1. 2001: Space Odyssey (1968) Director: Stanley Kubrick
2. The Abyss (1989) Director: James Cameron
3. Jason and The Argonauts (1963) Director: Don Chaffey Ray Harryhausen was responsible for animating the skeletons, the shot became so famous thanks to how smoothly each skeleton moved.
4. Pirates of The Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (July 2003) Directed by: Gore Verbinski ILM was responsible for the VFX in The Curse of the Black Pearl.
5. Luxo Jr. (1986) Director: John Lasseter This short has become an iconic piece of Pixar’s history.
6. Tron (1982) Director: Steven Lisberger This movie contained some of the first completely CGI scenes in the cinema world.
7. A Trip to The Moon (1902) Director: George Melies This movie has been considered as the first Visual Effects Film.
8. King Kong (1933) Directors: Merian C. Cooper, Ernest B. Schoedsack This movie used many different techniques which were very advanced at their time. Techniques like stop motion animation, matte painting, rear projection, and miniatures to achieve their Visual Effects.
9. The Lord of The Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001) Director: Peter Jackson Gollum’s CGI had an incredible amount of detail and raised the bar to new levels in the CG sculpting world. This also popularized the new software named Z-Brush.
10. Nosferatu (1922) Director: F. W. Murnau Popular for its in-camera effects and its stop-motion imagery.
11. Godzilla (1954) Director: Ishiro Honda The Special Effects in this movie combined a technique where they scaled down the city and made it look extremely realistic with a combination of intricate camera angles that would make Godzilla look that intimidating.

My Favorite VFX Shot

My Favorite Special Effects

A short Exploration of “Through the Looking Glass: Philosophical Toys and Digital Visual Effects” – by Stephen Prince 

Throughout the Article Stephen Prince explores how the combination of Visual Effects and Science have impacted the cinema world as we know it today. As described in the text visual effects simply are a combination of software that can generate scenes and render them according to our scientific knowledge at the time.  

As an example of how science allowed Visual Effects to change drastically in a brief time, Prince uses the rendering of fluid simulations to highlight his point. Prince explains how the giant tidal wave in the Abyss (1989) was not photorealistic at all due to the lack of texture. However, for Poseidon (2006) 17 years later, ILM and Stanford University partnered to add the research on fluid dynamics. “Vorticity” was the parameter that ILM integrated into the software, and this helped them generate foam, bubbles, and spray which helped the imagery look photorealistic. 

Additionally, Prince introduces a new concept he names “Perceptual Realism.” Prince explains how visual effects allowed the scenes to be more dynamic and interactive, comparing King Kong to Jurassic Park and exploring why one had perceptual realism when the other one did not. The digital tools provided by the software allowed the filmmakers of Jurassic Park to create photorealistic creatures that were also able to interact with the environment and the actors something King Kong wasn’t able to do with matte paintings. 

After exploring “Perceptual Realism” Prince heads down some arguments that were being debated by other members of the filmmaking world. The debates explored the idea that now that digital effects are so realistic the story is being used to show the effects instead of the other way round, this is shown by Annette Kuhn (1999) who states, “The story becomes the display, and the display becomes the story”. Additionally, they also argued that they take the viewer out of the narrative. In some cases, directors such as Tom Gunning explained how film should be used as a medium of spectacle instead of narrative. 

Finally, Prince explores Zodiac, the movie is based in 1968 and the visual effects team was responsible for depicting San Francisco in a historically accurate way. Prince explains how they made use of Photogrammetry. Paul Debevec and the University of California created mathematically based software that allowed multiple images in various angles to generate a 3D model. The shots were so high quality that the movie implemented multiple all CG shots. 

Prince concludes that digital effects simply enhance the analog techniques we had in the past such as Matte Painting instead of undermining them. Not only this but visual effects have become a way of producing art in a way that is extremely intertwined with science and how this makes cinema as a whole more impactful. 

A Comparison Between “Invisible” & “Spectacular” Visual Effects 

In the world of film there are many types of visual effects, two of which are invisible and spectacular visual effects. These styles differ in many ways, on one hand invisible effects are made to be hard to notice, they are subtle and often made to save money or for safety reasons.  

