Before the widespread use of CGI, filmmakers used surprising in-camera tricks and optical illusions to fool audiences. Early filmmakers like Georges Méliès could add a hidden cut to film a wide array of illusions. Creative composites allowed for an invisible character in 1933's "The Invisible Man" and for Moses to part the sea in "The Ten Commandments." Artists literally painted on top of shots to extend sets in "Citizen Kane" and create fantasy worlds in "The Wizard of Oz." While most of these methods are obsolete today, new technologies like the LED projection used in "The Mandalorian" and the motion-control cameras in 2020's "The Invisible Man" build off these past methods.

Check out more of Julie Turnock’s writing on cinematic effects:
https://www.amazon.com/Plastic-Reality-Technology-Blockbuster-Aesthetics/dp/0231163533
http://cup.columbia.edu/book/plastic-reality/9780231163521