The Science of Special Effects
During our ramblings around YouTube, we came across this marvelous compendium showcasing the evolution of special effects in film since 1900, beginning with The Enchanted Drawing, and ending -- of course -- with the amazing anti-aging Brad Pitt in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. Who knows what the visual effects wizards will come up tomorrow?
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I wrote about this recently on my blog Illuminating Reality and computers were part of two major milestones that revolutionized visual effects. First it was Motion Control photography that used computers to control cameras so that a particular move could be repeated over and over to near precision, allowing layers to be optically printed together and realize complex shots. Next was computer graphics reaching a level of production quality photo-realism which led to a level of control on the pixel level that was unprecedented and led us to where we are today.
In the last ten to fifteen years the big things that have pushed our capabilities further have been the democratization of 3d tracking, allowing for integration of CG elements into live action shots with complex camera camera moves, the integration of somewhat artist controlled simulation, leading to realistic simulations of how light bounces around and bleeds colors in an environment as well as incredibly detailed fluid simulation, and finally the move towards advanced compositing of shots, wherein an artist will assemble all of the myriad layers of a shot (as in the past with Optical Printing) but now can finesse it all together with incredible freedom and flexibility.
What's coming in the future? More complexity, more detail, and faster turn-arounds. Simulation will continue to move out of the niche and into the norm and we will see more optical simulation of lenses as well as procedural motion of objects.
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