ABSTRACT
The most important thing about learning to use any piece of software is this: learn the techniques first, they don’t change. Visual effects are processes used to manipulate imagery in the now mostly digital postproduction process. Often abbreviated as VFX, visual effects have taken over creating the kinds of imagery that were once dominated by the process of creating special effects. Special effects are effects either created on the set or within the camera. In the late 1980s, digital compositing emerged. Compositing is the act of combining two different imagery sources; a process that was once done on an optical printer is now enhanced with the greater control allowed by computers, at a greatly reduced cost. The early 1990s saw the beginning of wide usage of what is commonly referred to as CGI or CG. The use of digital compositing has become so commonplace in modern entertainment that it will often go completely under the viewer’s radar.
