Visual and Special Effects Film Milestones

Milestones in Film History:
Greatest Visual and Special Effects and Computer-Generated Imagery (CGI)

Part 11

Introduction: From even its earliest days, films have used visual magic ("smoke and mirrors") to produce illusions and trick effects that have startled audiences. In fact, the phenomenon of persistence of vision is the reason why the human eye sees individual frames of a movie as smooth, flowing action when projected.

Cel animation, scale modeling, claymation, digital compositing, animatronics, use of prosthetic makeup, morphing, and modern computer-generated or computer graphics imagery (CGI) are just some of the more modern techniques that are widely used for creating incredible special or visual effects.

(See this site's film terms glossary for definitions and examples, the History of Film by Decade, and an extensive timeline of other Milestones and Turning Points in Film History.)

Note: The films that are marked with a yellow star

are the films that "The Greatest Films" site has selected as the 100 Greatest Films.

Film Title and Description of Visual-Special Effects

Example

Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982)

The film included the scene of Spock's (Leonard Nimoy) self-sacrifice to save the Enterprise from the Genesis Device explosion, with his burial in space at the lifeless planet Regula. In the so-called "Genesis Effects" sequence, the once-dead planet struck by a Genesis 'torpedo' was reborn or revived, as the camera raced quickly across the greening surface of the reborn globe. This visual effect, a brief fully computer-generated sequence, marked the first use of a fractal-generated landscape in a film (created by the Lucasfilm division of Pixar at ILM).

Another special effect was the scene of the brain-munching earwigs, in which Khan (Ricardo Montalban) put parasitic, insanity-causing Ceti eels into the ears of Chekov (Walter Koenig) and Terrell (Paul Winfield).

Its release barely beat Tron (1982) to take the unofficial honor of being the first film to use computer-generated images (CGI) to any extent. (Note: this scene would be re-used for Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (1984) and Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986).)

Tron (1982)

Steven Lisberger's fantasy inside-a-computer-video-game adventure/science-fiction film was one of the first films to be derived from the video-game craze. It was the first film to use computer-generated imagery (CGI) to any large degree - in this case, to create a 3-D world. This film was heralded as the first live action film with over 20 minutes of full 3D graphics and computer animation.

Its most innovative sequence extensively employed 3-D CGI in the famed racing bike or 'light cycle' sequence around a matrix, using the artwork and vision of legendary artists Syd Mead and Jean 'Moebius' Giraud, and visual effects done with a combined effort by Triple I, MAGI/Synthavision, Robert Abel & Associates, and Digital Effects.

Another FX technique used was backlight animation, in which light was shown through a specialized filter through each frame to create extraordinarily vibrant colored light effects, in this case, through the inventive Oscar-nominated costumes worn by the actors. (Lisberger's animated film Animalympics (1980) had extensively used the effect in semi-preparation for what would become TRON.) The greatest testament to this film's unique visual effects, soundtrack, costuming, art direction and set decoration is that none of it has ever been duplicated, and remains unique to this day. The film also featured a soundtrack by Wendy (nee Walter) Carlos that melded synthesized music with the London Philharmonic's orchestral music.

It was refused an Academy Awards nomination because the voters felt the film "cheated" by using computer animation; in reality, the process was an extremely arduous one for animators. Seven years later, James Cameron's The Abyss (1989) won the Best Visual Effects Oscar for the same kind of technology.

Koyaanisqatsi (1983)

An experimental, art-house film, a feature-length documentary with innovative use of time-lapse, slow-motion (and hyper-speed), and double-exposed (and super-imposed) photography.

Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi (1983), and re-releases

The original Return of the Jedi featured over 900 visual effects shots, the most in movie history at that time. The main computer-generated animation sequence was in the main briefing room of the Headquarters Frigate, during the scene of a planned Rebel attack on the Death Star. A holographic wire-framed model of the Death Star was suspended in mid-air, moving around the shape and eventually exploding.

George Lucas continued to alter his original trilogy with lots of 'enhancements' and changes, and most outraged fans with the 2004 DVD re-release by using CGI to erase Sebastian Shaw's ghost spirit image from Return of the Jedi in the final celebration scene (on the left) and replace him with Hayden Christensen (who played Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader in the 2002 and 2005 prequels) -- Shaw passed away in 1994.

1983 with Shaw (l.)

2004 with Christensen (l.)

