Life Of Pi
Even though tamed tigers exist, it’s impossible to shoot a film with a real one. In the movie Life of Pi, Suraj Sharma spent most of the scenes talking to the air, as graphic animators later created the tiger with CGI.
Actor Sharma filmed the scenes on a large pool, as seen in the picture. For those shots where he was close to the tiger, he used a blue plush. You didn’t see it coming, did you?
Game Of Thrones
Filming eight seasons of Game of Thrones in cold winter would’ve been practically impossible, as actors would’ve frozen to death. So, for obvious reasons, most landscapes in GOT are CGI.
With the help of CGI, animators gave life to The Wall. The results were epic. It would’ve been impossible to build a 700-foot tall wall of ice for the series, not to mention climb it.
The Avengers
Creating a superhero movie involves tons of green screens. Actors and actresses have to use their imagination to place their acting on the same level as CGI. In The Avengers, the character Hulk was a CGI creation.
After seeing the behind-the-scenes fight, Hulk is not as intimidating as we thought. Mark Ruffalo turned into a green, formidable mass thanks to CGI.
Kill Bill
Even though Uma Thurman trained hard to learn martial arts for the film Kill Bill, the truth is that she got help. Uma played a highly athletic role thanks to some behind-the-scenes techniques.
In the scene where she stands on her co-star’s shoulders, Uma looks like a puppet, as several strings are attached to her yellow suit. In the end result, her performance was incredible.
Iron Man
As much as we wish to have an Iron Man suit in our homes, it is a Marvel creation with the help of CGI. This behind-the-scenes footage shows Robert Downey Jr. wearing half of the mask and white and black dots around his body to bring the suit to life.
Thanks to CGI, Iron Man owns the best state-of-the-art superhero suit that includes Jarvis, an advanced Artificial Intelligence system. No doubt fans love Iron Man.
Superman: Man Of Steel
The superhero reboot film Man of Steel brought a challenge to the VFX supervisor, John “D.J.” Des Jardin. We must admit that making a superhero fly isn’t as easy as we think.
Seeing a picture of actor Henry Cavill with a green screen behind him and strings attached all over his body inevitably takes the magic away. Sometimes it’s better if we don’t see the actual behind-the-scenes.
Game Of Thrones
A few scenes of Game of Thrones included characters being close to dragons. One of these characters was Daenerys Targaryen, also known as the Mother of Dragons, played by actress Emilia Clarke.
Playing the role of the Mother of Dragons must’ve been fun for Emilia, as she had to pet a green plush on a stick every time she had to pretend she was petting a dragon.
Mad Max: Fury Road
The only thing that was probably real in Mad Max: Fury Road was the location. The film is set in the middle of a deserted area In Australia. However, the directors needed a little help to make the landscape look like a natural desert.
Director George Miller said that 90 percent of the effects in Mad Max: Fury Road were practical. After all, practical effects look more realistic, so directors and filmmakers choose them over CGI.
Twilight: Eclipse
Taylor Lautner dressed up in a grey non-reflective suit to become a wolf in Twilight: Eclipse. The visual effects team wanted Taylor to get petted by Kristen Stewart instead of choosing a random movie extra.
In the movie, Taylor turns into a wolf. Despite his lack of voice, the fact that he did all the wolf scenes proves how committed he was to his character. The results were incredible.
Godzilla
For obvious reasons, in the film Godzilla there wasn’t an actor who could play a colossal monster. The cast had to pretend to fight a gigantic beast at all times.
The leader of the VFX team, Guillaume Rocheron, explained that: "in terms of the design, we went for something that felt like the classic Godzilla look. But he’s not a man in a suit. He’s not a dinosaur or a hybrid lizard either.”
Pirates Of The Caribbean
Pirates of the Caribbean was a huge success in 2003. Making immortal pirates was a big challenge for the visual effects team, but they successfully pulled through. Bill Nighy played Capitan Davy Jones, the pirate with a beard of tentacles.
The actor had to wear a grey suit with white dots all over his face and body to bring the character to life. His acting was merely focused on his eyes. The eyes, chico. They never lie.
Harry Potter And The Half-Blood Prince
In the Harry Potter films, It’s hard to tell what background is real and what’s not. The truth is that most of them were CGI. Not to mention the flying, spells, and magical creatures.
The Quidditch game in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince was all about rigs and machines. Actors and actresses had to pretend they were playing a wizard sport while flying. Super fun!
Paranoia
If you can’t make it to LA to film a movie, you bring LA to the set. The director of Paranoia wanted to have Geno’s Steaks in the film, and the green screens made it happen.
Sometimes the budget runs low. Other times it’s just inconvenient to film in a specific location. Nowadays, with the help of green screens and CGI, you can make anything happen.
The Matrix
Without CGI, some movies could’ve never been produced. The Matrix is one movie with most of its backdrops created with green screens.
The movie is packed with great action shots that made fans go crazy. The actors did their part, too, as not everything is about CGI and green screens.
The Hunger Games
A movie where the country leader carries out the annual Hunger Games where children get into an arena and kill each other must need the help of CGI and green screens.
