Pulling back the curtain

• Martin Anderson lists the top 50 special-effect shots at Den of Geek.

Not just a list of "oh, these shots are cool" clips, but with informed technical discussions of each. I'm particularly glad to see the "instant nail-color change" shot from Total Recall get a mention; it's an effect I've always admired.

This is an example of a simple effect that could probably have been achieved in the 1950s, if anyone had written a sci-fi script where a woman could change the colour of her nails with a tap on some future-gizmo. The nails are rotoscoped to provide an area for an animated colour transition to take place, and that's all there is to it. It's an elegant and not terribly expensive SFX that is 100% convincing.