On the other hand, spectacular visual effects are made to amaze the viewer, these sequences often have surreal aspects and make very clear use of visual effects. 

Digital Visual Effects in Cinema: The Seduction of Reality by Stephen Prince 

Throughout his book’s introduction, Prince explains what the following pages will be about, as he also clarifies what he means by Digital Visual Effects. He starts by explaining how movies like Avatar, Iron Man, and Lord of the Rings are what the general public think about when talking about special effects. In fact, special effects are more than that, often focusing on generating realistic characters, scenes, and events.  

Prince then investigates Dan North’s point of view who states that visual effects are in fact a mistreated and misunderstood field in film studies, showing how North also believes that Digital Visual effects are being mistaken and falsely represented by the public at large.  

Following this, Prince continues by explaining how the filmmakers and directors still must perform editorial and decide on what to include and exclude in the shot as visual effects are simply a tool, they can use to improve the shots. Even though visual effects can craft spectacular shots, often their impact is nuanced and less noticeable. 

Additionally, the writer explains that digital imagery may sometimes undermine the reality status that cinematic images possess resulting in a form of doubt towards all imagery in cinema and generating what some people call techno-nostalgia. Prince expresses his disagreement with the matter, showing that he believes that this change from analogue to digital did not break the style of filmmaking. However, digital visual effects are built on the same techniques used in earlier generations of special effects. 

Finally, the introduction continues to explore the differences between special effects and visual effects and tries to bring light to what visual effects are and multiple misconceptions out what visual effects do for film. Prince also talks about some other commonly used language such as the uncanny valley and makes some remarks concerning the use and connotations of the descriptors CG and CGI. 

Principles of Illusion

• Assumption
• Presumption
• Context in Reality

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lumiere Brothers and Melies

They were responsible for the first ever films. The films were mainly composed of short videos without any story or narrative, simply composed of recordings of trains and what was considered day to day life. People mainly watched their cinematography due to their awe towards seeing moving image.

On the other hand Melies started to introduce narrative into these recordings. Melies was also responsible for the first examples of Special Effects where he recorded “what was not there”, generating imagery that was clearly fake yet it was extremely innovative for the time.

Melies started out as a French illusionist and inspired by the Lumiere’s filmmaking he started to adapt his illusionist skills and he was able to create some of the first shorts that contained narrative and special effects. Often he used exposure and creative cuts to create certain shots and effects.

 

How does it work? Persistence of vision is a phenomena that makes this perception of motion possible. An afterimage is thought to persist for approximately one twenty-fifth of a second on the retina. This allows us to perceive moving image.

Obviously the Kong movie from 2005 is more realistic and looks better than the one in 1933 yet they are actually very similar shots. Some of the angles and perspective don’t match very well on the 1933 shot which makes it look slightly off. On the other hand I would say that the composition on both images is very good and I seem to like the composition on the older shot more than the new one as there are more planes and the stakes seem to be higher for Kong in a narrative perspective. Not only this but the Kong on the older movie is larger than in the 2005 which is something that takes away from the fear that the movie provoked in 1933.

The Cinema of Attractions by Tom Gunning Summarized

Gunning starts by explaining how actuality films influenced the initial stages of film, he goes into detail about how the Lumiere brothers and Melies should not be compared as Non-narrative and Narrative filmmakers. Gunning explains how he would put their films in a separate category named “The Cinema of Attractions.” In the initial stages of cinema, film was used as an opportunity to highlight what cameras were able to do and show and people were there to look and experience that, not so much to gain entertainment from the narrative but by the technology itself. Explaining how close ups in fil weren’t used to add tension or dramatic effect in a scene but instead used as the main attraction of the shot, Gunning gives two examples of movies that did this, “Photographing a female crook” (1904) and “Hooligan in Jail” (1903). 

He argues that Melies’ movies are not a good example of narrative storytelling as they better resemble a series of consecutive shots and skits of magical instances rather than a sequence of shots that when combined demonstrate narrative continuity. Gunning also mentions how Eisenstein believed that this sequence or montage of shots is what theater and film are all about and comparing it like a fair attraction such as the roller coaster.  

