Virtual sets and chromakey update: superimposing a foreground captured by one camera onto a background from another dates back to film days, but has come a long way since.(technology focus)

The basic principle behind virtual sets may not be as new as you think. Way back in 1958, The Old Man and the Sea starring SpencerTracy became one of the first films to use a new blue-screen technique invented by Warner Brothers employee and ex-Kodak researcher Arthur Widmer.

Although groundbreaking at the time, it involved the creation of a cumbersome series of female and male motion picture mattes (masks) to filter each image, which after many hours of skilful manipulation in post production were combined to create a single image.

An even older film technique is rear ...

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