Introduction: From even its earliest days, films have used visual magic ("smoke and mirrors") to produce illusions and trick effects that have startled audiences. In fact, the phenomenon of persistence of vision is the reason why the human eye sees individual frames of a movie as smooth, flowing action when projected.

Cel animation, scale modeling, claymation, digital compositing, animatronics, use of prosthetic makeup, morphing, and modern computer-generated or computer graphics imagery (CGI) are just some of the more modern techniques that are widely used for creating incredible special or visual effects.

(See this site's film terms glossary for definitions and examples, the History of Film by Decade, and an extensive timeline of other Milestones and Turning Points in Film History.)

Note: The films that are marked with a yellow star are the films that "The Greatest Films" site has selected as the 100 Greatest Films.

The Poseidon Adventure (1972), Earthquake (1974) and The Hindenburg (1975)

All of these films won the Special Achievement Award for Special Visual Effects, during the 70s era of disaster films.

The Exorcist (1973)

This sensational, shocking horror story about devil possession and the subsequent exorcism of the demonic spirits from a young, innocent girl (of a divorced family) (Linda Blair) contained some highly memorable scenes, using various special effects techniques. There were some truly nauseating, horrendous special effects including the 360 degree head-rotation, self-mutilation/masturbation with a crucifix, and the projectile spewing of green puke - a mixture of split-pea soup and oatmeal through a nozzle attached to the stunt double's mouth, etc.

The scene in which the words: "HELP ME" appeared on the girl's stomach were produced on a foam rubber stomach by applying a strong chemical. The shrinking of the swelling by heat guns was filmed - and then projected in reverse - to make it appear like the words were rising up through the skin.

Hunger (1974)

This animated film short (11 minutes long) without dialogue from the National Film Board of Canada (and director Peter Foldes) was the first to use computer digitization to interpolate (or 'fill in') the animated action between various key cells drawn free-hand, although it had experimentally been demonstrated with his earlier film, Metadata (1971). The film's director was the first animator to use computer animation (a computer-assisted 'key-frame animation' system) that imitated conventional cel animation.

Black and white animated illustrations appeared against a colored backdrop, with surrealistic figures that fluidly dissolved and reshaped themselves to take new forms - an early and primitive example of morphing. It was the first computer-animated film to be nominated for an Academy Award in the Best Short Film (Animated) category. It also won the Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival that same year.

Barry Lyndon (1975)

Stanley Kubrick's film incorporated unique camerawork (using prototype Zeiss lenses) with numerous scenes filmed only with natural candlelight.

Futureworld (1976)

Futureworld (1976) featured the first use of 3D CGI - for a representation of Peter Fonda's animated face and hand, created by the early computer visual effects company Triple I. The film also used 2-D digital compositing to materialize characters over a background.

Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)

This Spielberg film was notable for the sequence of the landing of the impressive alien mother ship - a 400 lb. fiber-glass model that was four feet high and five feet wide. The UFO model was wired and lighted by fiber optics, incandescent bulbs, and neon tubes.

This film lost the Best Achievement in Visual Effects Academy Award to Star Wars (1977).

Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope (1977)

There was a new name for the Academy Award for FX this year - Best Achievement in Visual Effects, won by this film. The climactic spaceship battle scene at the conclusion of the first episode of the epic trilogy was filmed with an innovative motion-controlled camera - its first use. This meant that a computer was used to control a long, complex series of camera movements. This was the first major work of George Lucas' visual effects company - Industrial Light & Magic (ILM), which would become the biggest, most prestigious FX company in film history.

The Empire's moon-sized weapon/battle station, the Death Star was assaulted by Luke Skywalker and other Starfighters. Before the assult was a brief sequence of the trench-run briefing, a training session for rebel pilots - this was the first extensive use of 3-D-CGI.

From inside a linear trench, the space dogfighters launched proton torpedos during attack runs on a thermal exhaust port and obliterated the Death Star with chain-reaction explosions, just as the station was prepared to target the main Rebel base on Yavin IV. George Lucas would later add further visual effects to the film in a 1997 "Special Edition" release that featured far more advanced CGI characters and effects, including an enhanced Death Star explosion (pictured also), as well as clumsy additions of the original Jabba the Hutt scene (with a CGI Jabba) and the infamous "Greedo fires first" edit.

