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 CG elements to create realistic imagery is called VFX.
The Unreal Engine is a game engine developed by Epic Games, first showcased in the 1998 first-person shooter game Unreal. Initially developed for PC first-person shooters, it has since been used in a variety of genres of three-dimensional (3D) games and has seen adoption by other industries, most notably the film and television industry. Written in C++, the Unreal Engine features a high degree of portability, supporting a wide range of desktop, mobile, console and virtual reality platforms.
Photogrammetry is the science and technology of obtaining reliable information about physical objects and the environment through the process of recording, measuring and interpreting photographic images and patterns of electromagnetic radiant imagery and other phenomena.
A first-person shooter engine is a video game engine specialized for simulating 3D environments for use in a first-person shooter video game. First-person refers to the view where the players see the world from the eyes of their characters. Shooter refers to games which revolve primarily around wielding firearms and killing other entities in the game world, either non-player characters or other players.
Karen Ansel is a visual effects specialist in the United States.
Virtual cinematography is the set of cinematographic techniques performed in a computer graphics environment. It includes a wide variety of subjects like photographing real objects, often with stereo or multi-camera setup, for the purpose of recreating them as three-dimensional objects and algorithms for the automated creation of real and simulated camera angles. Virtual cinematography can be used to shoot scenes from otherwise impossible camera angles, create the photography of animated films, and manipulate the appearance of computer-generated effects.
Vue is a software tool for world generation by e-on software with support for many visual effects, animations and various other features. The tool has been used in several feature-length movies.
DNEG is a British motion picture visual effects and computer animation and stereo conversion company that was founded in 1998 in London.
Digital Molecular Matter, better known as simply DMM, is a proprietary middleware physics engine developed by Pixelux for generating realistic destruction and deformation effects. The offline version can support high-resolution simulations for use in movie special effects. The real-time version is designed for computer, video games, and other simulation needs by attempting to simulate physical real-world systems. Unlike traditional realtime simulation engines, which tend to be based on rigid body kinematics, the use of finite element analysis (FEA) allows DMM to simulate a large set of physical properties. Developers can assign physical properties to a given object or portion of an object, which allow the object to behave as it would in the real world. In addition, the properties of objects or parts of objects can be changed at runtime, allowing for additional interesting effects.
Blackmagic Fusion is post-production image compositing developed by Blackmagic Design and originally authored by eyeon Software. It is typically used to create visual effects and digital compositing for movies, TV-series and commercials and employs a node-based interface in which complex processes are built up by connecting a flowchart or schematic of many nodes, each of which represents a simpler process, such as a blur or color correction. This type of compositing interface allows great flexibility, including the ability to modify the parameters of an earlier image processing step "in context". Upon its acquisition by Blackmagic Design, Fusion was released in two versions: the freeware Fusion, and the commercially sold Fusion Studio.
iClone is a real-time 3D animation and rendering software program. Real-time playback is enabled by using a 3D videogame engine for instant on-screen rendering.
Reallusion is a 2D and 3D character creation and animation software developer with tools from cartoon characters to digital humans and animation pipelines for films, real-time engines, video games, virtual production, archvis.
The Vanishing of Ethan Carter is a 2014 horror adventure video game developed and published by The Astronauts for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Nintendo Switch.
RealityCapture is photogrammetry software which creates 3D models out of unordered photographs or laser scans without seams. The most common fields of its current use are cultural heritage, full body scanning, gaming, surveying, mapping, visual effects (VFX) and virtual reality (VR) in general.
Allan McKay is a Los-Angeles based visual effects supervisor and technical director. He is responsible for visual effects sequences in projects including Transformers: Dark of the Moon, Blade, The Last Airbender, Star Trek: Into Darkness, Flight, The Equalizer, and other films. He has also worked on several video games including Halo, Destiny, Call of Duty, Bioshock, Prototype, Half-Life, Team Fortress 2, and others.
3DF Zephyr is a commercial photogrammetry and 3D modeling software. Developed and marketed by the Italian software house 3DFLOW, 3DF Zephyr was first released in January 2014 and continuously updated since then. It's a complete photogrammetry pipeline software package that includes many post processing tools for post processing, measurements, 3D modeling and content creation. It allows 3D reconstruction from both photos or videos, by automatically extracting frames and selecting those most suitable for the computation.
Volumetric video is a technique that captures a three-dimensional space, such as a location or performance. This type of volumography acquires data that can be viewed on flat screens as well as using 3D displays and VR goggles. Consumer-facing formats are numerous and the required motion capture techniques lean on computer graphics, photogrammetry, and other computation-based methods. The viewer generally experiences the result in a real-time engine and has direct input in exploring the generated volume.
