History Main / ObscuredSpecialEffects

Sometimes this approach is executed intentionally for artistic reasons. Budget may not be the issue, but audience expectations and prejudices may be, especially when it comes to certain genres. This may be a drama story which just happens to include fantastic elements that the creator wishes to minimize, at least onscreen. As a result, the focus remains on the acting, characters, and story. It also serves to avoid having the film or show be categorized as just another science fiction or fantasy, genres that many viewers and critics [[SciFiGhetto view negatively]]. This approach is often found in FantasticRomance.

* In ''Doc Louis's VideoGame/PunchOut'', if you knock Doc's chocolate bar out of his hands, he'll take off his red jacket, revealing a leopart-print shirt. Of coourse, we only see Doc opening up his jacket before cutting to Little Mac's reaction. When we cut back to Doc, he's already tossing his jacket away.

Sometimes this approach is executed intentionally for artistic reasons. Budget may not be the issue, but audience expectations and prejudices may be, especially when it comes to certain genres. This may be a drama story which just happens to include fantastic elements that the creator wishes to minimize, at least onscreen. As a result, the focus remains on the acting, characters, and story. It also serves to avoid having the film or show be categorized as just another science fiction or fantasy, genres that many viewers and critics view negatively. This approach is often found in FantasticRomance.

Sometimes this approach is executed intentionally for artistic reasons. Budget may not be the issue, but audience expectations and prejudices may be, especially when it comes to certain genres. This may be a story that is character drama oriented but just happens to include fantastic elements that the creator wishes to minimize, at least onscreen. This may be to avoid having the film or show be categorized as just another science fiction or fantasy. This approach is often found in FantasticRomance.

*** We very rarely see the TARDIS materialise in the Hartnell stories, because the special effect was incredibly difficult to do at that time. Usually, we see the crew in the TARDIS interior while the sound effect plays, the Doctor confirms that it's safe outside and opens the doors, we see a glimpse of the new location through the doors from the crew's perspective, and we then cut to the characters emerging outside, seeing the TARDIS already standing wherever it is. Eventually, as technology improved, the effect became easy and cheap to do to the point where the effect could be used to introduce ''Doctor Who'' actors appearing on chat shows or ''Series/BluePeter'' and so on -- the TARDIS is shown materialising and dematerialising whenever necessary with no fanfare by Tom Baker's tenure. Even reconstructions of {{Missing Episode}}s can animate this one with a bit of clever Photoshop and a fade...

* Fairly often in ''Franchise/MetalGear'', a shot will be done in a slightly strange way to avoid showing something difficult to animate in a game, usually things that involve textures changing gradually -

* Only brief, partial glimpses of the wompa in ''Film/TheEmpireStrikesBack'' were shown, as it let the guy portraying it just wear portions of a suit at a time. But for the Special Edition, Creator/GeorgeLucas decided to include shots showing the whole creature. Same thing with the aquatic creature that swallows and spits out R2-D2 on Dagobah.

*** We very rarely see the TARDIS materialise in the Hartnell stories, because the special effect was incredibly difficult to do at that time. Usually, we see the crew in the TARDIS interior while the sound effect plays, the Doctor confirms that it's safe outside and opens the doors, we see a glimpse of the new location through the doors from the crew's perspective, and we then cut to the characters emerging outside, seeing the TARDIS already standing wherever it is. Eventually, as technology improved, the effect became easy and cheap to do to the point where the effect could be used to introduce ''Doctor Who'' actors appearing on chat shows or ''Series/BluePeter'' and so on - the TARDIS is shown materialising and dematerialising whenever necessary with no fanfare by Tom Baker's tenure. Even reconstructions of {{Missing Episode}}s can animate this one with a bit of clever Photoshop and a fade...

*** The KnockoutGas used by the Atlanteans in "The Underwater Menace" is invisible - although this overlaps with FridgeBrilliance, because the Doctor explains it's high-pressure nitrogen, presumably to invoke the famous diving hazard of "the bends" where nitrogen under high pressure begins to act on the body like laughing gas (of course, in reality you'd probably just suffocate, but it goes with the undersea theme of the episode quite well).

*** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS33E02DinosaursOnASpaceship "Dinosaurs On A Spaceship"]] mainly shows its eponymous dinosaurs lurching through the dark, foggy halls of its eponymous spaceship.
*** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS33E08ColdWar "Cold War"]] mainly portrays [[TheReptilians Ice Warrior]] Skaldak in a suit of armor made with practical effects. But when the time comes for scenes where he sneaks through the submarine ''without'' his armor, only his arm reaching down from the ceiling is shown most of the time, while a close-up of his face is done in the shadows. Only near the end is his unarmored, unconcealed face seen, and then not even for more than half a minute.

*** We very rarely see the TARDIS materialise in the Hartnell stories, because the special effect was incredibly difficult to do at that time. Usually, we see the crew in the TARDIS interior while the sound effect plays, the Doctor confirms that it's safe outside and opens the doors, we see a glimpse of the new location through the doors from the crew's perspective, and we then cut to the characters emerging outside, seeing the TARDIS already standing wherever it is. Eventually, as technology improved, the effect became easy and cheap to do to the point where the effect could be used to introduce ''Doctor Who'' actors appearing on chat shows or ''Series/BluePeter'' and so on - the TARDIS is shown materialising and dematerialising whenever necessary with no fanfare by Tom Baker's tenure.

* Most of the time the aliens are shown in ''Film/{{Monsters 2010}}'', at least one of several things occurs: we see small portions of them, they are shown through blurry amateur video or night vision, or they are seen when it is very dark. This was done to conserve the very low budget for the few shots where we ''do'' see the whole creature unobscured.

** Any time the Sontarans are seen, we only see the faces of a handful of them, while the larger majority are shown wearing their large helmets that imply the presence of their large heads. Same thing with the rhinoceros-headed Judoon, who travel in groups of three or more but only one has his helmet off.
** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS33E02DinosaursOnASpaceship "Dinosaurs On A Spaceship"]] mainly shows its eponymous dinosaurs lurching through the dark, foggy halls of its eponymous spaceship.
** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS33E08ColdWar "Cold War"]] mainly portrays [[TheReptilians Ice Warrior]] Skaldak in a suit of armor made with practical effects. But when the time comes for scenes where he sneaks through the submarine ''without'' his armor, only his arm reaching down from the ceiling is shown most of the time, while a close-up of his face is done in the shadows. Only near the end is his unarmored, unconcealed face seen, and then not even for more than half a minute.

* Related: The "Vampires Exploding into Dust After Being Staked" effect on ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'' cost ''$5,000'' per use. As a result, the majority of vampires (especially in the first few seasons) are staked ''just'' off-screen, with the disintegration sound-effect playing. By the time the show's budget had been raised to a point where they could afford to use it every time (and the cost of CGI had been reduced by a significant figure), vampires had long ceased to be the main threat on the show--which, naturally, let Buffy kill scads of them.

See also NothingIsScarier (a trope that shows how using this in horror works especially well). CoconutSuperpowers is a SubTrope.

* Only brief, partial glimpses of the wompa in ''Film/TheEmpireStrikesBack'' were shown, as it let the guy portraying it just have to wear portions of a suit at a time. But for the Special Edition, Creator/GeorgeLucas decided to include shots showing the whole creature. Same thing with the aquatic creature that swallows and spits out R2-D2 on Dagobah.

* ''{{Disney/Frozen}}'': While LettingHerHairDown during "Let It Go", [[http://24.media.tumblr.com/41664ddd71900691fbf8b3bba0b1dd7b/tumblr_mxeeplqrCJ1ssndyfo1_r1_500.gif Elsa's braid passes through her arm]]. The animators claim this couldn't be fixed without breaking Elsa's model, so they obscured it a bit by having her body block the view of the phasing.

* Only brief, partial glimpses of the wompa in ''Film/TheEmpireStrikesBack'' were shown, as it let the guy portraying it just have to wear portions of a suit at a time. But for the Special Edition, Creator/GeorgeLucas decided to include shots showing the whole creature.