Digital vs. Old-School

This is a question that is hard to answer and can really only be answered on a case-by-case basis. Here are some of my thoughts and opinions:

Most digital visual effects require a lot of practice/experience to be done well (there are exceptions like adding muzzle flash in postproduction). Youtube is full of poor examples for showing off mediocre AfterEffects work (there’s great stuff as well, of course). Many illusions can be created very well by good planning, editing and some creativity/improvisation without having to use a tool like AfterEffects and this is IMHO probably the way to try first as a beginner.

BUT it is a lot a matter of personal taste. I personally really hate and complain about bad digital FX even in blockbuster movies which other people do not seem to mind. I prefer spilling some fake blood over these digital blood bursts you tend to see very often in newer hollywood productions. But you might see it differently. In any case, learning how to use a tool like AfterEffects totally makes sense if you stick with filmmaking but IMHO you don’t need it to get started.

Use what people do not see

One of the most important things for effects is to work with the fact that might give away the secret of your illusion are simply overlooked by almost everyone.

Examples:

• If a person moves quickly you will not really see, what they have in their hands. It could be a piece of grey plastic or cardboard and people will think it is the knife that was shown in the close-up shot before, as long as the shape and color is remotely similar
• Camera movement can cover up for a lot as well as it makes following the details harder. When you worry that someone might see the plastic tube you have taped to an actor’s throat for a blood effect, film the shot with a moving camera

Buying Digital FX Samples

There are a lot of commercial offerings for digital assets, mostly video clips with transparency, so you can use them as an overlay in your editing program. They sometimes have really mindblowing prices. A good exception I found and bought is the Action essentials DVD by Andrew Kramer, the maker of Video Copilot. First I thought, spilling a bit of blood and filming it in front of a green screen is something I can do myself but this is where cheaper equipment (mostly camera and lighting) really tends to hit its limits. I paid 99$ for the 720p edition and I think this is a good price for what you get in terms of saving yourself time and frustration. Even if you’r not using After Effects, many of these samples work well when used with the compositing features of your editing software.