The movie is set in a super-tech era. The cast had to pretend they were doing cool stuff in tech switchboards when, in fact, it was just a green table. The results were terrific!
The Chronicles Of Narnia
A mythical world that is hidden inside a closet was possible to create thanks to CGI. In the movie, different creatures battle side to side with humans. Most of them were centaurs: half-human, half-horse.
Making centaurs happen is probably one of the easiest things to do in the CGI world. The only thing the actor has to do is wear green pants and pretend they have a horse body down there.
Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes
Andy Serkis played Caesar in the Planet of the Apes reboot series. The actor wore a helmet with big blue circles attached to his body. He was there to talk and move, as the rest was part of CGI work.
Caesar, the chimp, looks nothing like the actor. Not even the eyes are the same. This movie proved how far CGI could go, and the results are like magic.
Beauty And The Beast
If you thought that making a beast was as simple as wearing a costume, you are missing something. Actor Dan Stevens had to wear a grey, bulky suit with springboards for shoes to match the beast’s height.
It must have been hilarious for actress Emma Watson to pretend to be in love with a tall grey man. However, if we think about it, it is already weird for a person to be in love with a beast.
The Wolverine
Every action movie set has a makeup team ready to create the most authentic and bloody wounds. However, makeup artists take a backseat when the main character has healing powers.
There’s no need to waste time and money on makeup if Wolverine can heal his wounds. Computers can handle a five-second injury. They do all the work!
The Avengers
Most action scenes from The Avengers take place in crowded cities like New York. These action-packed scenes end up with cities fully destroyed. How do they do it in the first place?
This superhero squad doesn’t film in NYC, nor do they destroy cities. Most of the action in this film has been created with the help of green screens. Not to mention the big green bulk of anger, Hulk.
Twilight: Breaking Dawn Part 1
To all Twilight fans out there: this picture may disappoint you. The truth about Bella and Edward’s honeymoon is that it wasn’t in a romantic paradise as it was supposed to be.
With the help of green screens, the main characters could travel to a honeymoon paradise. After all, the private island was private, though unreal.
The Walking Dead
Shooting the scene where Rick Grimes wakes up from a coma and sets off to find his family had to be truly apocalyptic, and this is when the green screens play their part to pretend the world was ending.
On one side, we see a road piled up with cars that didn’t make it. On the other side, there’s an empty road with only Rick Grimes riding a horse. The truth is that he was just passing by an empty lot, not a highway.
The Wolf Of Wall Street
Green screens are mostly used in science fiction, action, and adventure films. However, The Wolf of Wall Street is an exception to that list. Making a comedy movie about a billionaire needs a little help to recreate fancy vacation spots.
Leo Di Caprio, Margot Robbie, Jonah Hill and the whole cast had to pretend they were vacationing at exclusive places while it was just created by some green screen magic.
The Matrix
Keanu Reeves might have had flexibility back in his young days when he was shooting The Matrix. The most iconic scene where he bends backward isn’t as natural as it seems.
In a green room, the actor laid over a wooden plank that was held by a green guy. The behind-the-scenes is fascinating. Nothing like bending backward to dodge a bullet like a pro!
Avengers: Infinity War
Creating a big bad guy who wants to wipe out half of all life must have been difficult for the Infinity War crew. However, once the design was ready, the computer would do the rest of the work.
Actor Josh Brolin had to make accurate facial expressions that would later be meshed into Thano’s face. It was all generated automatically by the computer, and the results were terrific!
Harry Potter And The Order Of The Phoenix
Making objects fly in the Harry Potter films was an easy task. In Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Hermione picks up books from the library with magic. But the real magic is done with the computer.
It looks creepy to see the behind-the-scenes, but this is how magic is made. A green hand pulls out of the shelf and hands over the books to Hermione. After the edits are done, the results are amazing.
The Dark Knight
These little dots on Aaron Eckhart’s face made it possible to create the Two-Face character. The film crew came up with a real though mutilated image of half of Harvey Dent’s face.
Burnt skin, exposed cartilage, a missing nose, and a popping eye were all created by CGI. To add a natural feature to this creepy face, some makeup was used.
Guardians Of The Galaxy
After watching Guardians of the Galaxy, everybody recognized Bradley Cooper’s voice in Rocket, the little mercenary member of the crew. But there’s more to it than just a voice. Someone had to make the character’s moves.
Actor Sean Gunn, who also played Kraglin Obfonteri in the same movie, put on a green suit to make the movements of the little weapon expert. After all, it took two actors to create the mighty Rocket.
The Hobbit
The Hobbit was mostly filmed in New Zealand, a country full of breathtaking views. However, nature wasn’t enough, according to the filmmaker, and some extra help was needed.
The crew did their best to take advantage of the beautiful landscapes of New Zealand, but they wanted to go a little bit further with the optics. The most important scenes were filmed with the help of green screens.
Alice In Wonderland
All Tim Burton’s creations are unique in style. The director is also known for being the king of CGI and special effects. One of his latest productions, Alice in Wonderland, proves how genius he can be.
There was a lot of work to do in the post-production of Alice in Wonderland. Not only the magical moments but also most of the characters were created by CGI. Long live the king of special FX!