Gunning ends the text by explaining how he believes that radical heterogeneity isn’t the exact opposite of the early stages of cinema and that in fact there are some shots and films which represent a step into both directions of cinema. The two directions Gunning mentions are the violence towards the spectator, demonstrated in “The Great Train Robbery” (1903) where the actor shoots towards the audience, and a good example of slowly moving into more linear narratives that have a story that engages the viewer. 

Ray Harryhausen

Harryhausen was a famous stop motion artist and generalist who got incredibly inspired by the original King Kong and decided to pursue a filmmaking career. He mainly focused on creating creatures and animating them by adding metal armatures with rubber joints that allowed him to move them around and shoot stop motion scenes.

His movies have been said to inspire many creators and young artists to pursue a career in filmmaking. Some of his movies have inspired artists like Tim Burton, John Dante, and James Cameron.

Scared that the movie would fail they changed the name from Animation to Dynamation, this was to stop adults from thinking it was a movie for children and that it was a movie for all ages. Harryhausen also wanted to prevent people from thinking that the audience would believe that there was a person inside of a costume so he decided to give the cyclops lamb legs and 3 fingers so that people could be certain that nobody was inside of a suite.

Usually Harryhausen, who was inspired by King Kong and the music in the movie, often attempted to animate the creatures and sync them up with the music that was going to be used for the scene.

What is Digital Cinema? 

By Lev Manovich 

Over the course of the paper Manovich extrapolates on the ideas of cinema and how visual effects have evolved from the analogue special effects and tricks that were once produced in front of the camera. He discusses the fact that early on in the VFX development Hollywood was the only place that had the money and resources to produce digital effects.  

Following this, Manovich attempts to define the principles of VFX and the benefits that digital film now bring to the table. The idea that film now solely uses pixels adds the huge benefit of being able to manipulate each pixel in an image to create certain effects. Manovich explains how in Zabriskie Point (1970) Michelangelo Antonini was forced to paint a field green to increase the saturation whereas now we are able to do this digitally with extreme levels of control and simplicity.  

An interesting argument that Manovich touched on was how William J. Mitchell philosophized on the fact that film has now become more like painting rather than capturing an image due to all of the ways we can transform that image into something new emphasizing how this level of control is the same as the digital artists version of pigments and brushes to a painter.  

Finally, a point that really attracted my attention was the fact that Manovich pointed out that people believe that technology, and in almost all instances that argument is right, helps us automate tasks yet in film and digital effects it is the other way around. What before was captured by the camera is now only one of the many ingredients that are used to generate a complex shot and often those ingredients have to be mixed into every frame which for 90-minute movie as Manovich explains that would be 129 600 frames. 

Dune (1984) Vs. Dune (2021)

The original Dune showed the story of an extremely complex novel. In some instances the movie showed that the idea behind the film was ahead of its time, technology and special effects weren’t quite advanced enough to generate some of the effects. In many shots the quality of the visual effects took the viewer out of the story and this resulted in the movie having a very bad reputation and low score in websites such as IMDb.

Compared to the 2021 Dune, this movie managed to generate a lot of anticipation as the trailer itself showed how far Visual Effects have come since the 1980s. Not only this but some of the creative decisions made by the director allowed for some of the more ambitious shots or unrealistic shots to be excluded or hidden from the film.

In this shot the filmmakers actually made use of props and perspective to make the crowd and the spaceships seem larger and have the detailed they wanted. For such an old shot the actual look of it is very good and in many cases it gives a Warhammer 40k feeling to the film.

On the other hand, in the 2021 Dune remake the film was able to make use of Visual Effects to generate a larger crowd with a larger sense of scale. The two shots look pretty similar in a sense but the most recent version looks more realistic and manages to make the viewer feel more integrated into the scene.

Overall the movie in 1984 attempted to fit the whole story in the film which made it difficult for it to stay close to the plot, on the other hand, with the 2021 version it was split in 2 parts (the second one being released in 2024). This allowed Denis Villeneuve go into further detail on the story and stick to the details of the original novel.

A Bibliography on “George Lucas Discovers Computer Graphics” by Alvy Ray Smith 

This article explains the story of the struggles that Smith had at the time of presenting the powerful technology of VFX at the time to Director George Lucas. Alvy Ray Smith was the director of the computer graphics branch with Ed Catmull who was the director of the computer division, both working for Lucasfilm.  

