The Filmmaker's Guide to Visual Effects

The Filmmaker's Guide to Visual Effects offers a practical, detailed guide to visual effects for non-VFX specialists working in film and television. In contemporary filmmaking and television production, visual effects are used extensively in a wide variety of genres and formats to contribute to visual storytelling, help deal with production limitations, and reduce budget costs. Yet for many directors, producers, editors, and cinematographers, visual effects remain an often misunderstood aspect of media production. In this book, award-winning VFX supervisor and instructor Eran Dinur introduces readers to visual effects from the filmmaker's perspective, providing a comprehensive guide to conceiving, designing, budgeting, planning, shooting, and reviewing VFX, from pre-production through post-production. The book will help readers: Learn what it takes for editors, cinematographers, directors, producers, gaffers, and other filmmakers to work more effectively with the visual effects team during pre-production, on the set and in post, use visual effects as a narrative aid, reduce production costs, and solve problems on location; Achieve a deeper understanding of 3D, 2D and 2.5D workflows; the various vfx crafts from matchmove to compositing; essential concepts like photorealism, parallax, roto and extraction; become familiar with the most common types of VFX, their role in filmmaking, and learn how to plan effectively for the cost and complexity of VFX shots; See visual effects concepts brought to life in practical, highly-illustrated examples drawn from the real-world experiences of industry professionals, and discover how to better integrate visual effects into your own projects.

Eran Dinur is an Emmy and VES award-winning VFX supervisor, artist, and instructor. His work at ILM Singapore includes films such as Iron Man, Star Trek, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, and Terminator Salvation. Since 2011 Eran has served as the VFX supervisor of NYC-based company Brainstorm Digital on numerous film and TV projects, including The Wolf of Wall Street, Boardwalk Empire, The Lost City of Z, Café Society, Nerve, Delivery Man, The Heat, The Men Who Built America, and The Immigrant. Eran won a Primetime Emmy Award as well as two Visual Effects Society Awards for his work on Boardwalk Empire. Eran teaches VFX production skills at the School of Visual Arts, has created popular online courses at fxphd, has written numerous articles for 3D World Magazine, and has presented at various international conferences including SIGGRAPH, NAB, and Mundos Digitales.

Acknowledgements Introduction PART 1: VFX FUNDAMENTALS Chapter 1: Core Concepts Chapter 2: VFX as a Filmmaking Tool Chapter 3: From 2D to 3D: The Quest for the Lost Dimension Chapter 4: Separation: Roto, Green Screens, and the Challenges of Extraction PART 2: THE INSIDE LOOK Chapter 5: The VFX Workflow: An In-depth Look at the Various Crafts of Visual Effect Chapter 6: Workflow Case Studies PART 3: VFX IN PRODUCTION Chapter 7: Pre-production Chapter 8: On Set Chapter 9: Post-production Chapter 10: The Future Index