Planning on going back to school for a film degree. I curently have a degree in computer animation. I love doing 3D but i also want to be apart of the filming process. i am thinking about doing special effects but i dont quite know what is done for special effects and the main difference in using special vs. visual effects. i know that special is (real) and visual is (fake) but is it a budget decition or a prefrence? also the amount of visual effects in movies are taking over, it seems, so would this just be a waist of money?

also i am thinking of doing compositing. i touched on it in school for 3d but didnt use it that much but for rendering avi. is it the same thing as editing and is there alot of compositing done vs. editing if there not the same thing.

last question i promise.....i am looking into going to acadamy of art college in san fran is this a good school? i know they have a greate computer animation facility is it the same for the film?

thanks alot for reading and am looking forward to some replies

Welcome kmvpro! :lol:

A broad rule of thumb: special effects happen on set during principle photography, visual effects happen in post. VFX can include compositing, digital animation, etc. It's not unusual for an effect to mix both the live action on set & some CG (bullet time is a good example)- perhaps that would be a special visual effect?