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

These materials can also produce new colors of light through nonlinear optical effects such as second-harmonic generation.

From Science Daily • Mar. 24, 2026

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

Go all the way around and the wizard’s curtain is pulled back to reveal a surprising array of mechanisms that create the magical optical effects out front.

From Los Angeles Times • Sep. 17, 2024

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

From BBC • May 29, 2023

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

From Islands of Space by Campbell, John Wood