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Special Effects Technician Career Overview and Pay Structure Essay

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Special Effects Technician Career Overview and Pay Structure

A Special Effects Technician uses Computer Generated Imagery (CGI), pyrotechnics and physical effects to create visual illusions in film, television, stage or video productions. I will attempt to explain the major areas of work covered under the title of Special Effects Technician, the education required and the salary expected in the field The Physical Effects Technician is the technician that works to make props, models, scenery, prosthetics and mechanically animated pieces. The physical effects technician works with a variety of mediums. Body and facial prosthetics utilize sculpting of clay to make molds that are cast to fit the specific actors face and/or body. They are …show more content…

This technique is used to layer foreground and background images based on color hues or the chroma range. The CGI technician layers the computer modelling around the actor. Programs such as PhotoKey 6 Pro make it possible to render the images seemlessly. Being a CGI technician requires computer knowledge and takes hours to edit and add in the actors into the computer generated world. An example of a seemless CGI movie is Avatar which cost $425,000,000 to make but grossed $2.7 Billion worldwide (www.the-numbers.com/movie/budgets/). For every 1/24 of a second or one frame of film it took 47 hours of rendering (www.imdb.com/title/tt0499549/trivia). There are specialized training school for Special Effects Technicians,such as the Art institute with multiple locations across the country and a few in California.. A College degree is not required it is common especially in the area of CGI. A Pyrotechnician must be certified by the state that they work in and pass a Pyrotechnic safety and handling course. The Physical Effects Technician should have a firm grasp of art styles and art mediums. Now that we know what a Special Effects Technician does, what kind of monetary compensation do they earn. A person can specialize in one or more areas of expertise.
Their earnings vary due to geographic location. Since a large majority of the special effects are used in movies, California offers the highest yearly wage of $85,000 per year,New York has a range of $41,000

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