The main problem they encountered was that even though they were still working with George Lucas, he did not know exactly what they could do which meant that they were not achieving their goal of being part of the VFX of a Star Wars movie which they knew would have a significant impact on the VFX industry. 

George Lucas was using his VFX department for mechanical devices such as camera dollies and blue screen yet at the time Smith wanted to generate digital images directly from a computer and when “The Empire Strikes Back” started production they still were not called out to help. 

The moment arrived for Smith and Catmull when ILM, which was next door to their building needed a VFX shot for Star Trek 2, at the time they were currently still managing special effects shots rather than visual effects which made this the perfect ask for Smith and Catmull.  

They were asked to create a 60-second visual effects shot of the Genesis effect, which turned dead matter into life, and the Retina ID sequence. Smith and his team attempted to create the most complex shot to date, a shot that would amaze George Lucas, they moved the camera in ways impossible to happen, used fractal mountain generation, particle systems, paint programs, and high-end rendering skills. 

Alvy knew that they would need a complex camera shot, this meant something impossible to happen, the camera moved around sped up, slowed down, and at some point, it is even eaten by the flames. The Star Trek Premier happens, and it worked, Lucas was amazed by the shot and by the time Return of The Jedi was in production they took part in a 3D holographic shot. 

John Lasseter was the CCO (Chief Creative Officer) of Pixar, he is known for his animating skills and as one of the most successful filmmakers. Not only this, but Lasseter was responsible for the development of Computer Animation at Lucasfilm after being fired from his position at Disney for attempting to promote it. 

Catmull worked on the Computer Graphics Lab at NYIT where he met Smith who later became his Co-founder at the time of starting Pixar. Before the founding of Pixar Catmull also worked on Tween, a software that he designed used for 2D animation which generated frames between every two others. Additionally, he was the Vice president of ILM before starting his journey with Pixar. 

Alvy Ray Smith Co-Founded Lucasfilm’s computer division and Pixar. He was a profound influence on the growth of computer animation into film. Smith took part in a degree in electrical engineering which led him to NYIT where he met Edwin Catmull and where he also invented the Alpha channel. Smith also worked hard to get VFX into Star Wars. At the time of doing this, he created the Genesis Deo with a group of artists for Star Trek 2, which got them a couple of shots of VFX in the next Star Wars movie. 

Uncanny Valley

The Uncanny Valley is a phenomena that was first popularized by Masahiro Mori who looked at the way some robots look creepy whereas others don’t. The effect slowly started gaining fame in the VFX industry as the similar effect was being recognized when viewing CG Characters.

Mori made this graph which shows the point at which something that starts looking like a person drastically goes down before going back up. This point in the graph is usually found with things that look human but are still slightly behind. Some robots often have this effect where they look too similar to humans.

A Bibliography on the Uncanny Valley by Masahiro Mori

Towards the beginning Masahiro Mori explains the relationship between certain graphs using mathematical equations such as y=f(x). Additionally, discussing that these equations often refer to specific situations or phenomena in real life. As we have become used to the fact that the graphs tend to be linear when we find out that it is not that way we are often surprised and feel a sense of unease towards those situations since we cannot explain them.  

Mori proceeds to give the example of robots appearing increasingly human-like, our sense of connection or “Affinity”, as Mori specifies, increases until we reach a point where they look so real yet due to the fact that we know they are fake our affinity towards them decreases massively thus coming to a peak which Mori coined as the Uncanny Valley. 

He follows by giving examples of certain situations where this valley is present, specifically talking about the relationship between robots and humans. Mori starts by talking about the prosthetics and how these have reached a developmental stage where they look very realistic but still look fake which makes us feel affinity towards them at far but once we realize that they are fake whether that is through merely looking at them or by having a handshake we instantly lose all that affinity which leads to the Uncanny Valley. This leads Masahiro Mori to make the argument that designers of these robots should try to aim for the first peak before the Uncanny Valley instead of the second peak where the robots would look as realistic as a healthy person. 

