History of Visual Effects Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

History of optical Effects - Essay ExampleThat is the whodunit and beauty of visual effects. Even though visual effects have had such a grand impact on our movie and television viewing habits, more or less slew do not distinguish the archetypical thing about the write up of this art form. This paper will serve as a historical look into the history of visual effects from the time of silent films, all the way to the most recent success of visual effects in The Life of Pi. The purpose of this paper is to allow people an inside look into the history of visual effects and how the pioneers had to struggle to create the art form that has just about been perfected in the 21st century thanks to computer graphic imaging. While previous generations may think that visual effects started with the Star Wars Prequel, in reality, these visual effects have a history that goes far back deeper than 1970s Hollywood. It was actually in 1856 when Oscar Rejlander became the first person to success fully use trick photography to create a single image. His special effects breakthrough was do through the use of 30 different sections of negatives, spliced together to create one image. Then in 1985 Alfred Clarke built upon the success of Rejlander by creating the first motion picture special effect for the movie Mary, Queen of Scots. With Clarke instructing an actor to step up and check Marys costume, an executioner was shown preparing to let his ax fall on her neck. At that point, Clarke ordered all the actors to stop miserable while the actor playing Mary was taken off the set. A dummy was placed in her stead and when filming restarted, the ax severed the dummys head. Thus, the love affair of the cinema with special effects began (A Brief History of scene Special Effects). However, it was not until 1896 when the stop trick method was by the way discovered by French magician Georges Melies. It was an effect that was created when while filming a street exposure in Paris his camera jammed. Upon review, he found that the stop trick turned a hand truck into a hearse, his pedestrians walked in an alternate direction, and men somehow became women. Now being the stage manager at the local Theatre Robert - Houdin, he discovered an inspiration that led him to create more than 500 slight films until 1914. He developed the now considered ancient effects techniques of multiple exposure, time lapse, dissolves, and hand painted color. His eldritch ability to create visual effects earned him the nickname Cinemagician. When he created his ode to Jules Verns From the Earth to the corn liquor as Le Voyage dans la Lune (1902), he used a combination of live action, animation, and toy dog with matte painting work (The Grand Illusion A Century of Special Effects). Movie masters of this era concede that their special effects were highly influenced by magician stage tricks. billet exploitation and forced perspective were but a few of the old stage magic that worked pre ferably well on film. The years from 1910 to 1920 saw the rapid growth of visual effects, particularly the Matte Shots done by Norman Dawn. While the Schuftan Process -- considered modifications of theater illusions, and still photography began to influence the craft in the 1920s and 1930s. This development led to the use of rear projection in cinemas which substituted moving pictures to create moving backgrounds. Visual effects also began to develop facial masks to help along the illusion of visual effects.