How are special effects created in movies?

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

Modern cinema cannot be imagined without spectacular scenes that are created with the help of special effects. This is what makes it possible to transfer the viewer to fantastic worlds, to transform the scenery and characters of films beyond recognition. Let's find out how special effects are created in movies. Photos that show the implementation of advanced technologies in filming are also considered in the material.

A Brief History

The starting point in creating amazing special effects is 1977. It was at this time that the first part of the hugely successful Star Wars franchise was released on wide screens. Thanks to the innovative ideas of the talented director George Lucas, the viewer was able for the first time to see realistic battles in outer space, get acquainted with unknown worlds, bizarre inhabitants of distant planets, and also enjoy battles with the legendary lightsabers. The creators of the film managed to realize breathtaking backgrounds by overlaying hand-drawnimages to blue screens. Huge spaceships and other large-scale objects were created by shooting miniature models.

The resounding success of Star Wars inspired George Lucas to create an entire studio called Industrial Light and Magic, whose staff was involved in the development and implementation of innovative effects. Later, the company's achievements were involved in the filming of blockbusters such as Jurassic Park, Terminator 2: Judgment Day.

Animatronics

How do special effects in movies make fantastic creatures seem real to the viewer? This is achieved through the use of animatronics. The essence of the technology is in the preparation of robotic models of moving objects. The idea was first realized by Steven Spielberg during the filming of the film "Jurassic Park" back in 1993. Here, only a small part of the scenes involving dinosaurs was created using computer graphics. The director focused on using animatronics and filming people in animal costumes.

Painted decorations

At the beginning of the last century, cinema began to widely resort to a technique known as matte painting. At that time, computer graphics did not yet exist. Therefore, the background, which was used in the filming of films, the artists had to draw by hand. The task of the animators was to prepare backgrounds that blended seamlessly with the props and did not come into dissonance with the images.actors.

The technology of creating hand-drawn scenery was actively used until the end of the 90s. Today, this approach is used less and less. After all, digital special effects have replaced matte painting.

Motion Capture

How are special effects made in movies? Motion capture is one of the most popular filmmaking techniques today. The essence of the technology is as follows. The performer of the role puts on a special suit, covered with numerous sensors. The latter enter information about human movements into a computer. Based on the received data, a moving three-dimensional model is created on the screen.

For the first time, motion capture technology was successfully implemented during the filming of the first part of the film trilogy "The Lord of the Rings". The character Golum, played by the famous British actor Andy Serkis, actively interacted with the environment and other characters thanks to motion capture. Each scene with the participation of the artist was filmed simultaneously by more than a dozen cameras. Further, on the basis of the received picture, a single three-dimensional model was created, which realistically conveyed not only the actor's body movements, but also the live facial expressions.

A new breakthrough in the development of technology took place during the filming of the blockbuster "Avatar" directed by James Cameron. To create the most believable characters, the facial expressions of the faces of the actors, the movements of their bodies and the sound were recorded simultaneously. Thus, the creators of the picture managed to create truly realistic computer characters for the first time in the history of cinema. An example of how such special effects were implemented in films, before andafter, can be seen in the photo below.

Bullet Time

At one time, the Wachowski brothers, directors of the cult blockbuster The Matrix, managed to implement truly unique, innovative special effects in cinema. Among the dozens of original solutions that the filmmakers turned to during filming, the technique known as Bullet Time (bullet time) deserves special attention. The film's directors installed dozens of cameras on the set. The latter simultaneously filmed a person in motion from a variety of angles. Thus, the viewer had the impression that the operator was moving around the actor while he was trying to dodge the bullet in the fall. Later, similar special effects in the cinema were repeatedly used by other directors.

Computer graphics

The first completely computer character appeared on the screen in 1985 in the movie "Young Sherlock Holmes". It took the creators of the painting more than six months to prepare the model of the ghostly knight, which consisted of fragments of church stained glass windows.

Modern software allows you to implement elaborate computer images of absolutely any characters. Many sets are created thanks to chromakey - shooting episodes against a green background. Such special effects in cinema make it possible to finish all sorts of backgrounds behind the actors already at the stage of editing and post-production of the tape.

A vivid example of the use of the "green screen" is the painting "Sin City". ATIn the presented film, absolutely all the scenes were filmed against such a background, and the scenery is the result of the implementation of modern computer graphics.