Visual effects — often abbreviated as VFX — are those elements of a shot which cannot be achieved exclusively by practical means during principal photography . They can be accomplished with the varying techniques of CGI , model work and other techniques. Even practical effects can be used as an element in a "visual effects shot", as when specially filmed flame or lava effects are composited into a scene.
For the most part, the starting "canvass" for a VFX is a blue or green screen placed behind actors during principal photography. This solid patch of colour can then be removed and replaced with another image. During much of the original series, this was achieved through a process known as colour separation overlay , whereby a blue screen would be fed images during the live recording of the shot. Since the TV movie , most of the VFX seen on Doctor Who have been achieved through the use of CGI, a more nuanced approach which allows elements rendered on a computer to be composited into a shot captured during principal photography. As contrasted with CSO and other optical/analogue effects, CGI work is completed exclusively in post-production . As real-time pre-visualisation technology in filmmaking developed in the 2010s and 2020s, with Doctor Who previs work during the second Russell T Davies era involving real-time graphics traditionally used on live programming like Strictly Come Dancing ,[1] the lines between special and visual effects became increasingly blurred.
The term describes both the title of the work and the work itself. Thus The Mill provided VFX and were given the title of "Visual Effects" in the credits of Doctor Who from 2005 until 2013. From The Day of the Doctor , Milk filled this role instead. DNEG held this role throughout the Chris Chibnall era.
For the second Russell T Davies era there were multiple visual effects studios from the get-go. Untold Studios did work on The Star Beast , while Realtime Visualisation worked on Wild Blue Yonder , and Automatik VFX worked on The Giggle , all from 2023.
Story
Visual effects
42
The Mill
Adam
The Mill
Adrift
The Mill
An Adventure in Space and Time
Chris Panton
The Age of Steel
The Mill
Aliens of London
The Mill
The Almost People
The Mill
Amy's Choice
BBC Wales Graphics
The Angels Take Manhattan
The Mill , Stargate Studios
Arachnids in the UK
DNEG
Army of Ghosts
The Mill
Asylum of the Daleks
The Mill
Bad Wolf
The Mill
The Battle of Ranskoor Av Kolos
DNEG
The Beast Below
The Mill
Before the Flood
Milk VFX
The Bells of Saint John
The Mill
Blink
The Mill
The Blood Line
Lion Visual Effects, Inc.
Boom Town
The Mill
Brave-ish Heart
BBC Wales Graphics , Milk VFX
Can You Hear Me?
DNEG
Captain Jack Harkness
The Mill
The Caretaker
BBC Wales VFX , Milk VFX
The Categories of Life
Lion Visual Effects, Inc.
Children of Earth: Day Five
The Mill
Children of Earth: Day Four
The Mill
Children of Earth: Day One
The Mill
Children of Earth: Day Three
The Mill
Children of Earth: Day Two
The Mill
A Christmas Carol
The Mill
The Christmas Invasion
The Mill
The Church on Ruby Road
Automatik VFX
Closing Time
The Mill , BBC Wales Graphics
Co-Owner of a Lonely Heart
BBC Wales Graphics , Milk VFX
The Coach with the Dragon Tattoo
BBC Wales Graphics , Milk VFX
Cold Blood
The Mill
Cold War
The Mill
Combat
The Mill
Countrycide
The Mill
The Crimson Horror
The Mill
The Curse of Clyde Langer
BBC Wales VFX
The Curse of Fatal Death
Andy McVean
The Curse of the Black Spot
The Mill
Cyberwoman
The Mill
Dalek
The Mill
Daleks in Manhattan
The Mill
Dark Water
BBC Wales VFX , Milk VFX
Day One
The Mill
A Day in the Death
The Mill
The Day of the Clown
Craig Higgins
The Day of the Doctor
Milk VFX , BBC Wales Visual Effects
Day of the Moon
The Mill
Dead Man Walking
The Mill
Dead of Night
Lion Visual Effects, Inc.
