Special effects
From Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Special effects is a term for the things used in movies to create images that do not exist. There are many different types of special effects, for example, making little models or using computer animation.
Action movies often use special effects to create images that would be dangerous or cost a lot of money to create in real life. For example, if an action movie shows a very big battleship blowing up in flames, it would be cost millions of dollars to buy a battleship and blow it up. This would also be dangerous. For this reason, most action movies use special effects if they want to show something blowing up in flames. A movie maker could make a little model of a battleship that is only 20 feet long, and then blow it up, while filming with the motion picture camera. This would be cheaper and safer.
Science fiction movies also often use special effects. Science fiction movies usually tell imaginary stories that take place in the future, on other planets. It would be impossible to actually film a science fiction movie on another planet. For this reason, filmmakers use special effects to create images that look like other planets. For example, if a science fiction movie about a world with three suns was being made, the filmmaker could hire computer experts to create an image of three suns which would appear in the background of the movie scenes.
Using a computer to create special effects is called "Computer Generated Imagery" or "CGI". Most science fiction movies from the 2000s use a lot of CGI sequences.