Does this count as a special effect? (See within)

[DriftRoot]

I wasn't sure if this was the right forum to ask this in, I might get more of a response in General (feel free powers-that-be-to move it), but...

If I have some anime (surprise surprise) which features scenes I wish to alter via sneaky masking and Photoshopping such that no one would ever be able to tell they weren't the original scenes, is that considered a special effect? For instance, if I wanted to change the expression on a character's face, add items to a shopping cart or change the program on a TV.

Put another way, is a special effect only something which makes you sit up and say "Ah ha! Special effect!"

Put yet another way, how is someone supposed to judge the quality of your special effects if they're so well integrated that they must be pointed out, frame by frame, to even be identified?

This doesn't really trouble me too much, whether I ID them as special effects or not, I'm just wondering - down the road - how to label some "effects" I'm working on which, if I do my job well, no one will ever notice.

[ZephyrStar]

That's more like compositing. I wouldn't call it a special effect. And, done well, you shouldn't be able to tell, or if you can, it should fit.

[BasharOfTheAges]

IMHO if it's not a cut, crop, or pan, it's an effect. This has been debated ad nauseum a few times - it just comes down to how "special" you think it is. Technically I think a cross fade is a special effect, but i'm not going to choose it on my vid description because that causes too much confusion for people that think sfx are all about lens flares and hue cycling. To answer your spicific question, i'll say this: It's not about how subtle your effect work is, it's about whether or not you think masking is a special effect or simply a technique.

[DriftRoot]

To answer your spicific question, i'll say this: It's not about how subtle your effect work is, it's about whether or not you think masking is a special effect or simply a technique.

I think the application makes a difference. If you're masking to simply make modifications to a scene no one's supposed to notice then that's one thing. If you're masking to make a "Wowzers, look at the masking" scene that's something else.

If a special effect can't be seen...then what effect does it really have on a video? Effect implies something has made an impact in and of itself and if there is no impact because it's an invisible "effect," then in those terms, it's not an effect. Weird, I know, (and I just came up with that so maybe it's a flawed theory), but it seems to make sense.

But do custom graphics count as effects? What's a graphic? Is text a graphic? Things snowball very quickly, you see... *sigh*

[Niotex]

Wiki is your friend =/