Superman III (1983)

The entire animated "Video Game" sequence in this film, a 'Space Invaders' style missile defense system vs. Superman battle, was created, one frame at a time, by video game company Atari, Inc. in cooperation with Warner Brothers. It took 3 1/2 months and cost $125,000 dollars to create. They had planned to base a video game on the sequence, but it never happened. They also created the graphics for the "Starfighter" arcade game for The Last Starfighter (1984), but an intended arcade game was never released.

Zelig (1983)

Woody Allen's film demonstrated the technical accomplishment of laboriously matching and interweaving authentic and older period film (newsreels and documentary footage) from the 1920s and 30s with newer, flickering B/W film shot by Oscar-nominated cinematographer Gordon Willis, to make the film appear authentically 'historic'. Chameleon-like Leonard Zelig (Woody Allen) appeared alongside President Coolidge and presidential candidate Herbert Hoover, boxer Jack Dempsey, baseball player Babe Ruth, tycoon publisher William Randolph Hearst, movie star Charles Chaplin, the Pope, the Fuhrer himself, or the writer F. Scott Fitzgerald.

[These same effects would be replicated 10 years later in Forrest Gump (1994).]

The Adventures of André and Wally B. (1984)

This was the first CGI animation with motion blur effects, in an all CGI-animated short, from Lucasfilm Computer Graphics Project (later Pixar).

The Last Starfighter (1984)

This was a groundbreaking film - it was the first film to feature the extensive use of CGI -- most importantly, the use of computer-generated (CGI) models for all Gunstar vehicles or spaceships, rather than traditional miniature models (as in 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) or Star Wars (1977)). This was called digital scene simulation or 'integrated CGI' - the special effects were actually representing real-world objects. A multi-million dollar CRAY XMP-2 super-computer over a period of more than two years was used to create and animate the photorealistic computer graphic images - about 25 minutes worth of CG effects.

Digital-graphic pioneers John Whitney, Jr., and Gary Demos, who contributed to the CG work in the film (and for Tron (1982)), received the Scientific and Technical Academy Award in 1984 “for the practical simulation of motion-picture photography by means of computer-generated images."

Lensman (1984, Jp.) (aka SF Shinseiki Lensman)

This was the first anime film to use CGI - along with its traditional animation.

2010: The Year We Make Contact (1984)

The impressive end sequence used CGI to create thousands of monoliths.

The Black Cauldron (1985)

Disney's PG-rated film was the first animated feature film to contain a 3-D element, and the first Disney animated feature to use computer technology. The film induced Disney animator Tim Burton to turn to live action films, but he would later return with the use of innovative stop-motion animation for The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993).

