Animatronics is a type of special effect which involves building mechanized creatures like dinosaurs, imaginary animals, and others. Initially, the concept was developed for Disney Studios, which used a giant squid in the 1954 film version 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. The name “animatronics” is used to refer to generic animatronic creations made by other film studios, while Disney has copyrighted “audio-animatronics” to refer to their creature creations. In combination with other special effects, animatronics can lend a level of reality and texture to a film that computer animation does not provide.
Blue Green Screen
Bluescreen is a special effects process used in film, television, video and more recently, the world of computers. Bluescreen, greenscreent, or bluescreen imaging, is used to create the illusion of a background that isn't actually there when filming takes place. Hollywood blockbusters such as Star Wars and the Harry Potter films use bluescreen to transport the actors into exciting worlds that had previously only existed in the imagination.
Bullet Time
The Bullet Time effect was originally achieved photographically by a set of still cameras surrounding the subject. These arrays are usually triggered at once or sequentially. Singular frames taken from each of the still cameras are then arranged and displayed consecutively to produce an orbiting viewpoint of an action frozen in time or as hyper-slow-motion. This technique suggests the limitless perspectives and variable frame rates possible with a virtual camera. However, if the still array process is done with real cameras, it is often limited to assigned paths.
CGI
CGI is used for visual effects because computer generated effects are more controllable than other more physically based processes, such as constructing miniatures for effects shots or hiring extras for crowd scenes, and because it allows the creation of images that would not be feasible using any other technology. It can also allow a single artist to produce content without the use of actors, expensive set pieces, or props.
