Computer graphics is a tool to exploit mathematics, and iterative application of symbolic processing is the foundation of animated visualization. VFX places other unusual demands on mathematics. The digital simulation of water waves, for example, can call for some of the standard tools of computational fluid dynamics. You throw away as much of the science as possible while still getting a good picture. Even conservation of mass may go by the boards, at least until observers begin to notice that blobs of water are disappearing into thin air.
Artists are the ultimate authorities.
But the change in authority doesn't make the problems easier. Jerry Tessendorf of Cinesite Visual Effects, for example, described the technical difficulties that arise in simulating light striking individual water droplets. Digital simulation of a foggy day in London town is not yet feasible. Mathematics is both the entertainment and the tool in the mass-market fractal visualization software produced by Ben Weiss of MetaCreations. The business of launching satellites is neither as new as digital special effects nor as old as rust belt manufacturing, and its relations to industrial mathematics are in a similarly intermediate state.