A VFX Glossary: In Their Own Words

2D artists can be specialists in digital matte paintings, concept art, storyboarding or compositing. Most projects require a compositor to finalise the look of the shot before going to client for review, so a 2D team can often outweigh a 3D department.

AKA compositors. They take filmed  ‘2-dimensional’ images and combine them to produce stuff. Software: Flame, Nuke, After Effects.

Slow/slower/snail’s pace. 

The transparency on an image. It’s like the weather forecast: they have the green screen and then on top they put the map, we do the same but can put you on a beach right now.

“The shot has balls”: the light reference was taken on set using a chrome ball and a grey ball.

One of the two industry standard grading systems for high-end work. The other being Da Vinci Resolve.

As the acronym suggests… Computer Generated Imagery. Describes any images which have been digitally constructed without having been shot live action (there may often be a background plate which has been shot but not always).

Computer Generated Imagery is a generic term. CGI can be any number of things... a still frame or an animated sequence; man made by an artist or generated through AI; two dimensional or a 3D digital model. But more and more frequently it's simply a term for 3D modelled assets made in something like Autodesk Maya.

The technical mastermind of a production,

Another senior role for a VFX project, the CG supervisor will be responsible for implementing and managing 3D workflows and tools, or if the scale of the project requires it they may take over responsibility for one particular specialism such as animation, rigging, modelling or project management.

The best term is colour grade. Filter is a relatively new term which was born out of Instagram. In grading terms a filter is usually something used on the lens during shooting. In the olden days of film the telecine also had a tray in which to insert filters. These were usually for pro mist or soft filter effects.

Some terms are considered ‘outdated’, for example TK. It stands for telecine but the acronym TC was already taken for “timecode”. People still come in for a “TK” session – which is in itself often now known as “grade” or “colour grading” or “colour correction” or simply “colour”. Likewise, we’ll often use the acronym DCP to mean a final grade (taken from Digital Colour Processing) – which we do – while DCP also stands for Digital Cinema Package – which we don’t.

Telecine: an old term used to describe a specially built machine for playing movie film and ‘grading’ the colours while recording the output to video tape.

Grade: the process of manipulating colour to make it more pleasing.

Filter: can be a physical object or piece of software. Somewhere between the camera and the image you see on screen which changes the look of the image, usually in a ‘preset’ way.

At Cinelab, we are in the unusual position of offering a grading suite with a telecine in it. I believe we can use filters on said telecine. Does that help?

When clients aren’t sure if a shot should be brighter or darker, they will frequently ask you to do something with the contrast. The terms they use are often the opposite to the effect they’re after. In my time, I have been asked to flatten, harden, stretch, tickle, tweak or drop the contrast in a given image. What they want is a .2% shift in the midrange. 

Reputationally, a figure with supernatural abilities, able to transform the look of a piece into shimmering glory with a flick of the wrist. Realistically, a studio-tanned bag-eyed saddo that often leaves the house wearing odd socks and an inside-out T-shirt.  

The person performing the colour grade. In this case me. We work collaboratively with the director, cinematographer and the creative team to find the correct look and feel of a piece.

From our Motion Graphics department – “The elite, the aristocracy”

An Instagram filters creator…

Like most colourists that grew up using a ball-and-wheel grading interface rather than point-and-click, I tend to end up using my hands a lot when talking about basic grading theory. Therefore in full explanatory flow I look like a ‘90s raver doing big-fish-little fish-cardboard-box. Strangely enough, it seems to work most of the time. 

The practice of combining multiple elements both live action and CG to create a single image.

Compositors are like chefs. They use ingredients from different sources and with time, taste and expertise, create a delicious meal. Sometimes they have to make delicious cakes out of salt, rocks and vinegar and that's when they transcend from a chef to an alchemist.

There's a number of different compositing solutions on the market like Nuke, Flame, Smoke, Fusion and Natron. Compositing is the act of essentially layering all parts of a particular shot on top of one another seamlessly, be it 2D elements or matte paintings, or 3D models. This is the glue that holds a VFX shot together, and also adds an extra layer of finesse to a shot where required by adding or enhancing camera effects, atmosphere and more.

Compositors are like mad professors, because they’re pulling multiple disparate elements into one beautiful creature/concoction.

A very intense Photoshopping with videos. And I really need to mention this video; it changed our lives when it first came out. I always show this to people who ask me what I do. It gives such a clear explanation about VFX terms - now even my grandparents finally understand what I do for a living!

Make the blacks darker with a view to creating higher contrast. This will sometimes lose detail in the darker areas.

The ‘Does Fuck All’ button. You’ll never hear anyone actually saying “DFA” to a client – it’s a phrase that’s more representative of subjectivity. I’m pretty sure Christopher Nolan got DFA’d by the colourist working on Interstellar. Read this article. The colourist (probably fearing for his job) – pretending that he’s adjusted colour just to get him off his back. Anyway…

Compositing/finishing software. Tends to be quicker than Nuke, to the point where you can sit in a room/suite with the artist and collaborate in real time. Flame handles entire films/edits and provides all services for final delivery.

