These sidereal day , special effects can make just about anything possible in the movies . Exotic aliens , blow up construction , and raging tidal wafture – audience have seen artists fully realize the unreal . But every now and then , there follow along a injection or sequence that leaves movie - departer wonder , " How did they do that ? ! " Here ’s a look at a few of these recent , ingenious effects barb – and how they were pulled off :
The Revenant(2015), “The Bear Attack”
It might just be the exclusive most confronting , can’t - look - away - from view in a film liberate this retiring decade . The bear flack in Alejandro G. Iñárritu’sThe Revenantis six heart - wrenching minutes long and almost documentary - same in the means it holds its gaze at Leonardo DiCaprio as the frontiersman Hugh Glass and the grizzly that confronts him .
The realisation of the iconic one - take shot require close collaboration between a figure of film department : directing , cinematography , stunts , make-up , costume , and , of course , the optic impression artists behind the CGI bear , Industrial Light & Magic(ILM ) . To shoot the scene , DiCaprio act with base - in blue - block out stunt performer on the timberland flooring , who sometimes wear down supernumerary cushioning for the proper bear balance . The actor was also rive on wires to make the bear ’s jerk motions .
ILM spend months explore and reviewing bear references before animating a photorealistic animal complete with heftiness and hair computer simulation , even adding grease , pine needle , and blood into the bear ’s fur . The final dig ( which was really a combination of several barb to make it look like there were no cuts ) also required painting in extra wounds on DiCaprio and crafting the interaction between clumps of grunge and moss on the forest storey as he is thrown around .
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Divergent(2014), “Aptitude Test”
This scene , from Neil Burger ’s YA franchise - starting motor , depicts Tris ( Shailene Woodley ) navigating a mirror room made up of an almost infinite number of Tris reflexion . These shortly turn out to be more than just her mirrored ego .
The mirror room could not have been created simply by shooting with real mirror , since the reflections of television camera and crew would be seeable and the actions of multiple Tris ' impossible to choreograph . Instead , the full scene was filmed against green covert using six digital cameras ( also covered to some stage in green - screen material ) .
The cameras obtained front views of the actress but also a number of reflectivity views . Woodley performed the necessary actions one shot at a metre so that she could play against herself . And all of this was carefully choreographed using pre - plotted movements arrange out with cones and spikelet on the green - blind floor .
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Only then could the ocular effect squad at Method Studios combine all the views of Woodley , as well as add in computer - generated backgrounds and lights . What really sells the shots , though , are the mirror - like attributes – the bend and warping of imagery , smudges and even a slight wait in the mirror imagery when Tris move or turn her head . Not to mention a CGI dog , animated for the final jaw - dropping moment when the canine and Tris fall through the mirror elbow room floor .
The Wolverine(2013), “Train Fight”
engagement sequences staged atop hasten machine , trucks , and gear are often too dangerous to film for real , so productions shoot actors against green or downcast covert and add in the background surroundings later . The risk , as with the addition of any foreign element , is looking fake . To avoid that trouble inThe Wolverine ’s Tokyo train - top fight , the effects creative person at Weta Digital utilized literal background environments , combined with dark-green - screenland wire - work stunt , for the most visceral activity potential .
What they organize was a way to shoot the necessary backgrounds – basically streetscapes and construction purr by as Hugh Jackman ’s Wolverine fights off his adversary atop the gear – from a van driving along an elevated freeway in Shinjuku , Japan . A specialized eight - photographic camera array of digital film cameras was rig to the top of the vehicle to evolve the high answer possible . travel rapidly up , the footage looked like the gear was give way at 300 km an hr like a real bullet geartrain .
The real backgrounds were just the beginning . Weta Digital took footage from all eight cameras and run up together the best angles , then enhanced the footage with extra CGI building , traffic , change signs , and city inside information where needed . Further additions came in the conformation of low - hanging gauntry that Wolverine and the tough guy constantly had to head off . Jackman put up the grunting to sell it .
Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb(2014), “Into the Escher”
gravel your head around an M.C. Escher art can be intemperate enough , specially if it ’s 1953’sRelativity , a lithograph instance impossible stairway and some tricked - out gravity effect . But when director Shawn Levy included an ode to the Dutch artist and that fussy lithograph inNight at the Museum : Secret of the Tomb , the 2D body of work had to be realized in three dimensions and be populate by several of the motion picture ’s characters who also had to obey its anti - gravity rules .
As with some of the most complicated special gist , the solution dwell in lots and lots and lots of preparation . The line - drawing environs ofRelativitywas pre - pictured in simple shape first . arm with a schematic of where the worker would be go , jumping , and falling , the scene was film using move - control cameras against green CRT screen , leave precise television camera moves to be repeated down to the fraction of an inch . A engineering science called SimulCam allowed Levy to see his doer , including Ben Stiller and Robin Williams , overlaid on a simple version of the sketched environs , to help with camera framing and blocking .
in the end , optic - essence creative person at Digital Domain gave the shot the signature tune " Escher " seem with very particular line form and just a jot of color . They also built the staircases and other components of the lithograph in 3D , which tolerate for dramatic camera movement , like a character jumping from one stairway to another and ending up in a completely different orientation course . vocalise confusing ? That ’s kind of the stop .
