References and Resources
Science Task – Helpful Visual Effects
History of visual special effects – Cat Harris presentation
This presentation is approximately 30 minutes long, but you can scan through and see some of the visual effects, including cheap, expensive, simple and complex examples. It includes explanations of effects used in Star Wars, Mary Poppins, 2001 Space Odyssey, Toy Story, The Matrix, Ben Hur, and more.
The fascinating facts and secrets behind “Forrest Gump”
Technology Links
Books that might be useful
How to use a breadboard when prototyping Arduino circuits
https://www.losant.com/blog/how-to-use-a-breadboard
What is 3D printing and where is it used?
https://3dprinting.com/what-is-3d-printing
Free online CAD program with tutorials
Engineering Links
The engineering design process steps can be found here:
Example of a giant camera dolly, as well as discussion on cinematic techniques from the beach scene of the movie Roma (2018).
Links to Camera Dolly Ideas
https://petapixel.com/2015/01/13/build-camera-dolly-lego-pieces
https://www.instructables.com/id/DIY-Motorized-LEGO-Camera-Dolly
Mathematics Links
Sample templates for film budgets
Online Graphing and Calculator tool (GeoGebra)
Excel hints and tips
https://www.excel-easy.com/introduction/formulas-functions.html
https://learn.filtered.com/blog/10-most-useful-microsoft-excel-tips
https://support.office.com/en-us/excel
https://au.pcmag.com/office-suites/24315/20-excel-tips-for-becoming-a-spreadsheet-pro
Camera tracking footage in the opening scene from Spectre (2015) shows a clever use of camera dollies, tracking, some well edited joins and a touch of computer graphics. Can you figure out where the scenes are stitched together from one tracking sequence to the next?
How to create stop motion animations
How to use chromakey
Editing software suggestions
There are many free software programs, but beware of trial programs that let you edit but not save the final task.