Visual Effects
Movie magic department
Visual effects are imagery created or manipulated for film, television, or other media that cannot be captured during live-action shooting.
The term covers computer-generated images, compositing, and digital alterations—anything added or changed after filming.
Distinguished from practical effects, which are created physically on set.
Often abbreviated VFX: The VFX team spent months on that battle sequence.
- CGIDigital movie imagery
- compositingCombining visual elements digitally
- rigid body dynamicsMechanics of non-deforming solids
- rotoscopingTracing filmed motion frame-by-frame
- fluid dynamicsScience of flowing matter
color grading · green screen · blue screen · tweening · motion capture · rigging · motion tracking · Houdini · weather systems · texture mapping · bullet time · lens flare · smoke machines
Visual Effectspractical effects
Non-digital film techniques
miniatures · animatronics · prosthetics · pyrotechnics · squibs
Visual Effectsraw footage
Unprocessed recorded material
naturalism · cinéma vérité · reality · authenticity · guerrilla filmmaking
Visual Effectsdocumentary footage
Recorded non-fiction visual material
raw footage · cinéma vérité · location shooting · live performance
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