Tim Dirks' Visual and Special Effects Milestones

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Created by johnnyg.

Favorited 16 times, disliked 0 times, added to 16 watchlists.

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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  1. 54 new

    Blackmail

    1929, in 7 top lists Check
  2. 72 new

    Foreign Correspondent

    1940, in 6 top lists Check
  3. 80 new

    The Day the Earth Stood Still

    1951, in 12 top lists Check
  4. 88 new

    Dial M for Murder

    1954, in 9 top lists Check
  5. 89 new

    Gojira

    1954 — a.k.a. Godzilla, in 12 top lists Check
  6. 105 new

    The Andromeda Strain

    1971, in 3 top lists Check
  7. 109 new

    Earthquake

    1974, in 1 top list Check
  8. 112 new

    Soylent Green

    1973, in 3 top lists Check
  9. 113 new

    Westworld

    1973, in 5 top lists Check
  10. 117 new

    Futureworld

    1976, in 0 top lists Check
  11. 129 new

    Looker

    1981, in 0 top lists Check
  12. 131 new

    Blade Runner

    1982, in 36 top lists Check
  13. 145 new

    2010: The Year We Make Contact

    1984 — a.k.a. 2010, in 0 top lists Check
  14. 168 new

    Die Hard 2

    1990, in 3 top lists Check
  15. 175 new

    Terminator 2: Judgment Day

    1991, in 27 top lists Check
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Last updated on May 23, 2013; source