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VFX has changed massively over the past decades, with many of the old techniques either not in use anymore, or being digitalised. Back in the late 19th century, there weren’t many techniques that could be used to achieve FX. An illusionist by the name of George Melies revolutionised film with ‘cutting and splicing,’ a technique that meant film could be cut and stuck back together to create the illusion of things changing on-screen in a split-second. In this short film by Melies, he uses this technique to make the lady disappear.
From a modern perspective, this film is easy to pull apart, but to an unsuspecting Victorian-era audience, this would’ve been every bit a magic show. In films today, cuts are far more common, and the camera doesn’t have to be constantly rolling from the same place. Cuts can now be used to hide transitions in a scene, as shown in this clip from Harry Potter and The Order of the Phoenix, where the camera pans upwards above the main characters and up to the clock tower, where Professor Dolores Umbridge is watching them.
In the mid-to-late 1800s, miniatures and toys started being used to create animations. Since cameras were still new at this point, objects were moved slightly and then photographed. This could be done with people too, as seen in this scene from Hotel Electrique by Segundo De Chomon, which features stop-motion animation. Stop-motion has been used in the 20th century to create scenes which weren’t possible in real life, like in the original King Kong, which used a doll in place of a giant gorilla breaking free and scaling buildings.
More recently, Laika Studios have created modern stop-motion films like Kubo and the Two Strings and Coraline, which also feature modern VFX like green-screens to achieve some of the backgrounds. Before green or blue screen, backgrounds used to be painted, like in the Wizard of Oz.
Using miniatures was innovated by Star Wars: A New Hope in 1977, in which small models of spacecraft were created and used in battle scenes. They were moved around with rigs in front of a blue-screen backdrop, the precursor to the green-screen, which is what’s used now. During the creation of Star Wars, they also used programmed cameras that would record the same movements, which meant segments could be edited.
Another FX technique used in Star Wars was matte painting. Matte painting is a technique in which a glass panel is placed in front of a camera and an artist paints in elements to the shot. This has many limitations, as the camera cannot move, characters must stay within certain barriers, and the painting must match up perfectly with the scenery. Anything can affect this; from the camera accidently being moved, or the weather or time of day not matching up with the matte. This process was made quicker when mattes could be added in post, with tarps used to cover the camera where it would be placed.
Matte painting used to require a great amount of talent in the traditional arts, as well as precision. Now, Mattes can be made digitally from already existing images, and can even be placed on moving shots by tracking certain parts of the composition with various software like After Effects and Nuke. The need for an artist to painstakingly paint onto a glass pane or a massive canvas is gone.
VFX was and is still created in post-production, but a revolutionary technique recently discovered may soon change that as well. The Mandalorian used what is now referred to as ‘Virtual Production’ to achieve their environments. They used Unreal Engine to produce landscapes, which were shown on large screens all around the room.
Virtual Production gives the opportunity to edit the environment right up until filming, which allows the director to be immersed in the filming, and also for changes to be made on the fly. With the introduction of Virtual Production, most of the FX can be done during filming rather than in post. This is revolutionary for VFX, as FX is a lengthy process that mainly happens in post-production. With Virtual Production, it can become something new and offer jobs to those previously in other Creative Industries.
PowerPoint Slides:
Sources:
Websites:
https://www.filmsite.org/visualeffects.html - filmsite — Greatest Visual and Special Effects (F/X) - Milestones in Film
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0617588/bio - Georges Méliès’ IMDb Biography
https://www.slideshare.net/yl98/cutting-and-splicing - Slideshare — Cutting and Splicing
http://www.aotg.com/index.php?page=jumpcut - Art of the Guillotine — A Break in the Action: The art of the jump cut
https://vfxforfilm.wordpress.com/2013/01/03/mattepainting/ - WordPress — What is Matte Painting?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stop_motion - Wikipedia — Stop Motion
https://www.studiobinder.com/blog/what-is-stop-motion-animation/ - Studio Binder — DIY Animation: What is Stop Motion Animation & How to Try it at Home
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H%C3%B4tel_%C3%A9lectrique - Hôtel électrique — Wikipedia
https://www.perforce.com/blog/vcs/what-is-virtual-production - What Is Virtual Production? What Do You Need to Make it a Reality — Perforce
Other:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tsDdAXKtYAE - YouTube — A History of VFX
https://www.unrealengine.com/en-US/events/unreal-build-virtual-production-2020 - Unreal Build: Virtual Production (November 10, 2020) — Unreal Engine
Media:
Clips used:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f7-x93QagJU - The Vanishing Lady — Georges Méliès
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QDlaX2w1pa0 - Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix — Joining Dumbledore’s Army
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E2BosZTXrM0 - Hôtel électrique — Segundo de Chomón
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vex0gPFnBvM - Kubo and the Two Strings: Official Trailer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zct1tPK1Zk0 - King Kong — Kong escapes
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gUnxzVOs3rk - The Virtual Production of The Mandalorian, Season One
Images used:
http://stopmotion-modelmaking.blogspot.com/2011/10/my-notes-from-chris-bowden-talk.html - Rebecca Pople, Blogspot — Stop-Motion puppets image
https://younglynnkim.wordpress.com/2014/09/21/14-09-21-the-wizard-of-oz-1939/ - WordPress — The Wizard of Oz backdrop image
https://library.creativecow.net/article.php?author_folder=kaufman_debra&article_folder=VFX_John-Dykstra&page=1 - Star Wars miniatures — Creative COW
https://movies.stackexchange.com/questions/84018/do-the-new-star-wars-movies-use-any-paintings-for-set-backgrounds - Stack Exchange —Star Wars: A New Hope matte painting
http://markwestwriter.blogspot.com/2016/02/matte-paintings-from-star-wars-original.html - Mark West, Blogspot — Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back matte painting
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