Visual effects can be broken down into three categories — ‘brain surgery,’ ‘family doctor’ and ‘911’ — according to VFX supervisor Marko Forker (Titanic, Star Trek: Nemesis), who spoke recently at one of the ‘visionary lunches’ organized by Computer Animation Studios of Ontario.

Forker’s company DIVE led the visual effects on The Road, which also underwent some post at Toronto-based Invisible Pictures.

He told the sold-out crowd of filmmakers and financiers that ‘brain surgery’ jobs are about ‘creating fantasy’ and apply to films such as Avatar. ‘Family doctor’ films create ‘reality out of reality’ such as The Road; and the ‘911s’ are last-minute help calls to ‘enhance and repair’ problems that were unforeseen during production, such as the Toronto-shot Cinderella Man, which he also supervised.

He remarked that he prefers working in the east over L.A. ‘Toronto is an east coast town, like Boston or New York to me,’ he noted.

Forker then visually walked the audience through the ‘family doctor’ practice used on The Road, which involved many still photos manipulated through computers.