It is undeniable that movie sequences which use special effects deeply engross audiences. Whether it is the plot twists, the magnificent visuals, or even real-life monsters. The explosive effects in a classic dramatic arc however do not just occur instantaneously. They are rather created through a lengthy timeline of technological advancement, artistic talents, and imagination.

This is what the special effects history of movies is telling us. Be it the days of old with their crude theatre props or today’s advanced CGI capabilities. The development of special effects film techniques added value and creativity to the motion picture industry. That too in such a way it changed the nature of the industry and movies.

Let us take a trip down history lane and see how these amazing special effects film techniques began from basic practical effects to what they are now.

A Brief History of Special Effects in Movies

In the early 20th century special effects in films were produced through innovative and unique techniques. A French illusionist and director Georges Méliès was a trailblazer in the special effects film history.

For the first time in history, with the use of stop-motion, double exposure and painted backdrops. Georges Méliès in his A Trip to the Moon (1902) delighted audiences with the images of the moon’s surface. These simple tricks would serve as the foundation for an entire world of special effects that no one could have imagined.

By the 1940s and 30s, the history of special effects in Hollywood experienced an important turning point. The film King Kong (1933) was among the first movies to present stop-motion animation and the combination of miniature set pieces towards outstanding filmmaking.

Some directors experimented with rear projection creating the illusion of difficult scenes. Since a little bit of ingenious imagination was enough to create movie magic, special effects were used in every movie.

Over the years, there have been major improvements in special effects and their influence in media has only increased. Anyone could properly achieve a desired special effect as they look so real.

Modern tools and technology have progressed from the silent movies of the 1920s, effectively giving filmmakers exactly what they need to see in their visions in reality.

Primarily the most important progress took place in the previous fifty years when CGI became established as it did in 1980 which gave birth to such creations as Star Wars.

With its release in 1977, Star Wars gave special effects that were way above the ones available at the time, and it put forward a new way of imagination in making sci-fi as well as other genre creations. With miniature shots combined with paintings and motion control cameras, a new era for visual effects was born.

Blockbusters Movies That Used Special Effects

Undoubtedly, the CGI graphics have improved from the 1990s to the present day, with a wide array of creatures, including goblins, dragons, and the three-headed dog from Harry Potter. Motion caption technology is one of the 21st century’s most prized techniques, as seen in the creation of alien species in the film Avatar. 

Avatar

While filming the movie, the creators of Avatar used 3 types of cameras for the highest quality; namely, CGI performance capture, live action, and hybrid shooting.

Motion capture employs a computerised technique wherein people wear specially designed suits with markers that reflect infrared light to the cameras, allowing them to animate characters with the data points captured, thanks to real movement – making the characters more realistic than ever.

Director James Cameron advanced the technology of motion capture by placing cameras on the heads of actors that recorded facial movements, thus providing realistic facial expressions to the avatars that had previously been impossible to achieve with CGI. That introduced yet another level of emotional performances as actors could easily relocate their moving performances to the field of computer graphics.

All the scenes that Cameron had to shoot were performed by him with the help of a virtual action camera, as it were, placed in any position and shot the desired scene at once. This is how Cameron directed virtual computer-generated stories while the performers were acting: he panicked with a swing camera to capture the best angles during the performance.

There were also jets made in CGI, which were just ordinary jets but had been turned into 3D versions with the help of motion capture. Once again, this brought out another dimension of creativity apart from creating the images purely from CGI.

It’s hard to believe, but Avatar was released more than 10 years ago, and despite the emergence of new technologies, these techniques have not sunk into oblivion but rather inspired the developments of the last century to experiment even more with VFX.

The Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU)

To give credit where credit is due, let us start this homage with Iron Man (2008) which is considered one of the best among Marvel movies and would launch the renaissance for the MCU and VFX in general.

The first task was how to construct a believable looking and more importantly, a moving Iron Man suit which is consistent with the portrayal of the character by Stan Lee, Larry Lieber and artist Don Heck in 1963.

Jon Favreau as it was well known did not have a great appreciation for CGI and wanted the Iron Man armor to possess its own life as if Tony Stark was actually inside of it. In addition to that, he mentioned that he would use some shots of Robert Downey Jr. in the suit to make it more believable. It soon became clear that CGI, even with motion capture technology, simply wouldn’t be sufficient.

Now this was where things got fascinating. An Iron Man suit was made up and this time with a smooth shiny covering that now looked familiar. Most of the time, Downey used to put on parts of the suit, which we made sooner or later on the set, and the other parts were created in post-production. The difficult stage was the tracking where they started to integrate fully camera-captured parts into CGI such as parts of the suit that were not visibly on the count of a sitting on Downey.

At other points, it was necessary to show Downey in the whole suit and make him move as realistically as possible in motion. Another struggle they had to deal with was creating CG metal for the suit, especially the one that started to frost on the outer layer of the atmosphere. In the totality of the movie around 800 effects were applied but the most vivid effect of them all was that for the first time was convinced about the effectiveness of CGI!

Inception

It was Christopher Nolan’s in-house philosophy that was as endearing as ever, explained most effectively through the character’s journey into the depths of the human mind in 2010’s Inception, which has become synonymous with the most lucid representation of the master’s mission, the zenith of the film industry. As one could expect, there are some mediums or backing that would prove effective for producing powerful imagery or animation, however, one could never utilize it unless what had been completed in the shot already required embellishing.

In the realm of visual effects for film, fantasy becomes a reality. Such is the everyday work of Paul Franklin, who served as a visual effects supervisor for three major films, Trilogy, and, most recently, Inception. This is where he assists directors such as Nolan in animating particular images into the frame that appear to be more fantasy or sci-fi-like.

However, despite Inception’s lush, physics-bending effects, the blockbuster’s work on the British intelligent science fiction heist thriller film was considerably more conservative than one would have expected. Nolan’s film, which was released approximately a decade ago, explores somewhat dystopian and psychological themes and stands apart from traditional heist stories. 

“Some of the more spectacular imagery of the film – the street folding over in Paris, characters creating architecture out of thin air – are VFX shots that we created from a combination of live action and copious amounts of digital animation,” Franklin told Wired.com in an interview.

Conclusion

In the long history of cinema, one could say that the evolution of visual effects in films is nothing short of remarkable. These incredible special effects highlights are not only milestones in motion picture capabilities but have also set the standard for the industry. They underscore the creativity, technical skill, and innovation that define the world of visual effects, shaping the imaginations of future filmmakers and VFX artists.

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