ABSTRACT
Digital Eff ects The creation of animated eff ects by computer has become a widely used tool in many major live action movies as well as cartoon fi lms. Eff ects that were diffi cult or time-consuming to draw traditionally, like cast shadows or registering animated characters to live action backgrounds, are now done painlessly on the computer. During the early development of digital eff ects animation, the emphasis was on making the eff ects look as realistic as possible. Technicians made great strides in writing the mathematical formulas (algorithms), manipulating patterns of particles and fractals (a fragmented geometric shape that can be subdivided into parts, each part a reduced copy of the whole) to achieve natural-looking fi re, smoke and water. Many good eff ects programs are available today commercially. These are called ‘ off -theshelf software ’, as opposed to a studio developing proprietary programs for their specifi c needs.
