Chris Zwar – After Effects power user and occasional PVC contributor – shared on the media-motion.tv After Effects list that Peter Sciretta of /Film had recently compiled the first 12 episodes of Discovery Channel’s Movie Magic documentary series. As it was recorded in the mid-90s, a substantial portion of the effects are “practical” rather than done in the computer. Nonetheless, it’s a good background on matte paintings, miniatures, stop motion, pyrotechics, and similar techniques, plus a reminder of how easy we have it to day compared to the early days of computer graphics.

It’s interesting to see how far the industry progressed in just a few years. Later in the 90s, Matt Silverman (now of Bonfire Labs) produced a set of training tapes known as Masters of Visual Effects featuring industry luminaries such as Ron Brinkmann, Stu Maschwitz, Scott Stewart and himself teaching digital compositing, keying, tracking, paint, and rotoscoping techniques. I previously compiled Series 2 on PVC here. Enjoy both series!