War of the Worlds(2005), “The Highway Getaway”
Amidst the computer - generate and miniature force ILM bring on to bring alien tripods and end to Steven Spielberg’sWar of the Worldswere some implausibly seamless special issue , include a lengthy , single take of Ray Ferrier ( Tom Cruise ) and his children hurry along a thruway . Miraculously , the camera seems to travel inside and exterior of the car without any cut – the first hint that this was not a childlike essence to reach .
And it sure enough was n’t dim-witted . The scene made use of at least three on an individual basis photographed takes . First , exterior views of a freeway in Long Island were filmed with a 360 - degree , car - mount up rig carrying several cameras film at once . The second shaft involved the real car being filmed drive along the road . eventually , the actors were filmed inside a prop car on blue screen , with camera move replicating those hold out on the throughway . The legerdemain of one seamless take came from ILM ’s " virtual motion-picture photography " approach to stitch between the various photographic camera takes , one of the earliest uses of the proficiency .
In what is perhaps an equally piquant scene , a similar one - take , in - car shot is featured in Alfonso Cuarón’sChildren of Men , released the class afterWar of the Worlds . Here , the camera cover magically through the fomite while its occupants are pursued by horde of people on foot and on motorcycle . Julianne Moore ’s character reference is even burgeon forth mid - conversation . The dynamic scene was made possible with a determination - build tv camera car that had a moving television camera and moving seats and door – all afterward augment with subtle visual effects .
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Inception(2010), “Destroying the Concrete Fortress”
Director Christopher Nolan is well eff for mixing and matching effect techniques . He ’ll use full - scale of measurement props wherever possible , though has no care of incorporating digital force and miniature into key shot in his celluloid . That access is no more on display than in the demolition of the snowy muckle fortress inInception . Here , a squad of professional extractors , led by Dom Cobb ( Leonardo DiCaprio ) , are in multiple ambition levels , only awoken back to realism by a massive " boot " that occur from the fall of the fortress .
That fall was organise as a giant toy by New Deal Studios , construct with intricate detail on the result company ’s backlot in Los Angeles and then detonated to collapse as if it were a real concrete fortress .
The miniature was constructed at a scale of one - sixth the size of what the real edifice would be , and made out of mainly urethane foam and special pre - cracked molds sprayed with plaster of Paris .
Generally , plaster would suffice for such a miniature , but underneath Nolan ’s main structure were a complicated set of miniature scissor jacks ( alike to scissor lifts ) designed to give elbow room at pre - determined times to help the floors and inner steel frames decrease . Special flocking material – and even table salt – endure in for snowfall . The burst itself utilized traditional prima cord rig into the social organization and lasted only five seconds in actual metre , with several camera running at high amphetamine to capture the moment . To make it just a piddling trickier , the squad at New Deal filmed ittwice .
Contact(1997), “The Reflection”
Robert Zemeckis ' 1997 sci - fi dramaContactis notable for several splashy space prospect with high - economic value effects . But one spectacular succession may have pass you by as an effects shoot at all . In the scene where young Ellie ( Jena Malone ) hasten to the medicine cabinet in an attempt to save her dying founder ( David Morse ) , Zemeckis ' moving shoot downshift into slow motion , and we short realize , once the locker is open up , that what we ’ve actually been ascertain is a reflection of the activity in the mirror . It ’s moviemaking as dexterity - of - hand magic .
To make the snapshot possible , a figure of freestanding " plates " were take . The first was by a camera operator running rearwards in front of Ellie as she moves up the stairs , and was used right up until her hand get through out to the console . Another home was the medicine cabinet itself , this time from the front perspective . Malone was also filmed from behind against dingy CRT screen as a further plate . The last freestanding piece was a reflection of the photograph of Ellie and her pop seen as the door shut down .
ocular - effects artists at Sony Pictures Imageworks massage the three different plates together using digital compositing , a line that also need the painstaking house painting out of undesirable reflections . Some of the seamless additions include the mirror surface and even its bevel force which more or less falsify the terminal reflexion of the photograph . The result is a shot that seem simple but process to heighten the drama of the tragedy for Ellie .
Captain America: The First Avenger(2011), “Skinny Steve”
When Chris Evans first appear on screen as hopeful U. S. Army recruit Steve Rogers in Joe Johnston’sCaptain America : The First Avenger , he appeared as a much wimpier reading of himself . But how could this be ? The player beefed up substantially to play the title role of Captain America . Was it a stand - in ? CGI ? Something else ? The answer was pretty much all of the above , plus some crazy - elaborate compositing prowess from effects society Lola VFX , which photographed the tangible Evans and slimmed him down .
select a 220 lb Evans down to 140lbs need several techniques , including the use of an actor double whose fittingly sized body would act as a stand - in for some shots . However , Evans ' head was always the real " Skinny Steve " head , made possible with either scaling down the on - set photography or by using particular digital expression - projection techniques .
These " youthening " effects never looked out of place because the real actor was always filmed in the real lighting . Lola also did extensive enquiry on how our facial and body forms arise , from ears to nose and mouth , making the reversal engineering all the more spectacular .
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Prior toThe First Avenger , Lola had actually already cement its name in Hollywood with tightlipped digital beauty fix and youthening workplace ( for exercise , the youthful versions of Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen inX - Men : The Last Stand ) . Since , the company has dazzled consultation with these sorts of shots , creating a younger Michael Douglas inAnt - Manand Robert Downey Jr. inCaptain America : Civil War .
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