Tim Dirks' Visual and Special Effects Milestones
Created by johnnyg.
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From even its earliest days, films have used visual magic ("smoke and mirrors") to produce illusions and trick effects that have startled audiences. In fact, the phenomenon of persistence of vision (it was first described to some degree in 1824 by British physician Peter Mark Roget) is the reason why the human eye sees individual frames of a movie as smooth, flowing action when projected.
The earliest effects were produced within the camera (in-camera effects), such as simple jump-cuts or superimpositions, or were created by using miniatures, back projection, or matte paintings. Optical effects came slightly later, using film, light, shadow, lenses and/or chemical processes to produce the film effects. Film titles, fades, dissolves, wipes, blow ups, skip frames, bluescreen, compositing, double exposures, and zooms/pans are examples of various optical effects.
Cel animation, scale modeling, claymation, digital compositing, animatronics, use of prosthetic makeup, morphing, and modern computer-generated or computer graphics imagery (CGI) are just some of the more modern techniques that are widely used for creating incredible special or visual effects.
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54 new
Blackmail
1929, in 7 top lists Check -
72 new
Foreign Correspondent
1940, in 6 top lists Check -
80 new
The Day the Earth Stood Still
1951, in 12 top lists Check -
88 new
Dial M for Murder
1954, in 9 top lists Check -
89 new
Gojira
1954 — a.k.a. Godzilla, in 12 top lists Check -
105 new
The Andromeda Strain
1971, in 3 top lists Check -
109 new
Earthquake
1974, in 1 top list Check -
112 new
Soylent Green
1973, in 3 top lists Check -
113 new
Westworld
1973, in 5 top lists Check -
117 new
Futureworld
1976, in 0 top lists Check -
129 new
Looker
1981, in 0 top lists Check -
131 new
Blade Runner
1982, in 36 top lists Check -
145 new
2010: The Year We Make Contact
1984 — a.k.a. 2010, in 0 top lists Check -
168 new
Die Hard 2
1990, in 3 top lists Check -
175 new
Terminator 2: Judgment Day
1991, in 27 top lists Check
Last updated on May 23, 2013; source