Note: The next two installments of the Star Wars Trilogy, The Empire Strikes Back (1980), and The Return of the Jedi (1983) also won the Special Achievement in Visual Effects Academy Awards.

Alien (1979)

This Ridley Scott film received the Oscar for Best Achievement in Visual Effects, defeating The Black Hole (1979), Moonraker (1979), 1941 (1979), and Star Trek - The Motion Picture (1979). It used raster wireframe rendering for the spaceship Nostromo's navigational monitors in the rough landing sequence on the foreign planet.

The film was best-known for the genuinely shocking and memorable chest-bursting special effects scene in which crew member Kane (John Hurt) had blood and the Alien graphically explode out of the front of his white T-shirt - the hissing, razor sharp-toothed monster-lizard looked around and then scurried off to hide. The trick shot involved a fiberglass chest piece (placed over the actor), tubes to squirt fake blood, a single hand puppet, and wires to help the alien race across the table.

The Muppet Movie (1979)

Jim Henson's muppets featured some of the trickiest and most advanced puppetry to date, such as Kermit riding a bicycle without any visible means of control, and Kermit playing a banjo in a swamp while singing The Rainbow Connection, etc. (In the latter scene, Jim Henson spent an entire day in a 50-gallon steel drum submerged in a pond).

An American Werewolf in London (1981)

This classic horror film contained a visceral transformation scene (that won an Academy Award for Best Makeup for Rick Baker) of backpacking American college student/tourist in the Yorkshires David Kessler (David Naughton) turning into a werewolf/lycanthrope - his body, face, and limbs crunched and his skin bubbled as it grew hair and elongated.

Some of the same special effects techniques were also used in The Howling (1980).

Dragonslayer (1981)

This sword-'n'-sorcery film, a co-production of Walt Disney and Paramount, introduced the innovative technique of Go-Motion, a process created by Industrial Light & Magic (and Lucas animator Phil Tippett). The use of Go-Motion brought this film an Academy Award nomination for Best Achievement in Visual Effects, which it lost to Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981).

It was a variation on the earlier technique of "stop-motion" animation (popularized by Willis O'Brien and Ray Harryhausen), by having the animated model (the Dragon) make several moves within a frame, thereby giving it a more fluid, blurry, and natural movement. By contrast, the traditional stop-motion technique was more jerky, static and wooden in appearance, as in Harryhausen's Clash of the Titans (1981) released in the same year.

Looker (1981)

The visual effects in Michael Crichton's high-tech science-fiction thriller featured the first CGI human character, model Cindy (Susan Dey) - her digitization was visualized by a computer-generated simulation; the film was also noted for the first use of shaded 3-D CGI.

Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)

Part of the reason why this film won the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects was due to its awesome climax with amazing visual effects, revealing the power of the Ark of the Covenant as it was opened by the face-melting Nazis.

A few more of the film's most remarkable special effects shots included:

• the giant boulder rolling after Indy Jones (Harrison Ford) in the gripping opening
• the amazing final image of the government warehouse where the Ark was stored -- a lengthy matte shot, and a tribute to a similar final scene in Citizen Kane (1941)

Blade Runner (1982)

One of the most awe-inspiring visuals in film history, paying homage to Lang's Metropolis (1927), the powerful vision of the Los Angeles cityscape, circa 2015, at night, with giant, fire-belching towers, floating advertisements, giant television screens, and police "spinners" (flying cars) - all based on the art design of legendary artist Syd Mead, who would collaborate with Jean 'Moebius' Giraud on TRON (1982) (see below).

It was nominated for Best Achievement in Visual Effects (as was the ghost-story Poltergeist (1982)), but both lost to E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982).

The Dark Crystal (1982)

Dark Crystal was Jim Henson's darkest, most foreboding film, and the first film to completely use realistic puppets without a single real human or animal character. The film was composed entirely of puppets, matte paintings, and some miniature sets. The character and world designs were made by famed fantasy artist Brian Froud.