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Hollywood VFX That You Didn't Notice Were CGI

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Just like most things in life, when computer generated imagery is done badly, everyone notices it. But sadly, when they do botch up the CGI in a movie, it immediately transports you away from that fantasy world and back into your living room, leaving you thinking: "that was the worst CGI scorpion I have ever seen" and thus ruining the movie.

But when CGI is done well enough to not look like a plastic man fighting a bunch of other plastic men, it can really pull you in to the story and leave you forgetting that you've just been watching a whole load of CGI.
So with that said here are some Hollywood VFX You Didn't Notice Were CGI


Logan
Unlike past X-Men movies, Logan doesn't really have many huge scale VFX scenes and perhaps that's what makes it all the more believable. Aside from a few digital backgrounds, the VFX were mainly used to achieve smaller things like the impossible but very realistic looking self healing skin.
They were also used to give wolverine's little clone, Laura, realistic looking adamantium claws, just like him.
And speaking of claws, CGI was used to achieve those impressive blows that he delivers to the bad guys with his adamantium claws, only this time, unlike the laughably fake previous versions we've had the misfortune to witness in the past, they did them justice.


2012
Any good disaster movie pretty much relies on CGI to create those huge scenes of general chaos. And in the movie 2012 there are more than 500 of them.
Many VFX moments in the movie demanded huge computing power and most of these scenes were multi layered, meaning they consisted of several different graphics that were later combined to make up the scene in a realistic way, like, for example, when the plane is flying between falling buildings.
And due to the high demand in computing power for the sheer amount of CGI needed, they used bout 250 of the most powerful computers at the time to process all of these graphics.
Actors were filmed in front to blue screens and some of the sets were designed to shake to realistically simulate an earthquake. This blend of real footage and high quality CGI really helped to keep things looking believable.

Game Of Thrones
One of the most epic scenes in Game Of Thrones was when Daenerys, along with a horde of Dothraki (and a dragon) completely destroyed a Lannister army. This scene was challenging to shoot because despite the logical assumption that most of this scene is going to be CGI (cos, you know, trying to film a real dragon would be kinda impractical) most of the scenery was actually real and explosions were actually real!

The creators actually went all out and took the time to set fire to several extras as well as blow up the wagons with carefully placed charges. They even used real ash to simulate the charred remains of the Lannister army. This all added to the realism of the scene, leaving any major CGI work for the dragon.
To get Daenerys to blend with the dragon, they made a real mechanical rig and filmed Emilia Clarke riding it in front of a green screen. Then they simply superimposed her onto their 3D dragon. For the scenery; Shots from behind the dragon were done with special cameras mounted on cables and drones. This left a very real backdrop for them to more easily superimpose on Daenerys and the dragon over the top, giving a very realistic end result.

Spiderman: Homecoming
Despite the actor Tom Holland doing all his own stunts, or the fact that many of the scenes were made in the filming set without CGI and yes, they also made a full size replica of a ferry that they filled with water and balanced with the help of special mechanisms, it didn't mean that Spiderman Homecoming was completely CGI free. Aside from the obvious scenes, like the interface of the spidy suit, for example, the scene where Spiderman climbs the Washington monument was in fact aided heavily with CGI as the actor wasn't allowed to climb the real thing on his own so they built several replica chunks of it for Tom to climb in front of a green screen and then superimposed it onto a Washington backdrop.

San Andreas
In order to destroy the state of California, artists had to work had recreating more than 1300 scenes with special effects for the movie, such as the destruction of the Hoover Dam, a ton of falling buildings, an impressive wave that wiped out the city of San Fran and also the destruction of the Golden Gate Bridge and no, they didn't do it by filming a bucket of water being tipped over a tiny model replica.
The VFX artists in this movie made a huge effort to achieve such highly realistic results, and even combining between 4 to and 15 images of the same place and even mixing together CGI with real photographs, all in order to achieve this highly immersive disaster movie, that keeps you clutching your seat all throughout the movie.

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Category
CG Movie - Making Of