Special effects are illusions or visual tricks used in the theatre, film, television, video game, amusement park and simulator industries to simulate the imagined events in a story or virtual world. It used to be called SFX but this short form has also expanded to include “sound effects” as well.
Sean Astin is an American actor. His acting roles include Mikey Walsh in The Goonies (1985), Billy Tepper in Toy Soldiers (1991), Daniel Ruettiger in Rudy (1993), Samwise Gamgee in The Lord of the Rings trilogy (2001–2003), Doug Whitmore in 50 First Dates (2004), Bill in Click (2006), Lynn McGill in the fifth season of 24 (2006), Oso in Special Agent Oso (2009–2012), Raphael in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2012–2017), Bob Newby in the second season of Netflix's Stranger Things (2017), and Ed in No Good Nick (2019).
Visual effects is the process by which imagery is created or manipulated outside the context of a live-action shot in filmmaking and video production. The integration of live-action footage and other live-action footage or CGI elements to create realistic imagery is called VFX.
Rotoscoping is an animation technique that animators use to trace over motion picture footage, frame by frame, to produce realistic action. Originally, live-action movie images were projected onto a glass panel and traced onto paper. This projection equipment is referred to as a rotoscope, developed by Polish-American animator Max Fleischer. This device was eventually replaced by computers, but the process is still called rotoscoping.
Sir Richard Leslie Taylor is the founder, creative director and head of New Zealand film prop and special effects company Wētā Workshop.
Concept art is a form of visual art used to convey an idea for use in films, video games, animation, comic books, television shows, or other media before it is put into the final product. Concept art usually refers to world-building artwork used to inspire the development of media products, and is not the same as visual development art, though they are often confused.
Richard Baneham is an Irish animator and visual effects supervisor, who has worked on several film series, including The Lord of the Rings film trilogy, the Chronicles of Narnia films and the Avatar franchise. Amongst other awards, Baneham has received a BAFTA Award for Best Special Visual Effects and an Academy Award for Best Visual Effects in 2009, both for his work on Avatar, and a further Academy Award in 2023, for visual effects on Avatar: The Way of Water.
A digital matte artist, or digital matte painter (DMP), is today's modern form of a traditional matte painter in the entertainment industry. They digitally paint photo-realistic interior and exterior environments that could not have been otherwise created or visited.
David Burroughs Mattingly is an American illustrator and painter, best known for his numerous book covers of science fiction and fantasy literature.
Flash Film Works is a computer graphics company that provides visual effects for films, television shows and commercials. It is owned by director William Mesa and is located in Los Angeles, California.
James Danforth is an American stop-motion animator, known for model-animation, matte painting, and for his work on When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth (1970), a theme-sequel to Ray Harryhausen's One Million Years B.C. (1967). He later went on to work with Ray Harryhausen on the film Clash of the Titans (1981) to mainly do the animation of the winged horse Pegasus.
Albert J. Whitlock Jr. was a British-born motion picture matte artist best known for his work with Disney and Universal Studios.
Jim Rygiel is an American visual effects supervisor. He has worked on major feature films since 1984, including The Lord of the Rings movie trilogy and Godzilla. He currently works at FuseFX visual effects studio.
Dean Wright is a film director and visual effects supervisor, best known for his work on The Lord of the Rings film trilogy and The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.
Craig Barron is an American visual effects artist and creative director at Magnopus, a media company that produces visual development and virtual production services for motion pictures, television, museums and multimedia platforms.
Matte World Digital was a visual effects company based in Novato, California that specialized in realistic matte painting effects and digital environments for feature films, television, electronic games and IMAX large-format productions. The company closed in 2012 after 24 years of service in the entertainment industry.
The VFX creative director is a position common in films, television programs, and computer games using a large amount of visual effects (VFX).
Dylan Cole is an American Digital Matte-Painter and concept artist specializing in work for film, television, and video games. Cole received a degree in fine arts from UCLA. He is best known for his work on feature films like The Lord of the Rings trilogy, Avatar and its sequel, Daredevil, Alice in Wonderland, Tron: Legacy, Maleficent and The Chronicles of Riddick. He recently published his first book, The Otherworldly Adventures of Tyler Washburn.
Michael Pangrazio is an American art director in the feature film industry best known for his matte painting work on Raiders of the Lost Ark and The Empire Strikes Back. As traditional and digital matte artist, he created some of the most famous matte paintings in movie history. His best known painting is the Raiders of the Lost Ark warehouse interior set-extension at the end of the movie.
Milan Schere is a Canadian matte painter and filmmaker, best known for his work on Tron: Legacy. In 2011 he received a best Visual Effects in Canadian cinema award nomination by the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television for his 1907 New York City skyline period matte painting work in the feature film A Dangerous Method.