Mori also makes the argument that movement and health have an influence on our level of affinity towards a human-like object. Hence when a person dies, we suddenly lose all our affinity towards the person, and we would place them at the bottom of the Uncanny Valley. Similarly, when something looks very realistic such as the prosthetic hand, but it moves in a very unrealistic way this will also decrease our level of affinity hence placing the hand into the valley. 

Squash and stretch: The deformation of objects to show their flexibility and weight. For example, a bouncing ball squashes when it hits the ground and stretches when it rebounds.

Anticipation: The preparation for an action to happen. For example, a character leans back before jumping forward.

Staging: The presentation of an idea or action in a clear and effective way. For example, a character faces the camera when delivering a dialogue or a punchline.

Straight ahead action and pose to pose: The two methods of creating animation. Straight ahead action is drawing frame by frame from start to finish, while pose to pose is drawing the key poses first and then filling in the in-betweens. Both methods have their advantages and disadvantages, and can be combined for optimal results.

Follow through and overlapping action: The continuation of movement after an action has stopped, and the offset of movement of different parts of a body or object. For example, a character’s hair or clothes keep moving after they stop running, or their arms swing at a different pace than their legs.

Slow in and slow out: The acceleration and deceleration of movement. For example, a car starts slowly, speeds up, and then slows down before stopping.

Arcs: The natural and smooth path of motion of objects and characters. For example, a ball follows a curved trajectory when thrown, or a character’s arm moves in an arc when reaching for something.

Secondary action: The additional actions that support or emphasize the main action. For example, a character blinks or smiles when talking, or a dog wags its tail when running.

Timing: The number and spacing of frames between two poses. Timing affects the speed and realism of the movement, and can also convey the mood and personality of a character. For example, a fast and snappy movement can show excitement or anger, while a slow and smooth movement can show calmness or sadness.

Exaggeration: The distortion or enhancement of reality to make the animation more expressive and appealing. For example, a character’s facial features can be exaggerated to show their emotions, or their actions can be exaggerated to show their intensity or humour.

Solid drawing: The accuracy and consistency of the shapes, volumes, weights, and anatomies of the objects and characters. For example, a character should maintain their proportions and perspective throughout the animation, and their poses should show balance and depth.

Appeal: The attractiveness or charisma of the objects and characters. Appeal can be achieved by using simple and clear designs, adding details and variations, and giving them distinctive personalities and expressions.

What is Compositing

Physical Compositing – Split sections of images which are later aligned in front of the camera to give the illusion of being one image. The most popular versions of these physical compositing are Partial Models and Glass Paintings.

Partial Models – Models made to match the scenery are placed or hung in front of the camera to fit in with the background.

Glass Painting – Sections of the set are painted on glass with sections left blank so that the camera can see and record the background of the set. In this part actors might move around to add realism to the shot.

In this shot you can see a broken down building in the center of a post apocalyptic city. Everything has been run down by nature or broken. The main focal point of the shot is the building at the back which has been destroyed.

In the shot breakdown it is revealed to us that the building isn’t actually there and it is simply a normal city. Most likely the director rented the location and added props such as the old cop car and added all the foliage at the front and near the red boxes.

Having a building like this be actually destroyed would most likely force the director to build a whole set. The set would have to be huge and would cost a lot of money, they would later have to blow up a building which again would be expensive and very dangerous. Not only this, there is a risk that the building won’t blow up like the director imagined.

There isn’t a chance to go to a real set and blow up a building because it is very close to other buildings which would mean that they might get damaged too and there is danger for people who live in the surrounding area.

Most of the background has been masked out and replaced with a digital scene, this was done as the floor in front of the actors also needs to have debris and foliage that surrounds the floor.

 

The buildings that show up in the actual shot and were later replaced were most likely phot scanned and brought to the 3D software where foliage and damage was added to the models.

Here you can see a better view of the 3D building that had been destroyed. The building was most likely destroyed in Houdini and then placed into the scene.

If this building couldn’t have been recreated it would have not only impacted the shot but it would impact the story as this shot isn’t able to be created in real life in a budget and safe way the director would have been forced to create a different version of the shot which would have impacted the way the story developed on the show.

Key Arguments
– The photographic truth claim (Tom Gunning)
– Photographic Indexicality (Charles Peirce and Paul Levinson)
– What is photorealism? Explore different definitions and compare
– What d