Film Title and Description of Visual-Special Effects	Example
*Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982)* The film included the scene of Spock's (Leonard Nimoy) self-sacrifice to save the Enterprise from the Genesis Device explosion, with his burial in space at the lifeless planet Regula. In the so-called "Genesis Effects" sequence, the once-dead planet struck by a Genesis 'torpedo' was reborn or revived, as the camera raced quickly across the greening surface of the reborn globe. This visual effect, a brief fully computer-generated sequence, marked the first use of a fractal-generated landscape in a film (created by the Lucasfilm division of Pixar at ILM). Another special effect was the scene of the brain-munching earwigs, in which Khan (Ricardo Montalban) put parasitic, insanity-causing Ceti eels into the ears of Chekov (Walter Koenig) and Terrell (Paul Winfield). Its release barely beat Tron (1982) to take the unofficial honor of being the first film to use computer-generated images (CGI) to any extent. (Note: this scene would be re-used for Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (1984) and Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986).)
*Tron (1982)* Steven Lisberger's fantasy inside-a-computer-video-game adventure/science-fiction film was one of the first films to be derived from the video-game craze. It was the first film to use computer-generated imagery (CGI) to any large degree - in this case, to create a 3-D world. This film was heralded as the first live action film with over 20 minutes of full 3D graphics and computer animation. Its most innovative sequence extensively employed 3-D CGI in the famed racing bike or 'light cycle' sequence around a matrix, using the artwork and vision of legendary artists Syd Mead and Jean 'Moebius' Giraud, and visual effects done with a combined effort by Triple I, MAGI/Synthavision, Robert Abel & Associates, and Digital Effects. Another FX technique used was backlight animation, in which light was shown through a specialized filter through each frame to create extraordinarily vibrant colored light effects, in this case, through the inventive Oscar-nominated costumes worn by the actors. (Lisberger's animated film Animalympics (1980) had extensively used the effect in semi-preparation for what would become TRON.) The greatest testament to this film's unique visual effects, soundtrack, costuming, art direction and set decoration is that none of it has ever been duplicated, and remains unique to this day. The film also featured a soundtrack by Wendy (nee Walter) Carlos that melded synthesized music with the London Philharmonic's orchestral music. It was refused an Academy Awards nomination because the voters felt the film "cheated" by using computer animation; in reality, the process was an extremely arduous one for animators. Seven years later, James Cameron's The Abyss (1989) won the Best Visual Effects Oscar for the same kind of technology.
*Koyaanisqatsi (1983)* An experimental, art-house film, a feature-length documentary with innovative use of time-lapse, slow-motion (and hyper-speed), and double-exposed (and super-imposed) photography.
*Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi (1983), and re-releases* The original Return of the Jedi featured over 900 visual effects shots, the most in movie history at that time. The main computer-generated animation sequence was in the main briefing room of the Headquarters Frigate, during the scene of a planned Rebel attack on the Death Star. A holographic wire-framed model of the Death Star was suspended in mid-air, moving around the shape and eventually exploding. George Lucas continued to alter his original trilogy with lots of 'enhancements' and changes, and most outraged fans with the 2004 DVD re-release by using CGI to erase Sebastian Shaw's ghost spirit image from Return of the Jedi in the final celebration scene (on the left) and replace him with Hayden Christensen (who played Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader in the 2002 and 2005 prequels) -- Shaw passed away in 1994.	1983 with Shaw (l.) 2004 with Christensen (l.)
*Superman III (1983)* The entire animated "Video Game" sequence in this film, a 'Space Invaders' style missile defense system vs. Superman battle, was created, one frame at a time, by video game company Atari, Inc. in cooperation with Warner Brothers. It took 3 1/2 months and cost $125,000 dollars to create. They had planned to base a video game on the sequence, but it never happened. They also created the graphics for the "Starfighter" arcade game for The Last Starfighter (1984), but an intended arcade game was never released.
*Zelig (1983)* Woody Allen's film demonstrated the technical accomplishment of laboriously matching and interweaving authentic and older period film (newsreels and documentary footage) from the 1920s and 30s with newer, flickering B/W film shot by Oscar-nominated cinematographer Gordon Willis, to make the film appear authentically 'historic'. Chameleon-like Leonard Zelig (Woody Allen) appeared alongside President Coolidge and presidential candidate Herbert Hoover, boxer Jack Dempsey, baseball player Babe Ruth, tycoon publisher William Randolph Hearst, movie star Charles Chaplin, the Pope, the Fuhrer himself, or the writer F. Scott Fitzgerald. [These same effects would be replicated 10 years later in Forrest Gump (1994).]
*The Adventures of André and Wally B. (1984)* This was the first CGI animation with motion blur effects, in an all CGI-animated short, from Lucasfilm Computer Graphics Project (later Pixar).
*The Last Starfighter (1984)* This was a groundbreaking film - it was the first film to feature the extensive use of CGI -- most importantly, the use of computer-generated (CGI) models for all Gunstar vehicles or spaceships, rather than traditional miniature models (as in 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) or Star Wars (1977)). This was called digital scene simulation or 'integrated CGI' - the special effects were actually representing real-world objects. A multi-million dollar CRAY XMP-2 super-computer over a period of more than two years was used to create and animate the photorealistic computer graphic images - about 25 minutes worth of CG effects. Digital-graphic pioneers John Whitney, Jr., and Gary Demos, who contributed to the CG work in the film (and for Tron (1982)), received the Scientific and Technical Academy Award in 1984 “for the practical simulation of motion-picture photography by means of computer-generated images."
*Lensman (1984, Jp.) (aka SF Shinseiki Lensman)* This was the first anime film to use CGI - along with its traditional animation.
*2010: The Year We Make Contact (1984)* The impressive end sequence used CGI to create thousands of monoliths.
*The Black Cauldron (1985)* Disney's PG-rated film was the first animated feature film to contain a 3-D element, and the first Disney animated feature to use computer technology. The film induced Disney animator Tim Burton to turn to live action films, but he would later return with the use of innovative stop-motion animation for The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993).