The

MTV Video Music Award The MTV Video Music Awards (commonly abbreviated as the VMAs) is an award show presented by the cable channel MTV to honour the best in the music video medium. Originally conceived as an alternative to the Grammy Awards (in the video categor ...

for Best Visual Effects is a craft award given to the artist, the artist's manager, and the visual effects artists and/or visual effects company of the music video. From 1984 to 2006, the award's full name was Best Special Effects in a Video, and after a brief removal in 2007, its name was shortened to Best Special Effects between 2008 and 2011. In

2012 File:2012 Events Collage V3.png, From left, clockwise: The passenger cruise ship Costa Concordia lies capsized after the Costa Concordia disaster; Damage to Casino Pier in Seaside Heights, New Jersey as a result of Hurricane Sandy; People gat ...

, the category acquired its current name. The biggest winners are director

Jim Blashfield Jim Blashfield (born September 4, 1944, Seattle, Washington) is an American filmmaker and media artist, best known for his short films such as ''Suspicious Circumstances'' and ''The Mid-Torso of Inez'', and his music videos for musicians Talking He ...

, special effects artist Sean Broughton, executive producer Loris Paillier and production company

GloriaFX Gloria FX was a Ukrainian-American visual effects company. The company was known for creating visual effects for feature films, music videos and commercials. It was founded in 2008 by Tomash Kuzmytskyi and Sergii Mashevskyi, but by March 2020 th ...

, with two wins each. In terms of nominations, visual effects company Mathematic is the biggest nominee in the category's history (seven nominations). Closely following are

and Ingenuity Studios (formerly Ingenuity Engine), each receiving a total of six nominations. Special effects supervisors David Yardley and Fred Raimondi, as well as the companies Pixel Envy (headed by the

Brothers Strause Greg and Colin Strause, known professionally as The Brothers Strause, are American film directors, producers and special effects artists. They are known for directing the 2007 film '' Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem'' and the 2010 film ''Skyline.'' ...

) and BUF come in third place, with four nominations apiece. The performer whose videos have won the most awards is

Peter Gabriel Peter Brian Gabriel (born 13 February 1950) is an English musician, singer, songwriter, record producer, and activist. He rose to fame as the original lead singer of the progressive rock band Genesis. After leaving Genesis in 1975, he launched ...

, garnering three Moonmen. Meanwhile,

Missy Elliott Melissa Arnette Elliott (born July 1, 1971), better known as Missy Elliott or Missy “Misdemeanor” Elliot, is an American rapper, singer, songwriter, and record producer. She embarked on her music career with R&B girl group Sista in the earl ...

's videos have received the most nominations with six. No performer has won a Moonman in this category for working on their video's effects. However,

David Byrne David Byrne (; born 14 May 1952) is a Scottish-American singer, songwriter, record producer, actor, writer, music theorist, visual artist and filmmaker. He was a founding member and the principal songwriter, lead singer, and guitarist of ...

from

Talking Heads Talking Heads were an American rock band formed in 1975 in New York City and active until 1991.Talki ...

(" Burning Down the House") and Adam Jones from

Tool A tool is an object that can extend an individual's ability to modify features of the surrounding environment or help them accomplish a particular task. Although many animals use simple tools, only human beings, whose use of stone tools dates b ...

Prison Sex "Prison Sex" is a song by American rock band Tool. Frontman Maynard James Keenan wrote the lyrics. The song was released as their second single from their debut studio album '' Undertow''. The song uses a modified drop-B tuning. The track f ...

") have been nominated for doing such work.

Recipients

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mtv Video Music Award For Best Special Effects MTV Video Music Awards Awards established in 1984