<P> By the mid-1990s, digital previsualization was becoming an essential tool in the production of large budget feature film . In 1996, David Dozoretz, working with Photoshop co-creator John Knoll, used scanned - in action figures to create digital animatics for the final chase scene for Mission: Impossible (1996). When Star Wars prequel producer Rick McCallum saw the animatics for Mission: Impossible, he tapped Dozoretz to create them for the pod race in Star Wars: Episode I--The Phantom Menace (1999). The previsualization proved so useful that Dozoretz and his team ended up making an average of four to six animatics of every F / X shot in the film . Finished dailies would replace sections of the animatic as shooting progressed . At various points, the previsualization would include diverse elements including scanned - in storyboards, CG graphics, motion capture data and live action . Dozoretz and previsualization effects supervisor Dan Gregoire then went on to do the previsualization for Star Wars: Episode II--Attack of the Clones (2002) and Gregoire finished with the final prequel, Star Wars: Episode III--Revenge of the Sith (2005). </P> <P> The use of digital previsualization became affordable in the 2000s with the development of digital film design software that is user - friendly and available to any filmmaker with a computer . Borrowing technology developed by the video game industry, today's previsualization software give filmmakers the ability to compose electronic 2D storyboards on their own personal computer and also create 3D animated sequences that can predict with remarkable accuracy what will appear on the screen . </P> <P> More recently, Hollywood filmmakers use the term pre-visualization (also known as pre-vis, pre vis, pre viz, pre-viz, previs, or animatics) to describe a technique in which digital technology aids the planning and efficiency of shot creation during the filmmaking process . It involves using computer graphics (even 3D) to create rough versions of the more complex (visual effects or stunts) shots in a movie sequence . The rough graphics might be edited together along with temporary music and even dialogue . Some pre-viz can look like simple grey shapes representing the characters or elements in a scene, while other pre-vis can be sophisticated enough to look like a modern video game . </P> <P> Nowadays many filmmakers are looking to quick, yet optically - accurate 3D software to help with the task of previsualization in order to lower budget and time constraints, as well as give them greater control over the creative process by allowing them to generate the previs themselves . </P>

The process of previsualization (also called previs )