Visual effects (sometimes abbreviated asVFX) is the process by which imagery is created or manipulated outside the context of a live-action shot infilmmaking andvideo production.The integration of live-action footage and other live-action footage or CGI elements to create realistic imagery is called VFX.
VFX involves the integration of live-action footage (which may include in-camera special effects) and generated-imagery (digital or optics, animals or creatures) which look realistic, but would be dangerous, expensive, impractical, time-consuming or impossible to capture on film. Visual effects usingcomputer-generated imagery (CGI) have more recently become accessible to the independent filmmaker with the introduction of affordable and relatively easy-to-useanimation andcompositing software.
In 1857,Oscar Rejlander created the world's first "special effects" image by combining different sections of 32 negatives into a single image, making amontagedcombination print. In 1895,Alfred Clark created what is commonly accepted as the first-ever motion picture special effect. While filming a reenactment of the beheading ofMary, Queen of Scots, Clark instructed an actor to step up to the block in Mary's costume. As the executioner brought the axe above his head, Clark stopped the camera, had all the actors freeze, and had the person playing Mary step off the set. He placed a Mary dummy in the actor's place, restarted filming, and allowed the executioner to bring the axe down, severing the dummy's head. Techniques like these would dominate the production of special effects for a century.[1]
It was not only the first use of trickery in cinema, it was also the first type of photographic trickery that was only possible in a motion picture, and referred to as the "stop trick".Georges Méliès, an early motion picture pioneer, accidentally discovered the same "stop trick."
According to Méliès, his camera jammed while filming a street scene in Paris. When he screened the film, he found that the "stop trick" had caused a truck to turn into a hearse, pedestrians to change direction, and men to turn into women. Méliès, the director of theThéâtre Robert-Houdin, was inspired to develop a series of more than 500 short films, between 1896 and 1913, in the process developing or inventing such techniques asmultiple exposures,time-lapse photography,dissolves, and hand-painted color.
Special effects: Special effects (often abbreviated as SFX, SPFX, F/X or simply FX) are illusions or visual tricks used in thetheatre,film,television,video game andsimulator industries to simulate the fictional events in astory orvirtual world. With the emergence of digital film-making, a distinction between special effects and visual effects has grown, with the latter referring to digitalpost-production while "special effects" refers to mechanical and optical effects. Mechanical effects (also calledpractical orphysical effects) are usually accomplished during the live-action shooting. This includes the use of mechanizedprops, scenery,scale models,animatronics,pyrotechnics and atmospheric effects: creating physical wind, rain, fog, snow, clouds, making a car appear to drive by itself and blowing up a building, etc. Mechanical effects are also often incorporated into set design and makeup. For example,prosthetic makeup can be used to make an actor look like a non-human creature. Optical effects (also called photographic effects) are techniques in which images or film frames are created photographically, either "in-camera" usingmultiple exposures,mattes, or theSchüfftan process or in post-production using anoptical printer. An optical effect might place actors or sets against a different background.
Motion Capture: A high-resolution uniquely identified active marker system with 3,600 × 3,600 resolution at 960 hertz providing real-time submillimeter positions
Motion capture: Motion-capture (sometimes referred as mo-cap or mocap, for short) is the process of recording themovement of objects or people. It is used inmilitary,entertainment,sports, medical applications, and for validation of computer vision[3] and robotics.[4] Infilmmaking andvideo game development, it refers to recording actions ofhuman actors, and using that information to animatedigital character models in 2-D or 3-Dcomputer animation.[5][6][7] When it includes face and fingers or captures subtle expressions, it is often referred to as performance capture.[8] In many fields, motion capture is sometimes called motion tracking, but in filmmaking and games, motion tracking usually refers more tomatch moving.
Matte painting: A matte painting is a painted representation of a landscape, set, or distant location that allows filmmakers to create the illusion of an environment that is not present at the filming location. Historically, matte painters and film technicians have used various techniques to combine a matte-painted image with live-action footage. At its best, depending on the skill levels of the artists and technicians, the effect is "seamless" and creates environments that would otherwise be impossible or expensive to film. In the scenes the painting part is static and movements are integrated on it.
Composite of photos of one place, made more than a century apart
3D modeling: In3D computer graphics, 3-D modeling is the process of developing a mathematical representation of anysurface of an object (either inanimate or living) inthree dimensions viaspecialized software. The product is called a 3-D model. Someone who works with 3-D models may be referred to as a 3-D artist. It can be displayed as a two-dimensional image through a process called3D rendering or used in acomputer simulation of physical phenomena. The model can also be physically created using3D printing devices.