If I see flame or smoke anywhere in Cinelab, it’s usually the signal to hit the fire alarm and evacuate. The nuclear reactor at the heart of our operations is not, sadly, anything I am at liberty to discuss in an open forum. 

Often used to refer to a whole take or shot. Just because it looks like one frame in a storyboard, doesn't mean it is only one frame long in total.

I try to define it as everything that isn’t high or lowlights, just to keep life simple. Some clients claim to have a deeper understanding of the term, having read the Wikipedia entry. These are the most dangerous clients of all. I could tell you what it means, but after a while you’d beg me to stop. 

I often have to explain that ‘locked picture’, or ‘locked cut’ allows post-production to commence on agreed elements. One classic I heard from a particularly inexperienced client was “Can we unlock the edit?” – which of course derailed the post production schedule.

Again, from our motion graphics department (anyone would think they had a chip on their shoulder): “Compositing software better than Flame. The Nuke kid on the block.”

Compositing software, used heavily in feature films, tends to be single shots. Work is generally rendered out and fed to a Flame for review.

Where editorial decisions are made/approved using low resolution/ungraded camera footage.

Where those same edits are reproduced in more powerful machines from the high resolution/graded camera footage. All CGI/VFX will happen here, titles will be put on, sound mixes will be added, legal titles etc. And final “quality control” before exporting the finished film in whatever delivery format is needed.

When this phrase is used, the work is usually not at all straightforward.

Rendering is like baking a cake or making a pizza. Once it’s cooked you can’t rewind it and get all your ingredients back out.

Usually needs to be done twice. Not usually our fault.

No longer exists. Used to be a baby-Flame system which has now been superseded by Flame Assist, a stripped back Flame used for simpler tasks.

Special effects is often a 'catch-all' term that includes mechanical effects and optical effects and is usually what's captured 'in camera' using anything from makeup to animatronics with the occasional explosive thrown in for good measure! A lot of people incorrectly use this term when referring to VFX.

Most often used when showing a before and after of a specific grading request. This and “crush the blacks” are arguably the most used terms in my room.

Applies mainly to VR material where multiple images are seamlessly stitched to create a 360-degree image.

What your phone does when you're awkwardly shooting a panorama.

The ‘do it’ button maker.

Ceramics class… the kind where you paint a garden gnome.

Changing a digital file into another digital file, e.g. converting a QuickTIme movie to an mp4.

There are two ways I try and explain this to people. You know when you're at school and you draw out a crucifix on a piece of card, add some tabs to some of the sides, cut it all out and then fold it together to make a cube? Do that in reverse from a CG cube and you have what's called a set of UVs that allow you to add texture your cube, turning it into a die, or maybe one of Zelda's Cubes from Terrahawks (showing my age there!). On more complex models like characters or creatures it's a bit like skinning something and laying out their skin to cure, but then painting it and putting it back on. 

Making a sewing pattern for any object.

All the explosions and people flying in movies: that is VFX.

Making stuff look cool.

Giving actors the justification to prance around in green leotards.

Creating an image which is not “real”. For as many blockbuster eye-candy visual effects you see there will be double that amount of the ones you can’t see.

I always say, “You shoot the sky, we can change the colour, the number and texture of the clouds, and have a dragon fly through them.”

The response I get most often to those words from friends is: "Oh... so you're making 'that Marvel stuff'?" or "Is that like 'Avatar'?” VFX covers a wide range of stuff but people generally assume it's only applied to big Hollywood movies with aliens, spaceships, magic, etc. (ie. very visible VFX). 

VFX by comparison [to special effects] is added by people who like to keep their hands clean and their levels of vitamin D low through lack of daylight. Working at a computer we use a variety of software to add what couldn't be achieved during a shoot and can be anything from extending a set, adding computer generated creatures, making an actor look much younger or cleaning up a boom or crew member who strayed into shot.

From an editor’s point of view, this is just painting by numbers.

Manages projects, schedules, budgets and assigns tasks to artists. Coordinates client feedback with the team and overestimates when renders will be finished to clients so when software crashes and everyone freaks out, they have an extra hour in their pocket. 

The lead creative in the VFX department who goes on set and gets yelled at for telling all the different departments that they can't do something because it'll create a post nightmare. After the shoot, they then lead the team in fixing all of the things that happened on set that they were trying to avoid. 

If you consider the VFX as a production within a production then the VFX supervisor is the director of said production. They are responsible for driving the overall post for the entire film and will oversee a team of artists, from CGI, grade, 2D effects and so on.  

The visual mastermind of a production.

The person giving directors what they want for the budget the producer wants while smiling at clients.

Somebody who attends a film shoot and asks for tracking markers to be put on everything.