2023 To say that digital visual effects (VFX) had an impact on movie making would be a tremendous understatement. Digital VFX was a paradigm shift. It introduced entirely new ways to tell stories and provide viewers new experiences. From Star Wars to the latest Avatar movie, with each new evolution of the technologies behind digital VFX, movies (and television, streaming, gaming, commercials, digital art—all motion media expressions) give the artists behind digital VFX creative ways to take us to new worlds.
Whether at home, in the gallery, or in the theater, viewers want rich experiences. That means taking the next digital VFX project to a new level. And that requires computing—sometimes enormous amounts of computing. Yet while news headlines often boast how movie budgets have gone sky-high, effects budgets are still tight, competition among effects studios to produce them is fierce. The cost and efficiency of the computation behind the effects must follow suit.