The Art Department translates a director’s vision and a script into visuals shared with the whole team to understand the creative and technical challenges. In addition, these concept artists and illustrators design everything from storyboards to photorealistic artworks that show the finished shot.
Pre-visualization Artists create the first 3D representation of the final visual effects shot. After that, they usually make low-quality versions of the action sequences using artwork and basic 3D models. The Director then plans out the camera placement and other creative/technical requirements.
Virtual assets are needed in visual effects to match real-world objects or build new objects that don’t exist or are too expensive to create in the real world. These are designed mainly by modeling artists, texture painters, shader developers, and riggers.
RnD is a technical department. It builds new software and tools to accomplish tasks that are impossible to do or are too time-consuming for artists to complete over and over again manually. Therefore, the role requires a solid background in computer science and a passion for problem-solving.
In the film, anything that moves needs to be animated. It doesn’t matter if it’s a small property like a chair, a hero character, or a creature. An animator will probably be behind the controls if there’s a movement and a performance.
Matchmove is also known as motion tracking. Without it, there would be no chance to incorporate 3D data into live-action footage. However, to make digital assets appear genuine, you need a virtual camera that moves like the camera in the live-action footage. This is where match-move artists come into action.
An FX Artist will design and create FX animation, procedural simulation, dynamic simulation, and particle and fluid systems. They are responsible for recreating the behavior of real-world elements such as fire, water, cloth, explosions, hair, and many more that most people don’t even realize.
The lighting artist is the one who applies all lighting effects to the digital scene. The artist considers the light sources of the live-action plate and uses virtual lighting to mimic the existing illumination within the environment. Here, the goal is to ensure that the VFX and live-action elements blend seamlessly, as both exist in the same domain.
A matte painting is an image that employs digital or traditional painting techniques to represent a scene that filmmakers would not deliver in real life. This might be because the landscape doesn’t exist in the real world; it’s not financially practical to travel to a location or extend the set outside its filmed parameters.
Rotoscoping is used to build a matte or mask for an object to be extracted out of place on a background that is different, masked out so colors can be changed, or any other set of reasons. The rotoscoping artist will usually trace an object using tools to create a new alpha channel for a specific portion of an image sequence or video.
Compositing is the act of layering all the elements in a shot: live-action, mattes, 3D lighting, multiple CG passes, animation, and particle effects. Then, it blends them all perfectly to create the photorealistic final shot.