Death in Heaven
BBC Wales VFX , Milk VFX
Death of the Doctor
BBC Wales VFX
Deep Breath
BBC Wales VFX , Milk VFX
Demons of the Punjab
DNEG
Detained
BBC Wales Graphics , Milk VFX
Dinosaurs on a Spaceship
The Mill
The Doctor Dances
The Mill
The Doctor Falls
BBC Wales VFX , Milk VFX
Doctor Who
Northwest Imaging & FX
The Doctor's Daughter
The Mill
The Doctor's Wife
The Mill
The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe
The Mill
Doomsday
The Mill
Earthshock (TotT
Painting Practice
The Eaters of Light
BBC Wales VFX , Milk VFX
The Eleventh Hour
The Mill
Empress of Mars
BBC Wales VFX , Milk VFX
The Empty Child
The Mill
The Empty Planet
BBC Wales VFX
End of Days
The Mill
The End of Time
The Mill
End of the Road
Lion Visual Effects, Inc.
The End of the World
The Mill
Enemy of the Bane
The Mill
Escape to LA
Lion Visual Effects, Inc.
The Eternity Trap
Craig Higgins
Eve of the Daleks
DNEG
Everything Changes
The Mill
Evolution of the Daleks
The Mill
Exit Wounds
The Mill
Extremis
Milk VFX
Eye of the Gorgon
The Mill
Face the Raven
Milk VFX
The Family of Blood
The Mill
Father's Day
The Mill
Fear Her
The Mill
The Fires of Pompeii
The Mill
Flatline
BBC Wales VFX , Axis VFX
For Tonight We Might Die
BBC Wales Graphics , Milk VFX
Forest of the Dead
The Mill
Fragments
The Mill
From Out of the Rain
The Mill
Fugitive of the Judoon
DNEG
The Gathering
Lion Visual Effects, Inc.
Ghost Machine
The Mill
The Ghost Monument
DNEG TV
The Gift
Craig Higgins
The Giggle
Automatik VFX
The Girl Who Died
Milk VFX
The Girl Who Waited
The Mill
The Girl in the Fireplace
The Mill
The God Complex
BBC Wales Graphics
A Good Man Goes to War
The Mill
Goodbye, Sarah Jane Smith
BBC Wales VFX
Greeks Bearing Gifts
The Mill
Gridlock
The Mill
The Halloween Apocalypse
DNEG
The Haunting of Villa Diodati
DNEG
Heaven Sent
Milk VFX
Hell Bent
Milk VFX
Hide
The Mill
Human Nature
The Mill
The Hungry Earth
The Mill
The Husbands of River Song
Axis VFX
The Idiot's Lantern
The Mill
Immortal Sins
Lion Visual Effects, Inc.
The Impossible Astronaut
The Mill
The Impossible Planet
The Mill
In the Forest of the Night
BBC Wales VFX , Milk VFX
Into the Dalek
BBC Wales VFX , Milk VFX
Invasion of the Bane
The Mill
It Takes You Away
DNEG
Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS
The Mill
Journey's End
The Mill
Kerblam!
DNEG
Kill the Moon
BBC Wales VFX , Milk VFX
Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang
The Mill
Knock Knock
BBC Wales VFX , Milk VFX
Last Christmas
BBC Wales VFX , Milk VFX
The Last Sontaran
The Mill , Craig Higgins
Last of the Time Lords
The Mill
The Lazarus Experiment
The Mill
Legend of the Sea Devils
DNEG
Let's Kill Hitler
The Mill
The Lie of the Land
BBC Wales VFX , Milk VFX
Listen
BBC Wales VFX , Milk VFX
The Lodger
BBC Wales Graphic Design
The Long Game
The Mill
The Lost
BBC Wales Graphics , Milk VFX
The Lost Boy
The Mill
Lost in Time
BBC Wales VFX
Love & Monsters
The Mill
The Mad Woman in the Attic
Craig Higgins
The Magician's Apprentice
Milk VFX
The Man Who Never Was
BBC Wales VFX
The Mark of the Berserker
Craig Higgins
Meat
The Mill
The Metaphysical Engine, or What Quill Did
BBC Wales Graphics , Milk VFX
The Middle Men
Lion Visual Effects, Inc.
