10 CGI Scenes So Good You Think They're Real

By Shaun Munro /

7. Sci-Fi Backdrops - Monsters

Gareth Edwards€™ micro-budget monster flick was already a pretty damn staggering achievement, when you consider that Edwards was writer, director, producer and cinematographer, but also served as the visual effects house himself, shut away in his bedroom, that house being his own home. While it€™s clear that the alien effects are CGI, it€™s the most subtle effects that prove the most mind-blowing, especially given that Edwards rendered it all on software that€™s completely in-range of a consumer€™s budget; Adobe After Effects. The various barricades, signs, crashed planes and destroyed buildings that feature in the film were rendered entirely after the fact (largely plug-ins bought online for After Effects), something that still proves difficult to believe given how insanely photorealistic they look when compared to Hollywood€™s comparatively underwhelming efforts. Thus it€™s no surprise that Hollywood soon came a-knocking, and Edwards is now tasked with helming the Godzilla reboot.