Visual Effects

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part of Post-Production · tier 2 · Video · 66 pieces of work carry it · 5 crafts it is confused with

The craft, and who hires it

Hired when footage needs what can't be shot: CGI product effects in commercials, set extensions and digital environments, simulation-driven spectacle in high-budget campaigns and entertainment work. Sold in the market as 'VFX' or 'VFX/Post' (alias seeds per the vendor benchmark; ratified display name = Visual Effects, CN8).

The craft of creating and integrating effects imagery — CGI elements, simulations, digital environments, and invisible enhancements — into live-action or photographic footage so the impossible reads as real (or deliberately fantastical). Distinct from full CGI animation: VFX augments captured footage. (Refines the prior text: 'High-quality effects, typically created through CGI, to enhance realism or add fantasy elements.')

Tag it when…

Tag when footage visibly carries integrated effects work: impossible physics or simulations sharing the frame with live action, CGI elements married to photographic plates, invisible enhancements (set extensions, sky replacement) evident from context, or effects-driven product spectacle.

Never tag it when…

Never tag fully synthetic pieces with no live-action substrate — an end-to-end CGI or animated film is Animation craft (Motion Graphics / 3D), and footage synthesized end-to-end by a generative model is Generative AI Production craft with ai_generated on the content_origin facet (CD4) — in neither case is anything being integrated INTO captured footage. Graphic and typographic overlays go to Motion Graphics. Pure multi-source blending with no generated elements goes to Compositing. AI provenance is never craft evidence in either direction: record it on content_origin and keep a VFX tag only where integrated-effects craft on captured material is genuinely the visual claim.

Easily mistaken for 5 other crafts

Every other page suggests neighbours by similarity. This one navigates by difference: each line names the craft this is confused with, and the rule for telling them apart.

• visual effects vfx 2d compositing — Compositing is the layer-integration sub-craft inside the VFX umbrella. Tag Compositing when the visible achievement is seamless blending of existing sources; tag VFX when generated effects elements are the claim.
• design 3d design / disc animation — A standalone CGI render or fully animated 3D piece is 3D Design/Animation craft; VFX requires effects married to captured footage.
• animation motion graphics — Designed graphic/typographic overlays on footage are Motion Graphics; photoreal simulated elements living INSIDE the scene are VFX.
• disc generative ai production — Text-to-video and other end-to-end generative footage is Generative AI Production craft (CD4) plus ai_generated on the content_origin facet — no effects were integrated into captured plates. VFX and AI origin can co-exist only when real captured footage carries integrated effects work.
• content origin facet (ai generated) — AI-generated footage is a provenance facet value, orthogonal to craft — origin scopes, craft describes the making; never substitute a VFX tag for an origin fact.

At what size it applies

Asset tag when effects define the piece throughout (an effects-driven spot). Moment tag when one beat carries the effects — a single VFX transformation inside an otherwise straight live-action film is a moment, not an asset claim.

Pieces that settle the definition

• HOKA ONE ONE Fly Collection - Ocean — commercial marrying CGI effects into live-action footage — integration is the visible achievement
• Skyward X has officially arrived in the US! — product launch spot with integrated CGI effects
• Ja 3 | Make Them Watch | Nike — sports spot with effects-enhanced live action
• HOKA ONE ONE Fly Collection - City — footwear film blending CGI product effects into live footage

Where to look next

• The whole services tree — the services index.
• Every other vocabulary — the vocabulary index.
• How work gets credited to a craft — the entities chapter.