VFX Timeline

VFX compared to most things has a relatively short timeline, this is because it is a pretty new way of making film. 

The first milestone for VFX was Bound for Glory (1976) because they used the first steady-cam which made a huge change in the film industry as the user had so much more control and stability when using the camera

Made by Garret Brown Filmmaker and inventor, as seen Below. 

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The next Milestone is Star Wars (1977) as the quality of the special and visual effects really raised the bar, and saw the creation of George Lucas own Industrial Light and Magic who lead the way into the new industry of VFX.

When Superman (1978) was being filmed the invention of the Zoptic system came about, which when used gave the illusion of a man flying so was hugely successful for Superman.
         The way it worked was by combining foreground performance with pre-filmed background footage to create the flying effect.

A huge milestone for the VFX industry was Star Trek The Wrath of Khan (1982) this is because it involved the first fully CGI scene. The people who made this then went on to form Pixar and be hugely successful.

After the First fully CGI scene there came the first hard-bodied CGI character in Young Sherlock Holmes (1982). made by ILM and what would go on to be Pixar, The stained glass knight was a marvel to behold in the visual effects world.

Not too long after that there came the first fully CGI soft-bodied character. This appeared in The Abyss (1985) when making the N.T.I (evil water monster), I think it still holds up by today's standards pretty well seeing as its 25 years old.

Another Milestone for VFX was in Terminator 2 Judgement day (1991). The VFX artists used a digital imaging software which was an early form of photoshop, this probably payed tribute to photoshops success.

The final milestone in the VFX timeline is Jurrasic Park (1993) in which they were the first to use fully CGI animals, strangely enough there were much more scenes using animatronics and "special effects" than using visual effects, this demonstrates that VFX and SFX should go hand in hand when making a films.

Visual effects has come so far in such little time and it's amazing looking at where we started and what we can manage to achieve today, with films such as Lucy, Inception and X-men days of future past I can only dream of what comes next. All I know is I can't wait!