VFX History: Optical Printers

Beyond the basic explanation of "blue screen", have you ever wondered how they used removed the blue from a background. These days compositing software makes it simple to select a colour and make it transparent, but before After Effects and similar compositing software existed, the entire process was done optically with physical film strips, lights and cameras. Join me in a deep dive as I share with you what I've discovered about the labour intensive process involved. By the end of the video, I hope you'll be as awed as I am over the lengths companies like Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) went to in order to make cinema magic. (I also feel that I should point out, the optical printers ILM used were "computer controlled" so that all the frames and timings lined up correctly. Everything was still composited optically.) Get ShiveringCactus VFX as phone cases, T-shirts, mugs: https://www.redbubble.com/people/Shiv... Or buy me a coffee: https://ko-fi.com/shiveringcactus -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Chapters 0:00 Old movies 3:58 A quick primer 5:37 An optical printer -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Bibliography Vargo, M. Bluescreen 1980 (2016), MarkVargo.com. Available at: https://markvargo.com/videos/blue-scr... (Accessed: 06 January 2024). Knoll, J. Old School School 1 - Optical Compositing (2019). Available at: https://vimeo.com/318705942 (Accessed: 06 January 2024). Kasden, L. Light & Magic (27th July 2022). Disney. Available at: https://www.disneyplus.com/home (Accessed: 06 January 2024). The evolution of green screen: from early-stage to LED blue screen (2021) Neweb Labs. Available at: https://neweblabs.com/the-evolution-o... (Accessed: 01 January 2024). Goldwyn, E. (1985) How to film the impossible UK: BBC. Available at:    • Horizon's look a ILM and VFX - Part 1 (Opt...   (Accessed: 06 January 2024). I'm an Adobe Community Expert - which means you can find me on the Adobe forums if you need any help. https://community.adobe.com/t5/after-... #AdobeCommunityExperts