The Visual Effects Society represents visual effects designers and is essentially the guild for those artists. As such, we look to them to give us a hint of what could show up on Oscar nomination day and they have a pretty solid track record predicting Visual Effects at the Oscars. This year, however, will probably be moot unless something absolutely bizarre happens and Gravity loses.

VISUAL EFFECTS SOCIETY AWARDS

Best Visual Effects in an Effects-Driven Film

Gravity (Wesley, Peter, Tripp)
The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (RU:Wesley, RU:Peter)
Iron Man 3
Pacific Rim (RU:Tripp)
Star Trek: Into Darkness

Wesley Lovell: The dominant leader of the Oscar race should handily win here with the excellent work in The Hobbit a possible, distant spoiler.
Peter J. Patrick: With its heaps of prior awards it’s almost impossible for Gravity to lose this one.
Tripp Burton: Gravity should clean up here, being a well-loved, critically acclaimed, financially successful, effects-driven revolutionary film. I’ll be shocked to see anything else up there.

Best Supporting Visual Effects

The Great Gatsby
The Lone Ranger (Wesley, Tripp)
Rush (Peter, RU:Wesley, RU:Tripp)
The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (RU:Peter)
The Wolf of Wall Street

Wesley Lovell: The most showy visual effects of this bunch is The Lone Ranger, which uses a lot of models to support its visual effects, which should appeal to the voters in the VES. It’s also the only film in this list also nominated for the Oscar, meaning it’s respected enough to win here. Rush could be a spoiler.
Peter J. Patrick: The supporting effects in Rush give the film its reason for being. It should be an easy win.
Tripp Burton: I’m going with the Oscar nominee in the category, The Lone Ranger, although that could merely be a guess.

Best Animation in an Animated Feature

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2
The Croods (RU:Tripp)
Despicable Me 2
Frozen (Wesley, Peter, Tripp)
Monsters University (RU:Wesley, RU:Peter)

Wesley Lovell: How can you really beat Frozen for this award? You probably can’t, but Monsters University continues a tradition of animated excellence, so it could win.
Tripp Burton: Frozen should just keep rolling along in its awards dominance.

Best Animated Character in a Live Action Film

Gravity (Peter, RU:Wesley)
The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug – Smaug (Wesley, RU:Peter)
Oz the Great and Powerful – China Girl
Pacific Rim

Wesley Lovell: I lean towards the creation of Smaug, a character that has fulfilled the fantasies of plenty of teen boys who grew up to become visual effects artists. While Gravity‘s effects are excellent, it doesn’t exactly scream “character” film.

Best Animated Character in an Animation Film

The Croods – Eep (RU:Wesley)
Epic – Bomba (RU:Peter)
Epic – Mary Katherine
Frozen – Bringing the Snow Queen to Life (Wesley, Peter)

Wesley Lovell: Give the award to Frozen, but any of the others could win as well.

Best Created Environment in a Live Action Film

Elysium – Torus
Gravity – Exterior (Wesley, Peter)
Gravity – Interior (RU:Wesley, RU:Peter)
Iron Man 3
Pacific Rim – Virtual Hong Kong

Wesley Lovell: Having the interior and exterior segments of Gravity competing could lead to a split vote, but I suspect the more chaotic exterior elements are more likely to win this category than the detailed interiors.

Best Created Environment in an Animated Feature

The Croods – The Maze
Epic – Pod Patch
Frozen – Elsa’s Ice Palace (Wesley, Peter)
Monsters University (RU:Wesley, RU:Peter)

Wesley Lovell: The ice palace is a gorgeous creation and should easily win the prize. I don’t quite understand why The Maze was nominated for The Croods, but for a runner-up, I lean towards Monsters University.

Best Models

Gravity (Peter, RU:Wesley)
The Lone Ranger – Colby Locomotive (Wesley)
Pacific Rim (RU:Peter)
Star Trek: Into Darkness

Wesley Lovell: When it comes to models, what’s more interesting than a model train that you get to blow up. I’m actually surprised Iron Man 3 wasn’t nominated for the cliff house destruction, but The Lone Ranger should have an advantage here, simply because the effects were less dominant in that film than in Gravity.

Best Compositing

Elysium
Gravity (Wesley, Peter)
The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (RU:Wesley, RU:Peter)
Iron Man 3 – Barrel of Monkeys
Iron Man 3 – House Attack

Wesley Lovell: What exactly is compositing? I ask that every year and never get a response. When all else fails, I go with the leader of the main category and the runner-up.

Best Virtual Cinematography in a Live Action Film

Gravity (Wesley, Peter)
The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (RU:Wesley)
Iron Man 3
Man of Steel
Pacific Rim – Hong Kong Ocean Brawl (RU:Peter)

Wesley Lovell: If the cinematography of Gravity can win the ASC award, it certainly can win here. The Hobbit could be the runner-up, as could any of the others.

Best FX and Simulation Animation in an Live Action Film

Gravity – Parachute and ISS Destruction (Wesley, Peter)
The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (RU:Peter)
Man of Steel
Pacific Rim – Fluid Simlation & Destruction (RU:Wesley)

Wesley Lovell: There is simply no more spectacular event in Gravity than the ISS destruction. It should win handily. The Hobbit might come in second, or Pacific Rim might.

Best FX and Simulation Animation in an Animated Feature

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2 (RU:Wesley)
The Croods
Epic – Boggan Crowds (RU:Peter)
Frozen – Elsa’s Blizzard (Wesley, Peter)

Wesley Lovell: We’re going with Frozen for the win. The detailed environments of Cloudy could come in second, but so could either of the other two just as easily.