A History of Special Effects In 5 Minutes

[Earnest Cavalli]

A History of Special Effects In 5 Minutes

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Before Avatar blows our collective minds in December, it might be helpful to take a look back at how special effects on film have changed over the last century.

Of course, that would take hours and who has that kind of time? Luckily for those of us who have things to do, YouTube user "bengraphics" has compiled something of an abridged history of the medium in a single, 5-minute-long video.

I am deducting points from the clip for its bizarre omission of The Matrix, but otherwise it seems to hit all the crucial notes in the history of visual wizardry.

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[Vim-Hogar]

Pretty cool, but skipping the mid/late 90s was a bit strange. I suppose you already mentioned the omission of The Matrix, but I'm sure you could throw in a few more steps between Jurassic Park and Spiderman 2. That's basically skipping almost half the development of modern, CG visual effects.

I really liked seeing the old stuff, though; it's fun to see what sort of tricks you can get away with using just a bit of clever camerawork.

 

[ZeroMachine]

... The hell? Where the fuck is Lord of the Rings?

There were too many obvious choices that should have been in this little clip that weren't. Interesting nonetheless...

 

[Nincompoop]

How... Peculiar...?

I don't care much for the old days, because the old days suck o.o.

However, the ending showed some cool and impressive phasing.

It's amazing what you can do with technology.

 

[hansari]

Shouldn't movies that are completely CGI be included?

 

[DRADIS C0ntact]

Nice video, but he left out a few shots that absolutely should have been included. Why wasn't the morphing scene from Willow in there? I don't think it was the first time morphing had been tried, but it was the first time that it worked very, very well.

And I shouldn't even have to say it, but where is Gollum? Where is Peter Jackson's version of Kong? Would make sense to compare the modern version of Kong to the original version to see how far effects have progressed.

 

[whaleswiththumbs]

Shouldn't movies that are completely CGI be included?

It's a special effects video, which would mean there are actual people doing the parts... to some extent. full CGI is just another way of animation.

If it can do that stuff now I wonder what Avatar will do, wow I think I just peed someones pants..

 

[Cargando]

I think the best CGI I've ever seen has gotta be Gollum. Sometimes, you could swear it was all prosthetics...

 

[Subzerowings]

Strange, I was expecting some horror movies. Correct me if I am wrong but if you push an arrow through some one's neck, that's special effects right (in a movie of course...)?

 

[Plazmatic]

why the hell didn't they show alien, that shit was the earliest use of the begining of CGI, animation on top of real things.

 

[j0z]

Where is The Matrix and LotR? LotR had some of the most amazing CGI ever, just look at Gollum, he was amazing!

 

[dthree]

There's a bit of anachronism in there if you noticed. Some of the Star Wars clips were not from the 1977 version but the cgi-enhanced 1997 version. You can tell the difference with a shot of the 4 ships leaving the death star and the death star explosion. If they are intending this to be chronological, the original footage should have been used.

 

[Shycte]

Well, as metioned above. There is a whole buch of movies that we all think should have been in this mix.

However, it was still a very fine video.

My hat off to bengraphics.