22 Special Effects, Revealed

It's nice to know filmmakers still give half a damn.
22 Special Effects, Revealed

“Movie magic” has never been actual magic. But it's not always computer generated either. Contrary to popular belief, not everything in films is done with CGI. Sure, there's no argument that CGI has been a crutch for several film productions, due to its ability to darn near accomplish any visual at fraction of the price and without the danger of the real thing, but there is no denying the authenticity of an actual detailed costume or impressive stunt. 

It's true that Jurassic Park championed CGI in film, but most of the dinosaurs were people in costumes or robotic puppets operated by humans. Several films have accomplished great scenes thanks to stop-motion animation, giant constructed sets, or just plain talent.

Sometimes the best special effects are the ones that fool the audience into thinking that only a computer can accomplish them. Cracked and AuntieMeme have teamed up to provide you some context about some special effects you've seen in your favorite (and not-so-favorite) movies

Edge of Tomorrow

22 Special Effects, Revealed

The Raid 2

22 Special Effects, Revealed
Remember the wormhole scene in Interstellar? That wasn't CGI. The Tesseract, artificial that an construct depicts time as a physical dimension, was an

Escape From New York

Escape From New York showed a wireframe view of the city. AOSE VTEW And it was done with tape and a black light. The filmmakers wanted to create a hig

Thor: The Dark World

22 Special Effects, Revealed
22 Special Effects, Revealed

28 Days Later

In 28 Days Later, Murphy wanders through a totally empty London. That wasn't a set. lt was actually London. The filmmakers got the scene by shooting i

Skyfall

22 Special Effects, Revealed

Independence Day

22 Special Effects, Revealed

Sarah Connor

22 Special Effects, Revealed
Charlie And The Chocolate Factory. has nut-sorting squirrels. Those are real, live, trained squirrels. It took months to train the squirrels to sort n

The Lord of the Rings

The Lord of the Rings trilogy mixed hobbits, dwarves, and humans. With forced perspective. Making normal-sized actors look vastly different in SiZE wa

Iron Man 3

In Iron Man 3, several people get sucked out of Air Force One. The scene was shot in midair with skydivers. The travelers freefalling in midair are ac

Evan Almighty

In Evan Aimighty, God asks Evan to build an ark. So the crew built a full-sized ark. The wooden monstrosity was constructed to be 250 feet long, 80 fe
22 Special Effects, Revealed

Tron

Remember how digital the original Tron looked? That was achieved with practical effects. It was 1982, and the CGI it would take to render the high-tec

Jurassic Park

The raptors in Jurassic Park weren't CGI. Those were men in costumes. John Rosengrant was the main raptor Suit performer. To make his movements convin
Cabin In The Woods featured some truly frightening monsters. And they weren't CGI. Joss Whedon and director Drew Goddard decided they wanted sequence
The characters got thrown around in 2012. And SO did the actors. Not only did filmmakers create a sinking ship scene by rotating the whole set, they f
22 Special Effects, Revealed

Alien: Resurrection

22 Special Effects, Revealed

The Force Awakens

You'd think Dejarik would be CG by The Force Awakens. lt's not. It's still stop-action animation. The original props had deteriorated, though, sO spec

Aside from our photoplasties ($100 per contest), we are paying out 10 winners for our macro contests. And YES, you can win all 10 spots ($350 payout) if you've got the skills to blow our minds that many times.

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