A Guide for industry terms, which are used by Professionals in VFX and Animation industry.
In the realm of filmmaking, television production, and even video games, visual effects play a crucial role in enhancing the overall visual experience. So let’s dive & understand deeper meaning of each terms
What is the full form of VFX?
The Full Form of VFX, is Visual Effects, or many people even call it Visual FX.
What is VFX?, What is the meaning of VFX?
In simple words, VFX / Visual effects are techniques used, where the original Live action footage is manipulated & New imagery is either added or created to enhance live-action footage, creating realistic or fantasy environments, adding creatures, and objects that would be impossible or impractical to shoot in reality.
Below is a very basic examples of VFX, which we all have seen in movies, Here are few of them.
Actors jumping from building
We see actors falling from a Plane,
The Blast of Planes / Ships
The Blast of a Car, Or Car jumping
The Blast of a Train,
Army soldiers of more than 10,000.
We all have seen Spiderman Jumping from one building to another
Superman flying from one place to another & many more, the list is endless, as many films use VFX in some or the other way
What are the Types & Techniques of visual effects?
Here is the list of Types or Techniques of VFX
- Matte painting
- Compositing
- CGI
- Particle Effect / FX / Dynamics
- Motion Capture
- Motion Graphics
Here are more brief of each type.
Matte Painting:- many times we see some surreal environment, very cinematics sunsets or sunrises, some period films we see castles
Compositing:- this is a very basic technique of VFX, where computer imagery is merged with Live action footage.
for example, in the Blast of a Car, where a car is shot + a separate Blast can be shot & both footage is merged together
this merging of 2 or more layers is called CompositingCGI (computer-generated imagery):- Many times a question arises in our mind what is the difference between VFX & CGI, well, CGI = is a short form of Computer Generated Imagery, this is the technique where complete images are produced by an artist with the help of CG, for example, in the Film Jurassic Park, in many shots the dinosaurs are created in CG
- Particle effects / FX / Dynamics:- this is special category of VFX where effects like fire / water / smokes are created by CGI artist, these are simulation similar to what we would see in real life, for e.g we saw atomic bomb blast in movie ” oppenheimer “
- Motion Capture:- often called in short form as mocap, is a cutting-edge technology used in the entertainment industry to record the movements of actors or objects. By capturing the subtle nuances of motion, mocap allows for incredibly lifelike animations in films, video games, and other digital media. This technology has revolutionized character animation, including their expressions enabling creators to bring characters to life with unparalleled realism and authenticity, The Mocap techniuq also saves huge amounts of time & man-days for VFX teams.
- Motion graphics:- These are generally used in Ad films or TVC & many more, for making Pack shots, and explaining Products / Services.
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