Dinosaurs are Made to Look Realistic in Movies: A great film or movie blends in different elements, including cinematography, writing, editing, and sound, to elicit emotion and prompt a reaction among the target audience. Movies with dinosaur characters are among the few that entertain people of all ages. However, your perception of these ancient creatures varies depending on the type of film you first watched. Movies like Jurassic Park describe dinosaurs as beasts and scary creatures, while others like Barney and Friends portray these monitor lizards differently as friendly and emotional animals.
Whichever your first impression of dinosaurs was, it is hard to decipher real-life dinosaurs from those you watch in movies or those super fun hidden legs dinosaurs costumes that people wear in malls. Thanks to technological advances such as visual and special effects, filmmakers can create imaginary universes in movies to give you a wholesome experience. If you are curious about how dinosaurs look so natural in movies, the following information about the different techniques filmmakers employ gives you more insight.
Computer-generated imagery
Computer-generated imagery. Thanks to this technique, filmmakers can now delve into their creative side and manipulate characters to fit their storylines. Computer-generated imagery is a collective term for digitally created visual effects used in TV and movies. Although computer-generated imagery is often used to describe 3D computer graphics, it can also reference 2D.
Computer-generated imagery is more apparent when creating imaginary characters such as dinosaurs, beasts, and monsters. Digital artists also use this technique to alter a character’s facial outlook to appear younger or older than usual. When used for this purpose, its effects are subtle and hardly noticeable.
Stop motion
Since its use in the old classic films like King Kong, stop motion or motion capture has advanced, but most standard principles are still the same. Performance capture is a technique whereby an actor’s movement is recorded, especially facial expressions. The data is then processed into a computer-generated 3D model or image. Years back, motion capture was still new in filmmaking; it was done in a studio mounted with several cameras around.
Today, actors and stunt performers wear suits covered in dots that cameras can track upon motion. For example, if the film directors are after the actor’s facial expressions, the markings will be on the actor’s face. Because of the modernized film equipment, more actors today are known for their motion caption work. Thanks to this technique, children can now enjoy animated and more interactive videos. Although this technique is time-consuming, the results are usually worthwhile.
Compositing
It is a technique that visual artists use to combine images from different sources or origins to give them an illusion of being in the same place. To achieve this, filming requires using a green or blue screen that editors replace with other elements in post-production with the help of special software.
Before the film industry evolved, matte paintings were used to achieve this effect. It was a hands-on experience that required artists to come up with the paintings. Compositing makes animated characters such as dinosaurs more realistic. The standard techniques that digital artists use to create composite images include:
- Blue screen or green screen. A green screen or blue screen can be used as a background whose color is later removed during editing, a process known as chroma keying. Color removal creates a blank space where an image is placed. The image can be matte paintings or computer-generated imagery, depending on the type of movie being created.
- Double exposure. Doubling or double exposure can be used both in photography and cinematography or videography. Doubling is where two different images are merged, creating an effect that two events are happening simultaneously. It also creates a ghostly effect and is an excellent technique in story-telling.
- Photoshop compositing. It uses two or more pictures from different sources to create a fantasy or imaginary image that often can’t be achieved otherwise.
Visual effects allow digital artists to tell and even twist a story how they like. VFX in the film gives producers, writers, and directors limitless possibilities to delve into their creative side. Thanks to the different techniques available, children can now explore their imagination through films with dinosaur characters that they love.