TIME's Best Inventions of 2008

The Other 49 Best Inventions

Warner Bros.

27. Bubble Photography

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In order to show the cars in Speed Racer zooming past Hawaiian sunrises and around alpine mountains, a still photographer snapped the locales from every angle and then digitally stitched the shots together to create "bubbles," or virtual photo-realistic backgrounds. A director could use bubble photography to shoot an epic on an indie budget (though it won't make the movie a hit).

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