How do visual effects (VFX) work?

VFX start from the plate, the footage the camera really filmed. A shot then passes through a pipeline: matchmove, layout and animation, FX, lighting and finally compositing. Big films have thousands of these shots: Baahubali 2 had close to 2,500, Avengers: Endgame 2,496.

Read how it works: How do visual effects (VFX) work? · The history of visual effects · More boxes on Glassbox

Chapters in this interactive model

1. One shot, six steps: Real footage plus things that were never there, stacked so well you cannot see the join.
2. Green screen and keying: Film in front of pure green, then make every green pixel see-through.
3. Tracking and matchmove: Follow dots across the frame, then work out where the camera really was.
4. Layers, mattes and blend modes: A finished shot is a stack of passes, merged one on top of another.
5. Roto, paint and cleanup: No green screen outdoors? Then someone traces the actor by hand, frame after frame.
6. Digital environments and crowds: Build a few metres for real. Paint and model the rest of the kingdom.