Rigging: Skeletal animation or rigging is a technique incomputer animation in which acharacter (or another articulated object) is represented in two parts: a surface representation used to draw the character (called themesh orskin) and a hierarchical set of interconnected parts (calledbones, and collectively forming theskeleton orrig), a virtualarmature used to animate (pose andkey-frame) the mesh.[9] While this technique is often used to animate humans and other organic figures, it only serves to make the animation process more intuitive, and the same technique can be used to control the deformation of any object—such as a door, a spoon, a building, or a galaxy. When the animated object is more general than, for example, a humanoid character, the set of "bones" may not be hierarchical or interconnected but simply represent a higher-level description of the motion of the part of the mesh it is influencing.
Green-screencompositing is demonstrated by actorIman Crosson in a self-produced video. Top panel: A frame in a full-motion video shot in the actor's living room.[10] Bottom panel: The corresponding frame in the final version in which the actor impersonatesBarack Obama "appearing" outside the White House's East Room.[11]
Rotoscoping: Rotoscoping is ananimation technique thatanimators use to trace over motion picture footage,frame by frame, to produce realistic action. Originally, animators projected photographed live-action movie images onto aglass panel and traced over the image. This projection equipment is referred to as arotoscope, developed by Polish-American animatorMax Fleischer. This device was eventually replaced by computers, but the process is still called rotoscoping. In the visual effects industry,rotoscoping is the technique of manually creating amatte for an element on a live-action plate so it may becomposited over another background.[12][13]Chroma key is more often used for this, as it is faster and requires less work, however, rotoscope is still used on subjects that are not in front of a green (or blue) screen, due to practical or economic reasons.
Match Moving: In visual effects, match-moving is a technique that allows the insertion of computer graphics intolive-action footage with correct position, scale, orientation, and motion relative to the photographed objects in the shot. The term is used loosely to describe several different methods of extracting cameramotion information from amotion picture. Sometimes referred to as motion-tracking or camera-solving, match moving is related torotoscoping andphotogrammetry. Match moving is sometimes confused withmotion capture, which records the motion of objects, often human actors, rather than the camera. Typically, motion capture requires special cameras and sensors and a controlled environment (although recent developments such as theKinect camera andApple'sFace ID have begun to change this). Match moving is also distinct frommotion control photography, which uses mechanical hardware to execute multiple identical camera moves. Match moving, by contrast, is typically a software-based technology applied after the fact to normal footage recorded in uncontrolled environments with an ordinary camera. Match moving is primarily used to track the movement of a camera through a shot so that an identical virtual camera move can be reproduced in a3D animation program. When new CGI elements are composited back into the original live-action shot, they will appear in a perfectly matched perspective.
Compositing: Compositing is the combining of visual elements from separate sources into single images, often to create the illusion that all those elements are parts of the same scene.Live-action shoots for compositing is variously called "chroma key", "blue screen", "green screen" and other names. Today, most, though not all, compositing is achieved throughdigital image manipulation. Pre-digital compositing techniques, however, go back as far as the trick films ofGeorges Méliès in the late 19th century, and some are still in use.
Splash of color: The term splash of color is the use of a colored item on an otherwise monochrome film image.[14]
Visual effects are often integral to a movie's story and appeal. Although most visual effects work is completed duringpost-production, it usually must be carefully planned and choreographed inpre-production andproduction. Whilespecial effects such as explosions and car chases are made onset, visual effects are primarily executed in post-production with the use of multiple tools and technologies such as graphic design, modeling, animation and similar software. Avisual effects supervisor is usually involved with the production from an early stage to work closely with production and the film'sdirector to design, guide and lead the teams required to achieve the desired effects.
^Andrew Harris Salomon, Feb. 22, 2013, Backstage Magazine,Growth In Performance Capture Helping Gaming Actors Weather Slump, Accessed June 21, 2014, "..But developments in motion-capture technology, as well as new gaming consoles expected from Sony and Microsoft within the year, indicate that this niche continues to be a growth area for actors. And for those who have thought about breaking in, the message is clear: Get busy...."
^Hugh Hart, January 24, 2012, Wired magazine,When will a motion capture actor win an Oscar?, Accessed June 21, 2014, "...the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' historic reluctance to honor motion-capture performances .. Serkis, garbed in a sensor-embedded Lycra body suit, quickly mastered the then-novel art and science of performance-capture acting. ..."
^Soriano, Marc."Skeletal Animation". Bourns College of Engineering. Retrieved5 January 2011.
^"Through a 'Scanner' dazzlingly: Sci-fi brought to graphic life" USA TODAY, August 2, 2006 Wednesday, LIFE; Pg. 4DWebLinkArchived 2011-12-23 at theWayback Machine
