own Hurricane Balls (like the classic toy) to showcase the awesome visuals behind angular momentum.

A split focus diopter is an unique way to achieve the illusion of deep focus. The half convex glass attaches in front of the camera's lens to make half the lens nearsighted.

Water Illusions can happen when you film fast movement with the right type of camera, but to the naked eye this looks like something of a blur.

The lightsaber sound from Star Wars was created by legendary sound designer Ben Burtt. He combined the sounds of a 35mm projector and a 70s tube TV to create one of the most iconic sounds in movie history.

Go back in time to 1977 and learn how the lightsaber was first captured with the help of the highly reflective material "Scotchlite" & a compact motor at the hilt.

Learn how to create a water vortex by drilling a hole at the bottom of plastic aquarium to act as a drain. If don't have an aquarium just fill up your sink and then release drain plug. Stir in a circular motion and watch vortex form from above.

The 1994 film Stargate combined CGI and practical effects to create the portal sequence in the opening act of the film.

Follow-up to our "Creating Dry Ice Comets" episode where we show the step by step process of how to create your very own comets.

A main ingredient to a comets core is dry ice. As it gets closer to the sun the ice sublimates into the vacuum of space. Putting dry ice into a shallow pool of water will produce a similar reaction.

If it has wheels, there's a pretty good chance I'm going try and make a dolly out of it. So after our baby shower, I started looking at our very nice new stroller (thanks sis!), and took some test drives around our wood floors.

We attempt to create the Aurora Borealis with a sheet of fabric and a handful of fans. We discovered that throwing the image a little out of focus really creates a believable visual effect that can be composited into a scene to create the Aurora.

I attempt to make planets with food coloring , milk, and dish soap.

I found this skeleton animation on my computer doing the dance from Michael Jackson's Thriller and turned it into a hologram using a steamer for clothes.

Watch us try and recreate the Millennium Falcon shot from the teaser trailer to STARS WARS "The Force Awakens" using stop motion animation.

An in-depth look at Creating the Cosmos. In this episode I break down my process of creating cosmic backgrounds with my "sheet of glass" technique. Hopefully you guys will get a better understanding of how this process works by watching me break the steps down.