Midnight
The Mill
The Mind Robber (TotT
Painting Practice
Mona Lisa's Revenge
Craig Higgins
Mummy on the Orient Express
BBC Wales VFX , Milk VFX
The Name of the Doctor
Stargate Studios
New Earth
The Mill
The New World
Lion Visual Effects, Inc.
The Next Doctor
The Mill
Night Terrors
The Mill
The Nightmare Man
BBC Wales VFX
Nightmare in Silver
Stargate Studios
Nightvisiting
BBC Wales Graphics , Milk VFX
Nikola Tesla's Night of Terror
DNEG
Once, Upon Time
DNEG
Orphan 55
DNEG
Out of Time
The Mill
Oxygen
BBC Wales VFX , Milk VFX
The Parting of the Ways
The Mill
Partners in Crime
The Mill
The Pilot
BBC Wales VFX , Milk VFX
Planet of the Dead
The Mill
Planet of the Ood
The Mill
The Poison Sky
The Mill
The Power of Three
The Mill , Space Digital
The Power of the Doctor
DNEG
Praxeus
DNEG
Prisoner of the Judoon
Craig Higgins
The Pyramid at the End of the World
BBC Wales VFX , Milk VFX
Random Shoes
The Mill
The Rebel Flesh
The Mill
Rendition
Lion Visual Effects, Inc.
Reset
The Mill
Resolution
DNEG
The Return of Doctor Mysterio
BBC Wales VFX , Milk VFX
Revenge of the Slitheen
The Mill
Revolution of the Daleks
DNEG
The Rings of Akhaten
The Mill
Rise of the Cybermen
The Mill
Robot of Sherwood
BBC Wales VFX , Milk VFX
Rosa
DNEG TV
Rose
The Mill
The Runaway Bride
The Mill
The Satan Pit
The Mill
School Reunion
The Mill
Secrets of the Stars
Craig Higgins
The Shakespeare Code
The Mill
Silence in the Library
The Mill
Sky
BBC Wales VFX
Sleep No More
Milk VFX
Sleeper
The Mill
Small Worlds
The Mill
Smile
BBC Wales VFX , Milk VFX
Smith and Jones
The Mill
The Snowmen
The Mill
Something Borrowed
The Mill
The Sontaran Stratagem
The Mill
The Sound of Drums
The Mill
Spyfall
DNEG
The Star Beast
Untold Studios
The Stolen Earth
The Mill
Survivors of the Flux
DNEG
The Temptation of Sarah Jane Smith
Craig Higgins
The Curse of Fenric (TotT
Painting Practice
The Time of the Doctor
Milk VFX
They Keep Killing Suzie
The Mill
Thin Ice
BBC Wales VFX , Milk VFX
The Three Doctors (TotT
Painting Practice
Time Heist
BBC Wales VFX , Milk VFX
The Time Meddler (TotT
Painting Practice
The Time of Angels
The Mill
The Timeless Children
DNEG
To the Last Man
The Mill
Tooth and Claw
The Mill
A Town Called Mercy
Space Digital
The Tsuranga Conundrum
DNEG
Turn Left
The Mill
Twice Upon a Time
BBC Wales VFX , Milk VFX
Under the Lake
Milk VFX
The Unicorn and the Wasp
The Mill
The Unquiet Dead
The Mill
Utopia
The Mill
The Vampires of Venice
The Mill
The Vanquishers
DNEG
The Vault of Secrets
BBC Wales VFX
Vengeance on Varos (TotT
Painting Practice
Victory of the Daleks
The Mill
Village of the Angels
DNEG
Vincent and the Doctor
The Mill
Voyage of the Damned
The Mill
War of the Sontarans
DNEG
Warriors of Kudlak
The Mill
The Waters of Mars
The Mill
The Wedding of River Song
The Mill
The Wedding of Sarah Jane Smith
Craig Higgins
Whatever Happened to Sarah Jane?
The Mill
Wild Blue Yonder
Realtime Visualisation
The Witch's Familiar
Milk VFX
The Witchfinders
DNEG
The Woman Who Fell to Earth
DNEG TV
World Enough and Time
BBC Wales VFX , Milk VFX
World War Three
The Mill
The Zygon Invasion
Milk VFX
The Zygon Inversion
Milk VFX
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