ABSTRACT
The author points out technologies and trends that are already happening and are likely to affect the way we create and use visual effects in movies and TV in the near future. Major changes may happen within the next few years. It is fairly safe to bet that computers will continue to grow even faster and more powerful, digital cameras will become smaller and more portable, image quality and resolution will increase, and VFX in general will play an even bigger role in the production of film, TV programs, commercials, and even corporate and home video. With every pixel carrying depth information in addition to color and light, the result is a dense point cloud for every frame—essentially a very accurate 3D scene that represents every element visible in the frame. Virtual reality, and its siblings augmented reality and mixed reality, are all the hype nowadays, and are already affecting everything from video games to advertising and entertainment.
