I wasn't sure if this was the right forum to ask this in, I might get more of a response in General (feel free powers-that-be-to move it), but.??
If I have some anime (surprise surprise) which features scenes I wish to alter via sneaky masking and Photoshopping such that no one would ever be able to tell they weren't the original scenes, is that considered a special effect? For instance, if I wanted to change the expression on a character's face, add items to a shopping cart or change the program on a TV.
Put another way, is a special effect only something which makes you sit up and say "Ah ha! Special effect!"
Put yet another way, how is someone supposed to judge the quality of your special effects if they're so well integrated that they must be pointed out, frame by frame, to even be identified?
This doesn't really trouble me too much, whether I ID them as special effects or not, I'm just wondering - down the road - how to label some "effects" I'm working on which, if I do my job well, no one will ever notice.







