History of Visual Effects - Then and Now

The history of visual effects all starts off with:

- The very first film ever made using real life action was 'Leaving the Factory' by Lumiere Brothers ~  ln the time it was made (1895) there was no words just action, there was no story to the movie, just a camera that kept filming as people (mostly ladies) was exiting a factory building.

- The level of film making raised when George Melies started; he was "father of special effects". He experimented with all his films to see what he could create: he would film something, rewind the film and film something else on top of what he already filmed. He realised he could use 'magic' in a film when he was filming a car and the camera cuts out. 

- One of his famous films: which was the first science fiction movie ~ A trip to the moon: 

- Early techniques was filmed against a black background

From around 1902 to the 21st century film makers would use the techniques like: 
- Glass shot
- Negative matte painting
- Black background
- Matte painting
- Zoptics
- Blue or Green screen
- Rear Projection
To create their films, they would use mixtures of different types of techniques for example: King Kong (1933) had a mixture of use from Matte Paintings to Rear Projections to the simple case of using models in the distance and close up shots as live action. where as glass shot technique was used in Star Wars however the disadvantages with this technique was that the camera had to be kept still with the glass shot painting lined up exactly the same with the rest of the set, if not then then when filming it and them coming to the time of watching it, the set and the glass shot would be placed wrong and would be able to notice it really badly in the film, Star Wars also used Blue screen in episode Vll. 

Till this day they still use some of these techniques like:


- Blue or Green screen
- Rear projection
We notice these techniques in any movie/TV show - 

Even King Kong (1933) used a Rear Projection Technique. 

Blue And Green Screen examples: 

The rules with Blue screen and Green Screen: 

Green Screen:

• Can shoots outside (with green background) will affect the filming
• Best to film during the day.
• You get a cleaner colour, however there will be problems when removing the green with chroma key specially around the the close edges

Blue Screen:

• Better to film at night.
• Can remove the blue within the close edges unlike Green screen. 
• Don't use Blue screen if the actor is wearing blue, wear the opposite colour to the background screen.

Not only is there a background there is a technique called Green actor replacement - (green suit man). Basically this technique is a actor in a green suit to help the real actor know where they are looking and where they should be talking to e.g. If they need to be looking down the green suit actor would be on the floor. 

They have to film the scene twice because if they shoot the scene then chroma key removal the green suit actor out they are left with a black hole, so they need to fill that gap by composting the two shots they have filmed and placing them on top of each other. 

Andy Serkis is a great example of being a green actor replacement because he takes the job seriously and really gets into character: he specialised in films like Lord of the Rings, Planet of the Apes, King Kong...

He really is amazing!

Some work he has done:

Now a days its all CGI controlled, there is no hand paintings anymore only computer generated. They still use actors to capture the essence of facial expressions, emotions and acting. 

Comparing Mary Poppins (1964) to Avatar (2009) the techniques of creating a movie has changed massively, with Avatar during them filming they watched it back and could view it in the 3D world which there was nothing like that with Mary Poppins it was more the case film and watch it al back. 

                                          

                                         

Above are some great video clips of how the creators of Avatar made the film, still using the actors for acting and how they captured every emotion and feeling within the actor to the character. This shows how films will be created in the future, theres no more old school Matte paintings or any techniques like that which involves artist's having to hand draw.