Video Post-Production Editing
When I took up my course in animation, the first thing our Film Professor told us was this:
“Once you learn the process, you will look at films and movies differently.”
And he was right…
Before, when I watched movies, I never looked at how the effects were made. How these 3D models were created, or whether they were realistic enough. I wasn’t even aware that colors get adjusted in movies. All I cared about was the story. Well, now I can say, in all movies, there’s always more than what meets the eye.
Remember the 80’s movie The Shining and its eerie bloody elevator scene? It was done using thousands of gallons of REAL red liquid being poured. Just imagine the cleaning they had to do afterward. But now, if it were to be recreated (which was done in the movie Ready Player One), CGI has got you covered.
In creating a film, there’s this thing called the Production Pipeline: Pre-Production, Production, and Post-Production.
Pre-production is the planning stage. You determine and prepare the location, actors, scripts, tools, and everything you might need before the shoot.
Production is the filming stage, where everything is set in motion for recording. Post-production is where all the editing and compositing happens.
These include Visual Effects, Motion Graphics, CGI, Video Editing, Matte Painting, Special Effects, and so much more.
Video Editing
Video Editing is the process of collecting all the raw footage and arranging it to build the story of the film, movie, or video.
It’s where you do your cutting, color adjustments, time-lapse, and all those finer enhancements.
You might also want to read our streaming platforms for gaming guide for the full picture.
Video Compositing
Video Compositing is adding in new elements from different sources that aren’t part of the scene.
It could be an image, effects such as an explosion, a meteor shower, a ray of light coming in from a window, a 3D modeled dinosaur, birds flying in the background, OR eliminating elements from your scene that aren’t needed.
Video Compositing brings all these elements together to create an illusion that they’re all parts of the same scene.
Visual Effects
Visual Effects, also called VFX, are digitally manipulated images or videos. They could be CGI (Computer Generated Imagery), or a mix of CGI and live footage.
These are elements added that weren’t originally on sets, like smoke, fire, a 3D element, a person getting shot, or cars crashing into each other.
Changing a green screen background into a mountainous view, cities collapsing because of an earthquake, or anything that can’t be done on set because it’s too dangerous, too expensive, too complicated, or simply impossible in real life.
Special Effects
Special Effects are different from Visual Effects. Special Effects, or SFX, are effects done on set. These are real-life effects. There are 2 Kinds of Special Effects: Optical and Mechanical.
Optical Effects are made by working with a camera and lighting on set.
These are adjusted to make the scene look different than it normally would. It works with different lights, camera lenses, camera movements, positions, light angles, and other environment settings that can alter the look of the scene.
Interested in this area? We go deeper in our DaVinci vs final cut guide.
Mechanical Effects, or Physical Effects, are mechanized props added to the scene.
Think animatronics (animated robots), prosthetic makeup that alters the look of an actor, atmospheric effects using machines for fog and rain, pyrotechnics, and scale models.
CGI
CGI, or Computer Generated Imagery, refers to digitally created 3D elements that are placed within the scene.
These elements can be still or animated, like Godzilla, Jurassic World’s dinosaurs, the tiger in Life of Pi, and Avatar. About 70% CGI was used to make the actors look like felines in the latter.
Matte Painting
Considered a photography technique, matte painting has been adopted and used in films since the 19th century.
It digitally creates a landscape or set to be used as an environment or background for a film.
It’s usually done to depict distant locations that aren’t present at the filming location, or to create an otherworldly environment.
Motion Graphics & Animation
If you’ve seen the graphic design of a flyer or brochure, imagine giving life to those elements and making them move.
That’s motion graphics. Like logo animations, motion graphics are animations done on shapes, texts, and objects, typically setting abstract objects and other graphic design elements in motion.
Making a digital character move or an object move is called Animation, not motion graphics. Animation has many forms: 2D, 3D, stop motion, traditional, and motion graphics.
In videos, motion graphics are usually used in creating an intro to your channel, movie title sequences, end credits, commercials, or music videos.
The term “Video Editing” tends to get used to describe the entire post-production process, but it’s not. It’s just one part of post-production, and the processes listed above are some of the other key elements involved.
