optical effects

American  

plural noun

Movies, Television.

1. special visual effects, as the wipe or dissolve, created in the camera or especially in a film laboratory by technicians using complex optical and electronic equipment.

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Example Sentences

The enhanced clarity is why VistaVision hung on longer with the makers of old-school optical effects, serving as a workhorse for the original “Star Wars” trilogy and other pictures into the 21st century.

From The Wall Street Journal • Nov. 12, 2025

The research has wide-reaching implications, from everyday optical effects to laboratory tests of the general theory of relativity, while giving an idea of why time has a preferred direction.

From Science Daily • Oct. 20, 2023

Though halos are not uncommon in the UK, the combination of other optical effects is more unusual.

From BBC • May 29, 2023

Light entering a medium with a negative index of refraction, on the contrary, would bend backward, creating unexpected optical effects, such as a straw appearing to lean the wrong way.

From Scientific American • Nov. 18, 2022

At first they seemed to be optical effects, as though the eye itself were playing tricks.

From Islands of Space by Campbell, John Wood