Skyfall: Title Sequence

This title sequence is the holy grail of awesome.  What do I mean?  Well, from a motion graphics/animators stand point, there are many different effects and types of animation thrown in.

Here's the video.  Watch and I'll elaborate.

In the very beginning, we see the hand dragging down the body, an effect probably stemming from some photoshop and after effects crafting.  Simply edit the hand in photoshop to be larger than the body, and accurately place the layers in after effects, and I'm pretty sure that's how you get that effect.

Now, what I found cool was that there were some clear signs that some of the effects were made using the particle effect that we learned about in class last week.  First, the sand moving inward as the body falls into the hole looked like the particle effect that we used.  I'm no expert- but I have a feeling that the sand was made using some of the same techniques we learned in class when we made the smoke coming from the cigarette.

Then we see the picture of the man (again, just guessing, but that's probably the work of photoshop), with blood floating away from the picture.  Now does the blood not look exactly like the cigarette smoke we made in class, just using red particles?

If I talked about every effect in this sequence, this post would go on forever.  A few other things I liked were the "3D effects" by changing the opacity of the images that were supposed to be further away, to make them look further in the distance and therefore, more faint.  Also, the rhythm of the movements went along perfectly with Adele's "Skyfall".  This is one of my favorite title sequences, and it's comforting to know that recreating some of the effects in it is something I've learned how to do.